We all have our own reality, and in that very same vein, all of us have our own guidelines for what makes the “perfect fried chicken.” Now, we are not saying that our version is the ultimate for everybody, however it is definitely a crowd-pleaser in our experience.
Best Fried Chicken in your life
You should always marinate your chicken for a couple of hours, preferably with buttermilk (but milk or water will work as well). The liquid needs to be salted heavily to generate a brine: the optimal brine contains 6% salt, by weight, which equates to about 1 Tbsp. of fine salt, or 1.5 Tbsp. of kosher salt per cup of liquid.
This salt mixture helps break down the chicken, which enables the marinade to permeate the meat. This means that your chicken will continue to be extra juicy after being cooked.2. Include some Booze
Adding alcohol to your fried chicken marinade is surely an uncommon but quite effective trick. Because most of the alcohol in booze cooks off immediately, it helps create a drier, crispier crust for the chicken (this is the same reason why alcohol tends to make an extra-flaky pie crust).
3. Add Some Liquid to the Flour
Most fried chicken recipes tell you to dip your marinated chicken into your flour mixture, then immediately fry the pieces. If you do this, you’ll probably experience a trend: the chicken that you dredge and cook last is a lot much better than the chicken that you cooked first.
There’s a simple explanation for this phenomenon: as you dredge the chicken, liquid gets added to the flour mixture. As the liquid is added, the flour mixture clumps, which ends up in a bumpy and rocky coating for the chicken. When fried, this uneven coating is extra crispy, because there are nooks and crannies of crispy goodness, along with extra surface area.
4. Keep the Oil Temperature Constant
If you have a deep fryer, it is simple and mindless to keep the oil temperature constant. If you’re frying the good old-fashioned way, however, it takes a tad bit more effort. Should your oil gets too hot, the crust on the chicken will burn; if it cools down too much, the crust will drop off or become soggy. To help keep the oil at an optimal temperature, keep a thermometer in the pan at all times. When the oil cools down after you add the chicken, immediately crank up the heat on the stove. As the temperature approaches the required heat, lower the stove setting again. If the temperature gets too high, don’t wait for it to come back down; instead, add more cold oil to your pan.
5. Fry Twice
French fries aren’t the only food that ought to be fried twice. Chicken needs to be, too: ideally, the crust of the chicken should cook more than the inside of the chicken; this creates a crisp exterior but retains a juicy interior. For those who fry the chicken until the crust is perfect, the inside will probably be dry. Instead, fry the chicken up until the inside is perfectly cooked, then allow it to cool for 15-30 minutes. After the chicken has cooled, fry it again for a couple of minutes: this puts the finishing touches on the crust, and reheats the meat without cooking it further.
These tips will go a long way in upping your fried chicken game-and none of them require much more work than what usual recipes call for. Let us know in the comments if you have any amazing tips or tricks that you just swear by, and we may just add them to our list! Or you can send us your comments by clicking here