Heat transfers that occurred during chicken fat dry fractionation process were characterized. Thermal behaviour of chicken fat and the olein and stearin fractions obtained were determined. The heat flow model developed in this study led to follow the heat flow associated with crystallization (phi(r)) during the cooling step. Stearin mass and crystal mass (calculated from stearin solid fat content measurements by nuclear magnetic resonance) were determined experimentally at 30, 170 and 300 min cooling time. Their variation towards a plateau value after 170 min of cooling was related with a decrease in heat flow associated with crystallization. The results reported suggested that monitoring phi(r) during cooling could be useful for the prediction and control of crystallization kinetics and therefore stearin yield. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.