Sous-vide cooking as a practical strategy to improve quality attributes and shelf stability of reduced-salt chicken breast ham

The objective of this study was to evaluate the general quality attributes and shelf stability of reduced-salt and sous-vide cooked chicken breast hams during 4 weeks of refrigerated storage (4°C). Four treatment groups of chicken breast ham were prepared using a 2 (salt level, 1.5% NaCl (regular) and 0.75% (reduced)) × 2 (cooking method, conventional and sous-vide) factorial arrangement. Based on each chicken breast weight, 20% NaCl solution was injected. Conventional cooking was done at 80°C until the core temperature reached 71°C, whereas sous-vide cooking was conducted at 60°C for 2 h. Sous-vide cooking could decrease cooking loss and shear force of reduced-salt chicken breast ham (P < 0.05). As a result, sensory scores for juiciness and tenderness of reduced-salt and sous-vide cooked chicken breast ham were similar to those of regular-salt and conventionally cooked chicken breast hams (P > 0.05). No adverse impacts on lipid oxidation and microbial safety were found in reduced-salt and sous-vide cooked chicken breast ham during 4 wk of refrigerated storage. Therefore, this study suggests that sous-vide cooking could be a practical thermal process for improving the water-holding capacity and texture of chicken breast ham without adverse impacts on shelf stability. Further studies on the combined application of sous-vide cooking with salt replacers would be warranted to improve the sensorial acceptance of saltiness of sous-vide cooked low-salt meat products.