Fried chicken... How?

This is one of those things I just never learned... Mom stopped making fried foods when I was about 9 because she went on Nutrisystem and stopped eating real food. (At which point I took over cooking because she couldn't be bothered, but let's not get into how effed up my family is here...) My grandmother never made it because there was a great hole in the wall just around the corner from her house that made incredible fried chicken.

DH loves the stuff, coming from Kentucky like he does. I know the stuff is the culinary equivalent to enriched uranium, but I figure he can have it once in a while if I'm careful how I make it and serve it with a lot of salad.

Plus, I love breaded chicken breast sandwiches and would prefer to make my own.

So... how do I make the stuff?

dip chicken in milk to dampen..dredge with flour..fry in hot skillet.. Do not turn until bottom part is crispy..

the flour just has salt & pepper..


That's the way I have always made fried chicken..


My favorite these days is

boneless chicken breasts.

olive oil (HOT)

fry til browned on both sides (no coating)..then sprinkle generously with Salad Supreme (McCormick)..

cover and cook thoroughly..

makes the BEST chicken salad later:)..just add mayo, celery, onion & more salad supreme...chill

my old Kentucky granny used half corn meal and half flour with salt and pepper, gives it more texture and a "southern" taste


edit to add, good thing you didn't ask this in the lounge, you flamewar stater you......

:yoiks:

:D Coat the chicken with buttermilk.

The best way is to make it in a cast iron skillet. YOu can coat the pan with butter, olive oil, peanut oil (very traditional), or canola if you like. Maybe a 1/4 inch on the bottom.

If it's butter or olive oil, make sure the pan is smoking before you add pieces of chicken. Lay the pieces skin side down to start. Get a good crust on the skin before you turn them over.

& raise to a two hour buttermilk soak.

:hi:

And raise to a marinated in buttermilk overnight. :hi:

I use a cast iron Dutch oven because I don't want chicken touching the bottom. It holds the heat.

in buttermilk...dreged in flour, back in the buttermilk, back into flour, into HOT skillet with lard or peanut oil....feggit about veggie oil if you want the real thingy...

Slat and pepper only....and really, the heavier the pan, the better...preferably cast iron.

It's the southern way and it makes it soooo good!

That made no sense...

But I try to avoid the lounge (thanks, I had enough of cliques in high school) so I must have missed something.

flamewar on how best to fry chicken

funny funny thread LOL

I suppose we shouldn't talk about "romantic" foods come Valentine's Day in here, either... that would be a sex thread.

Is the ban still in effect?

copy cat threads it got completely out of hand

I'm not sure olive oil is the one to use - it has a low smoke point, which will eff up the taste of the chicken. You can use it, but you have to monitor the temp pretty closely.

Canola is weird, but you can do better with peanut oil or, actually, Rice Bran Oil if you can find it - little aftertaste and a very high smoke point. If not peanut oil then just regular vegetable oil.

Note that if you put a small amount of "used" oil in with the fresh you'll actually get a better result. Really fresh oil doesn't cook as well as slightly used oil (it has to do with the chemical soaps in the used oil). Of course, overly used oil doesn't get you anywhere either. You're looking for the happy medium in there.

It'll break down at high temps, and become (medically speaking) quite unhealthy.

Chinese cooks use peanut oil because you can apparently heat it to stratospheric temperatures without affecting its chemical composition.

What you just wrote about the used oil - that's why fries at my favorite greasy spoon are so good at the end of the week, just before they change the oil, and why they suck the first day of the new oil (we know the schedule)?

Well, don't the DU folks just know every damn thing in the world?!

Thanks, Tab.

I never thought about adding some used oil. The next time I use some oil, I'll be sure to save some.

Yeah, yeah, bad for the heart and all that jazz. BUT--if you want a truly superior crust on your chicken, use shortening (be wary of store brands, because the quality is iffy). I assume most of us only make fried chicken once in a blue moon, so just go for it and don't worry too much about the cholesterol. I grew up in the south, and we always used shortening.

