a. Quality determination
In this study, chicken nuggets coated with batter formulas of different fiber addition levels (1, 2 and 3%) were formulated. Chicken nuggets were weighed before and after coating with the batter to calculate batter pick-up. After frying, batter crust was removed, and determined for their qualities including moisture content, crude fat content and oil uptake. The results are shown in Table 15 and 16, and the photographs of prepared nuggets are presented in Figure 5. The data revealed that 1% addition of lemon grass fiber did not have any effect on quality characteristics of frying batter compared with the control formula. On the contrary, at 2 and 3% addition level lemon grass fiber-added batter became significantly different from the control. For batter pick-up, batter with 3% lemon grass fiber showed the highest value, followed by batter with 2% lemon grass fiber. Three percent lemon grass fiberadded batter possessed the lowest fat content and highest moisture content, with approximately 40, 20 and 20% reduction in the amount of oil uptake, water removed and UR value, respectively. From the observation, the crispiness of chicken nuggets coated with 3% lemon grass fiber-added batter was not changed, although the batter exhibited highest moisture content after frying. Moreover, 2% addition level also showed significantly different results compared with the control formula. As a result, it could be suggested that lemon grass fiber was effective in lowering oil uptake in frying batter when added at the level of 2 - 3%.