ABSTRACT The present study was conducted to inves- tigate the effects of outdoor access on the growth per- formance and meat quality of broiler chickens. Thirty- five-day-old female broilers were divided into 3 groups with 6 replicates of 124 birds each: (1) birds reared in- doors (control group); (2) birds reared with outdoor ac- cess since 36 d of age (35-d group); and (3) birds reared with outdoor access since 71 d of age (70-d group). The results showed that outdoor access had no effect on growth performance, carcass yield, meat yield, muscle protein content, muscle fiber characteristics, or water- holding capacity (P > 0.05). Chickens from the outdoor access groups had a better appearance and degree of evenness. Birds in the outdoor access groups had a sig- nificantly lower lung percentage than birds in the con- trol group (P < 0.05), whereas the kidney percentage of the 35-d group was significantly lower than that of thecontrol group (P < 0.05). The meat of chickens in the 35-d group had higher L* values than that of the con- trol group (P < 0.05). Compared with rearing indoors, outdoor access significantly increased the shear force of the breast muscle in both the 35 d and 70-d group (P < 0.05) and decreased the fat content of the thigh muscle in the case of 35-d group (P < 0.05). Birds in the 35-d group also had lower fat content in their thigh muscles than did the birds in the 70-d group (P < 0.05). The thigh muscles of the birds in the 35-d group showed lower levels of MUFA and higher levels of PUFA than those of the control group and 70-d group (P < 0.05). In conclusion, outdoor access had no effect on growth performance and yield traits but could improve the meat quality; birds reared with outdoor access from 36 d of age had better appearance and meat quality than those with outdoor access from 71 d of age.