When it comes to chicken there just isn’t anything more delicious than a juicy, crusty piece of finger-licking good fried chicken. It might seem intimidating to fry your own chicken, but it’s actually pretty straightforward and it puts grocery store and fast food fried chicken to shame. If you have a thermometer for the oil and a timer, you can produce fail-proof fried chicken. If you’ve ever wanted to make your own fried chicken, now is the time to try!
Why Our Recipe
- We’ve got a flavorful buttermilk brine that not only keeps your chicken juicy but also flavors the meat itself.
- Our ultimate blend of herbs and spices puts the colonel’s to shame.
- A full walk-through video demonstration is included to make sure you have everything you need to replicate this recipe at home.
Cornstarch Secret
Cornstarch is one of our recommended ingredients for the crispiest fried chicken. Cornstarch is often used in Asian fried chicken recipes. The combination of the flour with cornstarch produces the crispiest result. You can replace all of the flour with cornstarch, or you can try using a similar non-gluten-based flour or flour blend in place of traditional all-purpose flour.
Troubleshooting: Keep the breading from falling off
One of the challenges that people face when making fried chicken is that their crunchy coating falls off. There’s usually a few reasons for this to happen. Here are some tips for making sure your breading doesn’t fall off.
- When coating and breading your chicken, be sure to tap off the excess buttermilk as well as the excess flour.
- Give your chicken a gentle pat after coating with the flour mixture to make sure that the flour sticks to the buttermilk.
- Make sure that you don’t overcrowd your pan. You want to make sure that the chicken isn’t bumping against other pieces of chicken which can knock off the breading.
- Only flip your chicken once while frying. The more you fuss with your chicken, the more likely you are to knock off or disturb some of the crunchy coating.
Some people recommend allowing your chicken to dry on a wire rack after dipping and dredging. This is not only useful, it’s also convenient when making large batches.
Frying Oils
There are lots of options when it comes to oil used for deep frying. Common options include peanut oil, vegetable oil, canola oil, safflower oil, and corn oil. Vegetable oil is the oil we recommend using for deep frying.
To reuse your oil, simply let the oil cool down completely, strain it, and return it to a storage container for later use.
Fried Chicken Cooking Time
The average piece of chicken will need to be fried for 14 minutes. Each piece of chicken will be different though so make sure you cook each one to a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit. White meat will have its peak juiciness at 165 degrees F. Dark meat can be cooked to 170-175F for the best texture.
Storage and Reheating Instructions
Fried chicken is best when it is fresh and the skin is still crispy. Leftovers though will be good in the fridge for 2 to 3 days. The skin will not be as crispy when reheated.
For best results, reheat leftover fried chicken in a 350-degree oven for 15-20 minutes.
Looking for what to serve with Fried Chicken? You may enjoy these delicious classic American side dishes:
The Best Macaroni Salad
20 mins
Mom’s Creamy Potato Salad
2 hrs 30 mins
Best Summer Fruit Salad
20 mins
Classic Baked Beans
16 hrs 30 mins
Watch the video below where we will walk you through every step of the recipe with a video demonstration.
Chicken was awesome ! Thank you !
Flavor good, who doesn’t like crispy fried chicken. 3 cups of flour for this amount of chicken is overkill, you only need about 1 cup. Cooking time – if you are frying in a pan then maybe you can fry it for 14 min but if you’re using a deep fryer then you need a lower temp, around 300 worked for me. The chicken needs time to cook all the way through and at 350 you will have burnt on the outside chicken.
THANK YOU. I was trying to find someone who used it in a deep fryer as it’s easier, but couldn’t find any tips. I will try first thing tomorrow like you said!
Thanks
Finally I got the secret for great fried chicken
I haven’t made fried chicken in years, but decided to try it for company one evening. OMG… it was a hit!! This is the best fried chicken I have ever had… I will definitely be making this again.
I hope it,s not hot.
This is a fantastic recipe that produces beautiful fried chicken. I use whole milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice to make buttermilk. I also bump up the spice as my personal preference, but I gotta tell you this is THE best fried chicken ever!
I’ve made this chicken twice now and the flavor is amazing! I no longer eat fast food fried chicken since the msg bothers me. I’ve tried other friend chicken recipes, but this is the BEST!
The only thing I did different was omitted the cayenne pepper because I’m not a fan of spicy. Surprisingly enough, the hot sauce in the buttermilk doesn’t really add much spice to the chicken, but it does seem to add flavor.
If you are a fan of “extra crispy” chicken, I would suggest you make an egg/milk bath and dip the floured chicken in that and then put it back in the flour mixture for a second coating. Perhaps adding some panko bread crumbs to the flour for the second dipping would be even crunchier. Personally, I just like the one layer of breading.
This is a good fried chicken recipe! Unfortunately for me personally, i felt the flavor of the breading was more muted than I would usually prefer. I’ll probably cut down on the flour by a cup or more and cut the corn starch a bit too so the spices can come through a bit better next time. But otherwise, I appreciate this recipe!
Hi thank you so much for the fried chicken recipe.i tried alot of times to make a perfect fried chicken but failed to do so ,thanks to your recipe I am now able to make the perfect fried chicken for my family……thanks alot
Yup ! Amazing!!