This Method Changed the Way I Make Fried Chicken

so if you ask me my favorite animal the answer would be simple dogs but chicken is a close second because it can be turned into Fried Chicken for years though I had struggled to make a truly great version at home sometimes it wasn't crispy enough sometimes the breading burned or fell off sometimes the chicken dried out but over time I figured out how to fix all of those issues and to make what is essentially my dream Fried Chicken and by the end of this video you'll know how to make it too now the first key here is to Salt the chicken in advance preferably at least 24 hours and I actually made a whole video about this a couple weeks ago which I recommend you check out but doing this not only ensures that the meat is well seasoned all throughout but it actually has another benefit specifically relating to Frying basically the first thing that happens when you fry a piece of food is at the outer surface in this case the breading dries out that's why you see that vigorous bubbling as soon as you add food to the oil that's the water evaporating off and this is a good thing because it creates tiny little air bubbles in the breading that allow it to stay light and crispy so because of this we want to limit excess moisture in the breading and as we learned in that last video chicken salted in advance loses less moisture both during and after cooking which means less liquid sogging up the breading and in turn crispier chicken now while you're salting it's also a great opportunity to incorporate some spices so for this southern style fried chicken I'm using a mixture of salt pepper garlic powder onion powder smoked paprika and oregano and then I'll just throw the chicken in my fridge overnight to give the salt time to work its magic now for the actual frying we're still going to use a classic three-step breading meaning flour than liquid and then flour again but there are a few Keys here that a lot of people miss that are going to make the results about a hundred times better okay maybe not a hundred times but at least like 99. 99 and the first thing is to toss the chicken in that first coating of plain all-purpose flour before doing anything else and then set it aside to rest here I'm using a quarter cup of flour per pound of chicken but I'll leave the full recipe in the description below so in my testing I found that this resting step helps the breading bond to the surface of the chicken a lot better you can see that after about an hour the chicken and flour have basically morphed together to become one but if you don't have an hour any amount of time should be better than nothing because this first flower layer is also going to add some texture and surface area to the chicken which will help the liquid that we'll be adding in the next breading stage to adhere much more easily so this is the exact reason that I no longer use a buttermilk brine even though the brine improves the tenderness and flavor of the meat it also means that the first layer of the breading will be buttermilk and not flour and in my experience the breading just doesn't stick to the chicken nearly as well that way and it also doesn't get as crispy and while our floured chicken is resting we can use the same Bowl to make our second flower dredge which is going to make up the very exterior of the breading however flour creates a few problems when it comes to Frying number one is that it Browns very easily meaning that it can often burn before the chicken gets cooked all the way through and number two is that when flour gets wet gluten starts to develop which does help to create structure and crispness in the breading but if too much gluten is formed then the breading can actually become overly tough luckily though we can solve both of these problems simply by using a mixture of flour and starch either potato starch or cornstarch since this starch isn't made of wheat it doesn't develop gluten and it also doesn't Brown as quickly as flour so you don't have to worry nearly as much about your breading burning so to my flower bowl I'll add another three quarters cup of flour and 1 3 cup of starch per pound of chicken which in total is a ratio of about 75 flour to 25 starch and I think this is perfect for a southern style fried chicken where you still want some decent Browning on the exterior for flavor but for chicken that you'll be saucing like most Asian style fried chickens you'll probably want to use closer to a 50 50 ratio that's going to result in a lighter flavored breading which will let the flavor of the sauce shine through a bit more but the great part is you can play around with it and see what you like best but another thing that helps to improve the flavor and texture of the final product is to use high quality chicken which I'm able to do thanks to this video sponsor butcher box butcherbox sells free-range organic chicken 100 grass-fed beef pork raised crate free and wild caught Seafood all humanely raised with no antibiotics or added hormones and believe me this is coming from someone who used to buy the cheapest Cuts I could possibly find the quality of the meat you buy does make a huge difference I've made my fair share of rubbery shrimp leathery fried chicken and fishy tasting salmon and it wasn't because of anything I did wrong well most of the time but with butcherbox I don't have to worry about that I know that I'm getting the best of the best and they deliver it straight to my doorstep with free shipping which is great if you're trying to spend as little time at the grocery store as possible like I am and right now butcher box is running it's free wings for Life promo meaning that new members receive three pounds of organic chicken wings free in every butcher box for the lifetime of their membership that's a lot of fried chicken and wings are probably my favorite cut to use for this recipe so I mean it's kind of a no-brainer now this special is running until February 5th so be sure to check out butcherbox via the first link in the description below and thanks again to butcherbox for sponsoring this video but now next we want to season our flour with salt about 12 grams per pound of chicken which may seem like a lot but remember we have a lot of flour here and most of it won't end up on the chicken anyways now optionally you can