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.
Made this the first time with this recipe. Perfectly crispy, moist and flavorful. Omitted the hot sauce, soaked two hours with regular milk, used half inch of thoroughly heated vegetable oil on medium heat in a large covered skillet seven minutes on each side. Everyone loved it! Compliments all around!
I love fried chicken and never make it at home for myself. My husband is not a chicken fan. I’m a very experienced cook and thought the recipe looked so good. I had 6 thighs and 6 drumsticks and used all of the seasonings in the recipe. The coating tasted just okay, but I had so much left over. Perhaps 2 cups of flour would suffice with the same amount of seasonings. I’ll try that next time. I love watching your videos! Thank you.
I agree with everyone below in frying for 4 minutes per side then baking at 375° for 15 to 20 minutes but that’s my oven. Check your chicken in your oven from 5 minutes on until it reaches 165° to 175°. Where people recommended all purpose seasoning salt (like Accent, etc), I do recommend a seasoning, but it is Soul Food Seasoning by Spice Classics.
First time cooking fried chicken myself and really love this recipe! Wish I just added more seasoning to the chicken before putting it in the buttermilk and added more hot sauce to the buttermilk marinade. Wasn’t spicy enough for me and seasoned(should’ve added more seasoning to the flour as well) but still really came out great! I ended up using sriracha hot sauce since that’s all I had at the moment and was worried it might ruin since most recipes use buffalo sauce but I love the subtle hint of it in the chicken. I set my stove between 4-5 and cooked on each side for about 7-8mins in a cast iron skillet. Thank you!
Fabulous fried chicken!
Very Very Good 🙂 The whole family did, now they all have the receipt
Thanks hun.
This was ok, kinda bland no matter how much spice is used in the breading. I find the best flavour comes from using a “rub” prior to the “buttermilk wash”.
I looked for a friend chicken recipe for a long time and this is it for us. I can finally make fried chicken after many ruined batches. The brine is amazing. The chicken was very moist and tender. The skin was perfect. I reduced the cooking time about 4 minutes because the skin started to burn but other than that this is my go to now. Thank you so much.
Best fried chicken!! Turned out beautifully just like yours! I really like to watch a Korean cooking channel on utube. I’ve have been wanting to try cooking chicken with the corn starch! My specialty is fried chicken anyways, but after trying this recipe I’m hooked. This is my new go to recipe for fried chicken. So beautiful looking, flavorful and crunchy.
Thank you!
I made this recipe with gluten free flour.
It was the best gluten free chicken I ever had.