I use Crisco and an electric skillet (deep cast iron skillets also work beautifully). Make sure the shortening is up to temperature before you put the chicken in.

Also, I do my breading a bit differently, because I like mine "extra crispy." I dredge in flour, then in an egg bath (eggs with a little milk stirred in; a little different than the usual egg + water egg bath), and dredge again in flour. Your hands will get VERY messy doing this--I try to use just one hand to dip the chicken so I have a clean hand free. And I season my flour with salt, white pepper, cayenne, onion powder and Bon Appetit (it's a McCormick spice blend that's perfect for fried chicken).

I wooed many old boyfriends with this, and my husband thinks it's the best fried chicken he's ever had.

Now just add mashed potatoes with cream gravy....green beans....and buttermilk biscuits. Defibrilator not included.

I knew this would start a freaking flame war :hide:

May have to drag out the electric skillet this weekend....

I gave up using Crisco when my husband's cholesterol got high. I'm alone now, and my cholesterol is okay. I'll get some Crisco.

I have to say that vegetable oil works well for me.

Sorry, it just seemed like a good place to butt in.

How many DUers have nicks that work on so many levels, I ask you?

people asked i'd just tell 'em "I'm into baking"

:rofl:

**disclaimer** I'm a straight woman :evilgrin:

I'm being stalked by vegetable shortening.....

Oh, well.

Beats representing Saddam Hussein...........

Being hydrogenated vegetable oil, there's no cholesterol. It's the trans-fats that are evil in Crisco.

It is, however, the only acceptable substance in which to properly fry chicken. ;-)

I buy it at my local Sun Harvest, but it's also carried by Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Henry's Marketplace, and maybe Trader Joes.

I haven't used it for frying, but it works great in pie crust.

:)

There was a serious problem with PCB contamination of rice bran oil in the mid 90s - something like half of all batches.

And olive oil + fried chicken just sounds like it would give the chicken a strange taste. I don't mind canola oil or peanut.

If your oil isn't hot enough, you'll wind up with sodden greasy chicken. Your oil must be hot enough to violently sizzle and keep sizzling as you put the chicken pieces in.

The oil should be fairly deep in the pan - at least 1/4 inch of oil, or more.

Chicken should not be fresh from the fridge, otherwise you'll just cool down your hot oil after putting all the pieces in.

Optimally, the sides of your pan should be higher than your tallest piece of chicken.

Leave the chicken alone and let it cook for a while before you start turning it. It should be a rich golden-brown when you turn it. After cooking both sides, you may have pale doughy spots - just turn the chicken as needed to even out the color, but don't worry if you don't get every inch.

Use tongs or a long fork - not a spatula.

A good splatter protector will save you a lot of clean up afterwards.

I do double-dredging: dip in milk, then flour, then egg & milk, then flour & cormeal with seasonings. Let the coated chicken rest for a few minutes before putting in oil.

Pepper - lots of pepper, ample salt.

mmmm.... chicken.

My mom used to drop a toothpick in the oil. If the toothpick sizzled right away, it was hot enough. If it didn't sizzle, she fished it out and tried it with a new pick a few minutes later.

I've also heard of people testing the temp by dropping in a piece of bread to see if it would fry or just soak up the oil.

It works for me.

I find that if the oil is too hot, the coating will burn some.

I flick a bit of water off my fingertips into the pan and if it sizzles and evaporates immediately, it's ready

then cover for about 15 minutes to thoroughly cook, then take top off and let re-crisp (do not turn until this happens or breading will stick to pan). This works for me and dark meat gets done.

For boneless breasts I take another path. I pound until uniform flatness then dip in egg wash. I then dip in Progresso Italian Bread Crumbs. Dip in egg again and do another coat of crumbs. Chill then pan fry in Veg/Olive oil mixture.

This is the best foundation for Chicken Parm and makes a tasty sandwich as well. We frequently eat them plain with lemon juice.


