The 5 Big Benefits of Using Pre-Breaded Chicken
Few foods can match the satisfying crunch, rich flavor, and comforting nostalgia that a good piece of fried chicken delivers. The contrast between the crispy, golden-brown coating and the juicy, tender meat inside creates a sensory experience that's hard to rival.
Fried chicken is highly versatile for foodservice operators and many choose to bread their own chicken for a variety of reasons. They may have a unique seasoning blend or coating system, or just want to create a fresh, hand-breaded experience for their customers. That’s great if they have the culinary knowledge and skilled labor to consistently and safely do so.
On the other hand, great-tasting breaded chicken doesn’t have to be a back-of-house strain. Let’s explore the advantages of serving pre-breaded chicken.
1. Saves Prep Time (With Less Mess)
Many operators opt for pre-breaded chicken because hand-breading in-house is a lengthy process that demands extra supplies and takes up precious kitchen space.
Equipment setups and steps needed include:
- pulling and slacking raw chicken
- marinating chicken in buttermilk or seasoned brine
- setting up dredging station
- breading the chicken
- frying chicken
- temping the chicken
- draining and rest
- cleaning to avoid cross contamination
On the other hand, using fully cooked or par-fried pre-breaded chicken drastically reduces those steps and need for additional equipment: simply cook from frozen to proper temperature and serve.
Removing those extra steps results in less waste (like excess breading and marination disposal), frees up counter space (eliminates marination containers, dredging stations, and breading stations), and allows your staff time to focus on other tasks.
Fewer steps doesn't mean sacrificing quality, either. Pre-breaded chicken can retain that scratch-made taste and appearance, much like our Barrel Breaded Chicken Tenders.
In addition, the fast prep-to-plate of pre-breaded chicken allows for quicker reaction times during unpredictable sales peaks.
2. Minimizes Staff Training
Breading chicken to yield a safe, consistent result isn’t always easy. This is especially true when high turnover results in new staff needing to learn their way around the hand-breading process, fryers and raw chicken—all in an efficient manner. (When KFC launched their first hand-breaded chicken sandwich, they trained their employees for an entire 6 months until they were ready to prepare!1)
Alternatively, pre-breaded chicken reduces the need to learn those specialized skills and retain that muscle memory.3. Fewer Ingredients Needed On-Hand
With flour, eggs, breadcrumbs, spices, and more, hand-breading requires extra inventory and excess costs. But by choosing a pre-breaded chicken, your processes that once relied on perhaps six different products now involve just one. Plus, fewer ingredients require less cleanup, saving time and labor.
4. Improves Food Safety
Breading chicken requires hands and surfaces to come into contact with raw chicken, and even with kitchen-safe gloves, cross-contamination is still a risk. Appropriately handling raw poultry affects more than just the well-being of customers; it also provides safety for staff and can protect the reputation of the operator.
No one wants to make their customers ill. That’s why so many kitchens prefer the assurance of pre-breaded chicken. Staff can simply take the chicken out of the freezer and put it in the fryer or oven. There are fewer, if any, surfaces, utensils, or containers contaminated by raw chicken.
5. Consistent Breading
If you’ve ever tried breading chicken, you’ll know it’s hard to make two pieces alike. Dealing with irregular cuts of chicken and obstacles at every step, like clumps in the flour, dripping batter, and uneven coating, means the hand breading process requires patience and practice.
Pre-breaded chicken is made in large batches in a controlled environment, so the shape, size, taste, and texture are much more consistent. Calibrated equipment and methods at advanced production facilities like ours send chicken through specific combinations of marination, predusters, breaders, and cookers, all while experienced line operators monitor the process to ensure breading consistency and quality.
Thanks to food scientists, engineers, and machine operators, pre-breaded chicken has been perfected in a variety of breading styles to help meet your needs and enhance your menu. Explore all of the breaded chicken Brakebush has to offer here.
1 Restaurant Business, 2017
