How To Make The Best Fried Chicken

Crispy, crunchy, delicious. This is the only fried chicken recipe you’ll ever need!

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This is how you make fried chicken right at home. Let’s play some [Music] so this recipe starts by marinating our chicken. To do this, grab a goodiz container and fill it up with your chicken and cover that with buttermilk. We use buttermilk because it’s acidic. So, in addition to giving some flavor, it’s going to break down the protein in our chicken and make it more tender. Along with that, I’m going to add a pinch of salt. And then I’ll give it a good mix. Make sure every piece of chicken is well coated and make sure they’re spaced out a little bit in there. And once you’ve mixed, toss on your lid and place this in the fridge for anywhere between two to six hours to marinate. For our dredge, we’ll start with some classic allpurpose flour. Just make sure you grab a bowl that you’re going to be comfortable dipping that chicken in and out of. And with this, I’ll add some cornstarch, baking powder, paprika, dry mustard, chicken bullion powder. That’ll boost the chicken flavor. It’s a good little secret. some black pepper, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, a little thyme, and some smoked paprika. Give this a whisk to fully combine. And just keep in mind that you can use whatever spices and seasonings you want. I’m going to move on to set up my dredge station, which will be very simple. It goes from here to the flour and then to fry. My favorite type of fried chicken is when you’ve got all those little craggly bits climbing off the edges of the chicken, those really crispy little crunchy parts. And making your fried chicken like that at home is actually very easy. All you do is take a little bit out of the wet dredge and drip it right into the dry dredge. You only need a few spoonfuls, at least to start. And then you just get in there with your hands and mix it all together. This process is really all about just squeezing the flour and then dropping it back down. And if I remove my hands for a second, look at all those little bits in there that already look like they’re kind of crispy. And once I drop my chicken in here, it’s going to get coated in these nice little crackly bits. My dredging station is clean and ready. So, now I’ll move quickly over to my fry station where I’m going to fill a heavy bottom pot with oil. Use any neutral high smoke point oil you want. I’m using peanut oil for the flavor. And now I’ll just turn up my heat to let this come to temperature while I prep the rest of my chicken. Anytime I’m dredging anything, I have one very simple rule. One hand will be used only for my wet ingredients, while my other hand will be used only for my dry ingredients. That keeps it from having that situation where your fingers are caked up with tons and tons of flour. Just becomes too messy and difficult to work. When making fried chicken, I also like to dredge just one piece at a time. As a first step, shake off any of that excess buttermilk and then move it straight into your flour and press. Now, I switch hands and move that flour from the outside over the top of the chicken, making sure that I’m not getting my other hand wet. And once I know that it’s been fully coated with all that flour, I start to press and squeeze. Pushing and pressing and squeezing like this is how you’re really going to get all of that breading stuck to your chicken. And when I shake this off, you can already see some of those crispy, crackly bits starting to form, which is exciting. Before moving it to a wire rack lined baking sheet, give it one last shake to remove any excess flour and then bring it right over to rest. When it already looks this nice and we haven’t even fried it, that’s a good sign that it’s going to be a great piece of fried chicken. Back when I was a kid, I’m guessing that my mom probably didn’t love when I made things like fried chicken at home because the kitchen got pretty messy from all that flour, all that buttermilk, and all that oil spraying everywhere. And occasionally, that is still what happens if you make things like this at home. But I like to think that I’m a little bit neater. Now, this technique that I’m using here to dredge and fry all this chicken is the same technique used by lots and lots of restaurants and even fast food places. These simple steps are how they get that crispy texture, that delicious taste, and that beautiful golden look every time. If you ever feel like your flour starts to look too smooth and you don’t have enough crispy bits anymore while dredging, you can just add a little bit more in there and squish it all up with your other hand like this, and then you’re good to go. Oh, look at that one. Dang. I’ve been making fried chicken for a long time at home and I feel like for it to be dredged properly, you have to be a little bit rough with it. Really get in there and press down and squeeze. Make sure you’re coating any and every part of your chicken that can take on any flour. When I dredge my last piece of chicken, it always feels great to finally be able to use both hands. Once your oil comes to temp, fry your chicken in groups. I’m going to start with my thighs cuz they’ll all cook at the same rate. When I lower them in, I also like to wave slightly back and forth like this. So, it kind of goes in gradually and then I drop. And now we’re cooking. I started my oil at a slightly higher temp what I want these to actually fry at because they’re quite cold and they’re going to lower the temperature of the oil right as they go in. And now that they’ve gone in, I’m only about 3° off from what I want them to fry at, which is perfect. Look at the golden brown already peeking out. Now, focus on being very delicate with your chicken. You don’t want to break any of those crispy bits cuz each little crispy bit that’s there is going to add so much texture when you go to eat it. So just be careful, be gentle. But look how delicious that looks. Fry these until they’re beautiful golden brown. Then place them off on a towel lined baking sheet because we’ll need to let some of the oil drip off for just a moment before we finish cooking them through in the oven. Right when they come out, I’ll give them a touch of salt. I like to do this right away cuz it sort of grips to some of that oil. And while my oil comes up to temperature again, I’ll transfer these thighs to a wire rack line baking sheet. still so carefully so I’m not breaking any of my crispy bits. And this will go into the oven. I started with those bigger pieces cuz while those cook in the oven now I can move on to my drum. These won’t take quite as long to cook. So once they join the thighs in the oven, everything will finish at the same time. Sometimes I like to see how many crazy little crispy bits I can get leaping off the chicken. Look how tall this one is. This piece of chicken just looks insane. I challenge you to see how long you can get those crispy bits. Once these are beautiful and golden brown, I’ll take these off as well. Those are looking gorgeous. Same thing again. Quick pinch of salt. lock it onto the chicken right away and then these crispy boys can join the rest of our fried chicken in the oven to finish. I always like finishing them in the oven either way because it just gives you that extra safety to know that things are fully cooked once they are done. Ta-da! Beautiful fried chicken. I usually don’t put it on a plate, but why not? I feel like fried foods like this are best just eaten right away, but the plate does look nice. Pair this with your favorite dipping sauce. I like to do a combination of ranch and blue cheese. I hope nobody judges me for this. And you’ve got yourself the perfect fried chicken. Take that, Colonel Sanders.