When I vacuum seal chicken pieces, freeze them, and then thaw them again, there is always a small amount of liquid in the bag after the thaw. When this liquid hits hot oil, it forms a crispy, airy puff that is absolutely delicious. I'm trying to figure out what the liquid is, and how I can extract more of it, so that I can make crispy fried chicken liquid for garnishes.
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Are these chicken pieces brined/salted? My best guess is it's chicken juices with residual proteins. Since you say it tastes delicious, I'm wondering if there's salt in there that makes it so– Daniel ChuiSep 30, 2015 at 17:07
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I added salt, and there may be some brine in them from processing. I think you must be right that there are residual proteins, or else it wouldn't fry into anything solid.– JoshSep 30, 2015 at 17:12
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1 Answer
When you freeze meat the water in the cells crystallizes into ice, and in some case ruptures the cell walls. When you thaw the chicken again, the contents of the ruptured cells' are free. These are mostly the water, and the cells proteins.
Additionally, processed meats often have some water and additives added to the at the factory.
The "juice" you are seeing is probably a combination of these things.
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So the only way that I can extract more of the liquid would be to freeze-thaw it a few times? Or maybe if I flattened it with a mallet first to expose more surface area?– JoshOct 1, 2015 at 21:13
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@josh you may not want to do that. If it works, it'll ruin the texture of the chicken. If it doesn't, you're just wasting time and energy.– CarmiOct 3, 2015 at 13:10