Abstract:This study examined and analyzed the slaughter performance， meat quality， and flavor compounds of Langshan chickens， aiming to explore the key quality characteristics and identify the characteristic indicators. Twenty-four 17-week-old Langshan chickens， half male and half female， were randomly sampled， with 6-week-old AA broilers serving as the controls. Breast muscle tissues were collected for assessments of textural characteristics， conventional quality indices， nutritional quality， and flavor-related compounds. The results showed that the pre-slaughter live weight of male chickens was significantly higher than that of females （P＜0.05）， while the abdominal fat percentage of females was significantly higher than that of males（P＜0.05）. No significant differences were observed in slaughter rate， semi-clean body rate， full clean body rate， pectoral muscle rate， or leg muscle rate between the two groups （P＞0.05）. Textural characteristic analysis indicated that Langshan chickens exhibited significantly lower elasticity and chewiness compared to AA broilers （P＜0.05）. Conventional quality assessments revealed that Langshan chickens had significantly higher redness（ɑ*） and water-holding capacity， while showing significantly lower yellowness （b*） and shear force values than AA broilers （P＜0.05）. Nutritional quality analysis demonstrated that Langshan chickens contained significantly higher levels of proteins， intramuscular fat， inosine monophosphate （IMP）， carnosine， anserine，total amino acids， flavor-enhancing amino acids， aspartic acid， and glutamic acid compared to AA broilers （P＜0.05）. Conversely， the tannic acid content was significantly lower in Langshan chickens （P＜0.05）. Flavor compound analysis further identified significant differences between Langshan chickens and AA broilers.These findings suggest that indicators such as meat color， protein content， carnosine， anserine， intramuscular fat， IMP， total amino acids， flavor-enhancing amino acids， and the combined levels of aspartic acid and glutamic acid can serve as candidate characteristic components for Langshan chickens.