For American Fried--I like the buttermilk- seasoned flour approach. Peanut Oil is the best for frying IMO

Deep fry in cast iron skillet. I dredge mine in combo of buttermilk, eggs and hot sauce - then in seasoned flour

to make sure it is done, plus it makes it tender, just like KFC! LOL

Crushed cornflakes, bread crumbs and flour is what I use for coating.
I dredge in egg milk mix.

Being at about 6000 feet means that chicken takes forever to cook on the bone, so anything that speeds up that process without destroying the chicken (i.e. nuking the sucker) is a mightly powerful idea.

Thanks for the secret!

depending on how much bone. As an added bonus, I have a few cups of chicken broth to save and use later..

I shake the chicken in seasoned flour and let it sit in the flour for a while. The longer it sits, within reason, the more substantial the crust is. I've soaked in buttermilk, but that only made the coating gummy. I must be doing something wrong with that.

I'd dearly love to know what African Americans use to coat chicken and fish for frying. I've never been able to duplicate that. I generally use something spicy, such as cayenne, something with powdered garlic in it, and a dried green herb.

Heat a couple of inches of oil in a deep, cast iron pan. I use a Dutch oven. (I used to use an electric frying pan, and that's excellent for temperature control, but I like a deep pan. In an electric skillet, set it for 360 - 375.) After the oil shimmers, I toss in a piece of dried poultry stuffing bread. Keep testing until the bread sizzles immediately but doesn't go crazy all around the oil. If it takes a while to sizzle, it's too cold. If it goes crazy, the oil is too hot.

Place a few pieces of chicken in, skin down. Four thighs will fit well in a Dutch oven, but no more or you'll cool the oil too much. Put the cover on, but leave a bit of room on the side for steam to escape or the oil may bubble over. Set the time for 7 minutes. After 1 minute, the steam should be done, and you can put the cover on fully. When the timer goes off, turn the chicken, cover again, and cook for another 7 minutes.

When the timer goes off, remove the cover, turn and cook uncovered for another 7 minutes.

first. (It has everything). I make sure to season over and under the skin. I also sprinkle some cumin on my chicken. It really gives it a good flavor. After I do this I let the chicken sit for a few hours or overnight if possible. I use peanut oil for frying because it has a high smoke point. And cast iron if you have it is definitely the way to go when you fry it. When I get ready to fry it I simple dredge in a little flour, that's it. I have never used buttermilk, eggs or anything else, just flour. Then I test the oil by placing a wooden spoon in it (upside down--just the handle). When it sizzles that means the oil is hot. I fry the pieces turning over a few times during the process until its nice and golde and crispy. Ooooh, now I am in the mood for some fried chicken!

(It's an odd genetic disorder that means the body stores as much iron as it can possibly get its grubby little paws on, so those with the disorder have 3-5 times the iron in their systems from the same consumption as regular people... easily treatable - blood donation and avoiding iron supplementation and avoiding cast iron. But without treatment, livers fail, kidneys fail.... nasty genetics. But they served our Irish and Norse ancestors well...)

How do you get the seasoning under the skin?

(sorry, meant to post this upthread, but what the heck).

I won't get into whether you ought to do the chicken in oil or lard (fwiw, in Belgium, where french fries originated, their supposedly incredibly delicious fries are actually rendered in horse fat).

I will mention that you will get crispier crusts from lard or shortening than you will from oil.

But if you are using oil...

As I wrote, I keep away from olive oil for something like this - particularly if it has to cook for a while. Aside from the fact that I think it would impart a weird flavor to the fried chicken, olive oil has a notoriously low smoke point - once you go over that, mess aside, it tastes awful. I use it for quick things like calamari, but that's about it - you have to monitor the temperature very closely.

When food breaks down in the fryer, they release chemical soaps. These work chemically not unlike how hand soap helps you get the dirt off. The chemical soaps help the oil penetrate the water moisture barrier around food and heat and brown the food itself. Fresh oil has few, if any, chemical soaps, so adding some old oil to your fresh batch will actually give you better results than if you have totally pure fresh oil.

