Broiler breast skins were obtained from a commercial poultry processing plant. Breast skin fat was rendered using microwave rendering, conventional oven baking, water cooking, griddle rendering, and deep-fat frying. The yield and quality of rendered fat was measured and compared. Microwave rendering of breast skin exhibited the highest fat yields (47.5%) followed by deep-fat frying (33.4%), conventional oven rendering (31.6%), griddle rendering (25.8%), and water cooking (24.8%). The moisture content of the rendered skin fat was highest for water cooked (1.43%) and lowest for conventional oven baked (0.19%). No differences (P > 0.05) in free fatty acid contents were observed among the rendering methods. The fat from griddle rendering exhibited the highest (P < 0.05) peroxide and 2-thiobarbituric acid values as compared to those from the other methods. The broiler skin fat obtained from microwave rendering was the lightest in color as indicated by higher Hunter L values, followed by water cooking, conventional oven baking, deep-fat frying, and griddle rendering. Breast skin fat obtained from microwave rendering exhibited more yellow in color when compared to the other rendering methods. No differences (P > 0.05) among fatty acid profiles were observed for the fats prepared from the five rendering methods. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.