Was at a relative’s house recently and the TV was tuned to a network showing a HOW IT’S MADE series. One of the 5-minute segments showed how Dietz & Watson Poultry Deli Meats are manufactured. The object of their process is to create large, fully-and-evenly cooked (but not overcooked) moist blocks of turkey or chicken breasts that could then be sliced at various grocery store deli counters. I was later able to find the same segment on youtube.com on my tablet by searching for: How It’s Made Poultry Deli Meats
The D&W cooking process kind of reminded me of the precision-temperature-controlled-water-bath [PTCWB] cooking discussed in this forum in that there was a long cooking phase in pouches followed by a fast browning / searing phase. All of that was preceded by an elaborate tenderization phase to enable the individual pieces of meat to adher together better and appear as one solid block after cooking. Instead of a water bath, the poultry breast pieces were combined and then cooked in a gigantic “smoker” oven for 6 hours within temporarily tightly-formed pouches. I suspect that the vertical oven is a custom slow-cooking steam-and-smoking contraption with precise temperature regulation from top to bottom. Once cooked and cooled, the dozens of breast boules were removed from the temporary sealed containers and then browned.
One browning technique involved quickly running the cooked and specially seasoned breasts on a conveyor through boiling oil to give the outsides a nice golden-brown look. Another browning process shown involved another conveyor passing through a gauntlet of arched electric heating elements to brown, crisp, and beautify the outer surfaces of the large breasts. The browned breasts were then repackaged, vacuum-sealed in giant machines, and then placed in refrigerators for shipping to the stores.
Based on the above, I’ve decided to try the browning-in-oil method described, after PTCWB cooking a batch o’ large boneless chicken breasts for 2 - 3 hours. In the video it looked like the breasts were in the very hot oil for less than 30 seconds so that a golden sear was achieved without additional cooking. I have browned & seared PTCWB breasts on an outside grill a few times and they always turn out excellent: crispy and golden outside and supremely moist within. However, grill browning is not always uniformly even and edges are sometimes over-crisped (even burned), but it’s safer than having to deal with very hot oil and the splatter. I’ll probably heat a gallon of peanut oil in a large stainless steel container over the auxiliary burner on my outside grill, then slowly lower each breast in for 30 seconds and then onto paper towels to absorb excess oil. After browning the chicken I could very well use the oil to make French fries …
Check out the YouTube video when you have a chance …