Abstract: The changes of flavor nucleotides and free amino acid contents in chicken muscle under room temperature and cold storage were studied in this paper. The results showed that the contents of inosinemonpho sphate(IMP) of chicken breast and thigh muscle reached the highest value after slaughtered 6 h under room temperature, which were 2.27 mg/g and 1.97 mg/g respectively. And the contents decreased significantly(p <0.05). The determination of 17 kinds of free amino acid content increased in different degrees with the storage time extended. The percentage of flavor free amino acids in total amino acids of chicken breast and thigh muscle reached 59.3% and 61.8%,respectively,which were the highest value after slaughtered 6 h and12 h. The contents of IMP first increased and then dropped with the time extended under cold storage,the contents of chicken breast and thigh muscle reached the highest value 3.14 mg/g and 2.81 mg/g after under cold stored 48 h and 36 h,and decreased slowly. The percentage of flavor free amino acids in total amino acids reached the highest value after cold stored 48 h,67.1% and 66.4% respectively. As a conclusion,low temperature could inhibit the degradation of IMP of chicken meat during storage,and promote the formation of free amino acids. That is,compared with the room temperature,cold storage was helpful to improve the edible flavor of chicken meat.