Fried Chicken

Help!  I enjoy cooking and appear to do a decent job. I cook most of our meals.   But, I have only by accident ever turned out acceptable fried chicken.

I am looking for a simple fried chicken recipe.

I don’t know any specific ones, but some pointers would be use peanut oil instead of vegetable oil (if you have enough tallow even better) and to marinate for at least 24 hours with a buttermilk based marinade. When it comes to batter, toss it around in flour first, then egg wash, then toss in flour again for extra crispy.

The best fried chicken I've had &/or made has always been a 3 dredge method, regardless of the seasonings used (I'm partial to a spicy Cajun flavor profile, myself). Sometimes, I'll marinate the chicken for a couple hours in buttermilk or bread&butter pickle juice. The first step prep the 3dredges: the first dredge, is a flour mixture (all-purpose, plus plenty of seasonings, particularly black pepper and salt to taste). The second dredge is in an egg wash - I whisk together a couple eggs and a little bit of milk, buttermilk or kefir. The 3rd dredge is another flour mixture: flour - either self rising, or add a little bit of baking powder, and generously add more seasonings. Pie plates/pans work well for this.

Next is to pat the chicken as dry as possible. Only start dredging the amount of chicken that will fit into your pan. You'll want about an inch of fat (I like bacon grease or lard, best) in your pan, and bring it to 375°, while you are dredging the chicken pieces. Make sure to get a good coating in each dredge, in order, on each piece, and gently lay into the hot fat. It will need to cook quite a while, so turn it as needed, but only after each side is firm enough to pick up without smudging the batter off.

While it's cooking is when I work on things like biscuits, gravy, and veggies - except for the collard/ mustard greens - those go into a slow cooker with a ham hock or bacon, and cook an hour or so before I start mixing up the dredges.

Might be easier to solve the problem backwards.  What is the problem with your fried chicken?

Hi Gray,

I seem to have a special skill set that enables me to mess up in multiple ways.  The two ways that bother me the most is that the breading tastes like soggy wallpaper paste, and the breading falls off while cooking.

ok,
I'm not Gordon Ramsey, but I am a student of the game when it comes to cooking. I like to focus on WHY things turn out delicious or gross more than just saying "hey that was great". I'm really just channeling my inner Alton Brown So here's my take on fried chicken:
First a marinade is super important for moist and delicious tasting chicken. I like to make a buttermilk like ingredient with milk and dill pickle juice with a heavy splash of hot sauce. let that sit in the fridge overnight. Pull chicken out of marinade and dry off well using paper towels. I let mine sit on the counter for another 30 min. or so and then dry it off one more time before beginning the dredging process.  Use 25 percent corn starch to flour and season heavily. No....that's not enough, even more. Smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and some Cajun blend is my go to. The Cajun blend has a decent bit of salt inside. Whip up an egg wash, and don't be afraid to throw a little seasoning at it too. Into the dry batter, coat well, then into the egg wash, and back once again into the dry batter. This time make sure you press the mixture firmly into the chicken. You aren't gonna hurt it, it's already dead, so really press it in there. Set the chicken onto a piece of parchment paper or spare pan to sit for around 30 min. Now is when I normally start to warm my oil. The time sitting will allow the batter to meld and it will stick a little better. Choice of frying oil can change the way it all turns out, and this will be a preference/ budget thing. I prefer beef tallow, lard, and peanut oil in that order, but don't count out some of the cheap oils if you can tolerate the seed oil fear mongers (perhaps they ARE right, but tallow is expensive) looking down their noses at you. If you can afford enough oil to deep fry it, that is a much easier process for beginners than pan frying. Put about 4 to 6 inches of oil in a HEAVY POT. I repeat HEAVY POT or Dutch oven. You need something with a lot of mass to help stabilize oil temperature swings. If you are over 40, and you grab the pot empty with one hand to put it on the stove, its probably not the one you are after here. Keeping the oil nice and hot around 350 to 375 is SUPER important to ending up with chicken that isn't over cooked, but has a nice golden outside. Too hot and your breading burns while your chicken is raw inside. Too cool, and your chicken cooks but the breading ends up greasy enough to bring back the pimples you thought that you left in high school. Small batches. Depending on your heat source and how much mass you have, maybe 2 or 3 legs at the time is ideal. An oil thermometer will tell you a lot here if you have one. If you are at 350 and it dips below 330, you need to cut the next batch down by one leg and watch again. I prefer to go with 375 degrees, and try to keep it above 360. Remove chicken when golden brown, and allow to drip on a wire rack if possible for a few minutes.  Thanks for stopping by my Ted talk. Happy cooking.

John F Dean wrote:Hi Gray,

I seem to have a special skill set that enables me to mess up in multiple ways.  The two ways that bother me the most is that the breading tastes like soggy wallpaper paste, and the breading falls off while cooking.