Oil does go the other direction, though - through too much use it will have broken down too much - this is how you get limp, greasy foods. If you think it's dirty and not heating well, and stuff isn't cooking well, you're probably right. Save a little of it (how much depends on how much you use - a small pan just needs a tablespoon or two, but a friolator might need a cup), and replace the oil.

For what it's worth, I get the impression peanut oil works better right off the bat than vegetable oil, which needs to break down a bit first, but both benefit from a little "used" oil.

If you make a batter, keep it cold - it'll stick to the food better. The food itself should not be refrigerator temp, though - that'll take forever to cook and will drop the temp of the oil quickly (and the batter will probably burn before the food gets cooked).

If you want a thicker crust, add a liquid. Although water works, it'll keep it from browning. Foods with proteins, amino acids, and sugars are better - viz: milk or eggs. Beer has both, so it'll brown up very nicely (this is why beer-battered food works well; it's not just the thought of a beer-infused food).

Don't dump too much food into the oil at once and let the temp drop. This is a case where more oil is better, just because it'll be more impervious to temperature fluctuations.

Finally, I see a number of people are talking about having salt in their flour. This is actually not a good idea. Put the salt on the food FIRST, then put the batter on (after it's cooked, you could salt it again if you so wish). The reasoning is that salt doesn't stay in the flour/batter well anyway - it breaks away - and will quickly degrade your oil. As far as I know, other spices like pepper and paprika and whatever are just fine, but salt loose in your oil is Not A Good Thing. So, salt first - THEN batter/dredge/whatever.

If you're into food science, an excellent reference is Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, although it can get a bit technical. A more "accessible" reference would be "How to read a french fry" by Russ Parsons.

- Tab

Amazing what one retains from Organic Chem, isn't it? And the temps are just logic.

The technical book sounds like fun. I'll keep an eye out for it.

Hm. Horse fat. Now that I think about it, yes, Belgian fries do have a different taste.... Hm.

....(it's like a foreign country to us city folk)...and saw a funny trick to test the oil temperature for frying. He dropped a wooden match in the oil, and when it caught fire, the oil was ready, he said.

Now, as to soaking, breading, etc.

The fried chicken standard for many people is Mrs. Knott's recipe. (She financed the startup of Knott's Berry Farm through her homey fried chicken dinners.) I found the recipe a few years ago on the Internet. If someone wants the recipe, I'll find it in my files. Basically, it is a buttermilk soak, then dredging in seasoned flour, then into the refrigerator on racks for a couple of hours so the coating sets up. Then frying in a skillet in an inch of oil. It's really, really, really a memorable dish.

IIRC, Michael Field's recipe uses half lard, half crisco. I always liked that recipe.

Ah, Mrs. Knott! Stewed rhubarb, bread and butter pickles, hot biscuits with boysenberry jam, chicken and mashed potatoes/gravy, and a slab of pie. That was good eats.

I didn't know you could drop a match in the oil and have it catch fire, and I wouldn't want the residue from the matches that DIDN'T catch fire, but I'd be most concerned about putting a flame to hot oil to begin with.

I'll stick with bread and/or a high-temp thermometer myself.

...I just reported on a cowboy cook who demonstrated it. He didn't drop it in hot oil, btw. He put it in while the oil was still barely warm.

Basically, it is a buttermilk soak, then dredging in seasoned flour, then into the refrigerator on racks for a couple of hours so the coating sets up.

That would get over the gumminess of when I went from buttermilk to flour and didn't let it dry.

My great-grandfather loved it, but it did weird things to my head. (Especially the cajun camping guy, who is on at the same time as that obnoxious southern "evil granny" on Food network. Dueling southern accents, from different ends of the house. I still twitch when I think about that week...)

I just have a real issue with putting phosphorus (which is a poison) in the oil I'm going to cook in... not to mention the potential for starting an oil fire.

8 pieces of dark for 4.99 and no mess to clean up. If I'm in a rush that is.