Flash frying a flash in the pan?

By 4. December 2015Blog, Health, Nutrition

A non profit restaurant in London does not think so. In an area with high obesity they are trying to make a difference by making the popular food choices more healthy rather than trying to change the menu.

Reported on the website of National Public Radio (NPR), the people behind the restaurant, called Chicken Town say that they do a number of things to make the food healthier. They source their chicken from free range grass fed chicken, and rather than deep fry the chicken from raw, they steam it first and finish it in the deep fryer with a technique called flash frying. Basically the steamed chicken is cooked at a high temperature for a short duration in the fryer to give the fried taste but with (hopefully) less oil absorbed from the fryer. But does this make it healthier?

The article mentions a publication last year on flash frying compared to normal deep frying of fish in which the authors found that it did not lower the fat level. Still, that is only one report. The fact that the chickens are grass fed and free range should reduce the fat content of the chicken compared to normal commercially available chicken slightly.  

An interesting point from an article 10 years ago in the Guardian newspaper says older breed of chicken that has not been fed high energy feed are the best choice for eating. It would seem that modern day chicken has more than twice as much fat and a third of the protein of a 1940’s chicken. This comes from the combination of the high energy feed and the fact that modern chicken breeds are bred to grow quickly.

Apparently good quality meat takes time to grow.

Click here to read more from the NPR website.

Click here to visit the Chicken Town website