I marinate in just enough Louisiana style hot sauce to coat the chicken , then, before frying, add just enough 50/50 cornstarch/all purpose flower to turn the hot sauce into a thin coat of batter.  Hard to say how much, but I give it a light sprinkling of cajun season as well.  No worries about being too spicy, as the hot oil seems to drive off much of the heat.  Batter or breading takes quite a bit more salt/seasoning than you would think.  Other than that, just lots of good hot oil as mentioned in other posts.  You’ll probably need to crank up the heat once you put the chicken in.  The cold chicken really brings the temp down.  I usually use high or pretty close to it.  Putting the finished fried chicken in a pan with a wire rack then in a 250F oven helps keep multiple batches warm, drain off excess oil, and actually helps crisp the breading/batter a little more.  Good luck!

Lots of good tips already. I have variations if yer interested.

Marinate overnight. Buttermilk or pickle juice are great. Don't forget to season plain buttermilk with a little salt. A couple sprigs of thyme or rosemary in buttermilk adds a subtle kick

Plain Texas Pete works really well also. It's the mildest of the hot sauces, and the heat totally cooks out

Definitely season your flour and amend it with cornstarch. I'm a 80/20 - 70/30 kinda guy. Seasonings I like are the classic garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper, white pepper, paprika. Lawry's seasoning salt and black pepper is a good quickie if you don't have everything else on hand

Definitely let the chicken rest on a rack after dredging. It's crucial for crispy skin. Fry in batches so that everything isn't over crowded. Have a wire rack or towel covered plate to drain afterwards

Finishing in a 350' F oven is handy for large batches

Temp dark meat at 180F, breasts at 155F (they'll continue cooking to safe food temp as they rest)

Dill with chives, sour cream, serrano chile, S and P, mayo, and buttermilk makes a great dressing for the side

This recipe is the best I've ever done, but I tend to only make it a few times a year because I don't actually like to use some of the ingredients in it. When I try to swap out for healthier ingredients it's just not as good!
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Marinaide
2c Soy sauce
1/2 c water
1 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbs Maple syrup

Dry
1 tsp Baking soda
1/4 c. Corn starch
2 c Crushed corn flakes
1 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper (or ground juniper berries)
1 tsp smoked paprika

Wet
1 Tbs Maple syrup
4 eggs
2 c milk
1 tsp salt

6 chicken breast (or thighs ect)
A full bottle of avocado oil or nice clean beef or chicken tallow (about 4-5 cups)

First trim and cut the chicken, then marinade in the soy sauce water, lemon juice and maple syrup for at least 5 hours, I prefer 24. Then drain (i save the marinade and use if for other recipes, like fried rice) and pat each pice of chickens dry. Make sure your oil is getting nice and hot in a deep pot (i like it at about 6, which is 3/4 of the max heat setting) just under the smoke point is ideal. Also preheat the oven to 300 here and put a cookie sheet on the bottom rack.

Mix the dry and the wet in different containers, and less salt both. Then put the chicken in the Dry First. Dry, wet, dry, and if you want an especially thick crust, wet dry again. Squish it down a bit to pack it against the chicken before putting on a tray to rest. It o ly needs 5-10 mins, i usually go work on my french fries, then after that first batch im dregeing the next and letting it sit while the previous cooks. Don't forget to flip, and leave in until it stops being noisy, or has a nice golden brown crust. I like to put a lid mostly covering the top to keep oil splash down but let the steam out. When you take it out of the oil put it on the top rack of the oven over your cookie sheet, the heat will help extra oil to drain off into the pan, it only needs to be there for about 10 mins, but doesn't hurt to leave in for about 30. I do this process in batches since I have a very large family and and a relatively  narrow tall pan, so by the tine the last batch is out the first has been in there about 20 mins. Eat and enjoy right away! 😁 I serve with various sauces (homemade BBQand ranch for instance) rolls, kimchi, apple sauce, and French fries (usually done under the broiler after the last batch of chicken is out).

20  minutes and ready to eat.

Zero prep. Impossible
to get wrong but I am open to surprises.

Hot. Tasty. Succulent.

4 fresh chicken wings. Air-fried for 13minutes at 195C/383F.

I cut the chicken wings at the joint with the sturdiest SK5
scissors I have. I rinse them twice in the mess tin.
I hold them to drain for 1 minute.

Then a drizzle of soy sauce and cooking oil - I am not oil
adverse. A bit of massage.

I have the oven door type air-fryer but the other type will do.

Shove the mess tin in, set the numbers, start and walk away.

Then come back when it is done. It is so good that I am too
lazy to experiment with other seasonings and marinades
or other cuts.