also add some MSG at this point which is a little trick that a lot of restaurants use to make their Fried Chicken that much more painfully addicting but now it's time for our super secret special ingredient baking powder about two teaspoons per pound of chicken and this in my opinion is the most important key to making better Fried Chicken because remember we talked about earlier how when chicken is fried air pockets form in the breading while this baking soda accelerates that effect creating a ton of bubbles that are going to turn into Super crispy craggy bits when fried this is an absolute Game Changer if you like crispy fried chicken and I mean who doesn't other than vegetarians I guess but if that's you I don't know why you're five minutes and six seconds into a video about Fried Chicken anyways this is our Baseline breading but it's also a good idea to add some spices for flavor so in this case I'm using one tablespoon of smoked paprika one teaspoon each of black pepper garlic powder and onion powder and usually I'd add about one half teaspoon of cayenne pepper but in this case I was out of it then to your second bowl add buttermilk now a half cup per pound of chicken and that's our setup flour chicken then buttermilk then flour dredge but there's one more thing that we need to do before we're ready to fry and that is to add a bit of our flour dredge into the bowl with the buttermilk about three to four tablespoons per pound of chicken by the time it's mixed in it should be just slightly thinner than pancake batter but this is going to accomplish two things number one it's gonna again help to create a more cohesive breading and number two this liquid is going to activate our baking powder and we can see that after just a minute or so there are a ton of bubbles formed in this liquid which are going to turn into those super crispy craggy bits when frying now next we're going to take just a bit of this liquid and put it back into the flour dredge and stir to create some clumps and these clumps when fried are going to create even bigger craggy bits so between that and the baking powder is pretty much the ultimate crispy breading in my opinion so now that we're ready to actually fry let's talk oil and the most important thing here is not the type of oil you use the type doesn't really matter so much as long as it's neutral tasting personally I use vegetable oil for all of my neutral oil needs for reasons I've discussed in this video but canola oil corn oil or peanut oil will also be good options what is important though is the oil temperature so I'd highly recommend investing in the deep fry thermometer if you don't already have one it doesn't have to be a fancy digital one you can get an analog version on Amazon for less than 15 but either way frying at the right temperature is crucial to ensure that your chicken gets cooked through at the same time that your breading gets nicely browned and crispy so for smaller Cuts like chicken tenders nuggets or sandwich size cutlets I aim to fry around 350 degrees Fahrenheit and for larger cuts of chicken and dark meat that's best cooked to a higher internal temperature I aim to fry around 325 degrees Fahrenheit which seems counterintuitive that you'd use a lower temperature for bigger Cuts but a lower temp means that you can leave the chicken in the oil longer without worrying about the exterior burning but even at a low temperature it can be difficult to cook some Cuts all the way through particularly larger bone-in cuts and that's because bones significantly slow down the heating of the interior of the meat so by the time these pieces are cooked through the breading will often over Brown and become tough but luckily there's an easy solution to that too once these bone-in cuts are brown to your liking just remove them from the oil and then throw them into a 350 degree oven until they're through that's around 160 degrees Fahrenheit for light meat and 175 degrees or higher for dark meat so for most average size pieces this will be about 10 minutes in the oven and when you're done with your oil you have a few options number one is to reuse it which you can do at least a few times before it starts to develop any off smells or flavors so just strain it through a paper towel or cheesecloth and store it in a cool dark place the same way you would any other oil but after a few uses once you're ready to get rid of your oil here's the easiest way to do it just get yourself some of this oil solidifier powder and add it according to the packet instructions and in less than an hour you'll have a delicious Jello casserole ready to enjoy I'm just kidding please don't eat it just throw it in the trash once it's solidified now there's one other optional trick if you like your chicken extra crispy and that is the double fry technique and it's exactly what it sounds like after that initial fry just let the chicken rest for at least 15 minutes and then fry it again at the same temperature as before or just slightly higher it'll already be cooked through from the first fry so we're really just looking to re-crisp the exterior and this method works so well because that resting period after the initial fry gives the juices time to escape from the chicken but when we then refry it that moisture gets evaporated back off making the breading extra crispy with that said I usually don't bother with the double fry because the chicken will already be plenty crispy using the techniques we've talked about up until this point but there is one situation that I do like to use it and that's when I'm planning to Sauce the chicken I find that the double fry really helps the chicken to hold up to the extra moisture from the sauce but in most other cases I don't think the double fry is really necessary I mean just take a look at this [Music] now again if you haven't seen my video on why you should pretty much always sell out your meat in advance you can check that out right here it makes a massive difference not only for this recipe but for any meat to cook so thanks a lot for watching and I'll talk to you in that video

Channel: Charlie Anderson

Views: 505,133

Keywords: How to cook, how to become a better cook, how to become a better home cook, how to cok

Id: rDEBw-P9Mu4

Length: 9min 8sec (548 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 03 2023