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.
my kids loved it but I did not get much of crusty coat around the chicken.
Do you suggest that if we want more of a crunchy coat we dip twice? ie chicken into buttermilk mixture and then to dredging mixture and then repeat buttermilk mixture to dredging mixture again?
I am always trying new recipes, and this by far is the best fried chicken I have ever made. I just used only 2 tbs of hot sauce. Will definitely will be making this fried chicken over and over again. Thank you..
Wow, this is the best fried chicken I ever had and I’m 62 years old. The skin is crispy and fries perfectly. The taste is substantial with a lot of flavor try this one and enjoy . I usually don’t leave comments but this one I had to do.
Definitely needs cooked longer than 14 minutes. I didjust thighs and they took almost 30
Key ingredients buttermilk and corn starch.
Great recipe.. My family enjoys, time and time again.
Lovely recipe! Worked out really well, the cooking instructions are perfect.
I cannot have gluten or dairy, so I curdled one cup of cashew milk with tbsp of lemon juice, and I used a combo of Bob’s Gluten-Free All Purpose flour and a little gluten-free panko for added texture. Great one to experiment with other dried herbs and spices as well.
I tried the recipe and it’s good. Though in my country, we don’t have buttermilk, but I made homemade buttermilk. It’s better to marinate the chicken at least an hour or at least overnight.
We made this fried chicken over the 4th of July weekend & it was delicious.
The chicken was so good !!