Hey, I’m trying to make fried chicken. I MUST today, for the sake of my future confidence and the joy of my day TODAY. I want to use chicken breast, thighs are too fatty for me.
How? I’m looking up recipes but they all seem so disingenuous. I know that sounds stupid, but I thought maybe asking real people would give me a better chance.
Chicken breast, buttermilk. Those are the only ingredients I feel like I must use. Anyone have any advice on the fried chicken? I’ve got regular canola oil, olive oil, extra virgin, and I’m waiting to visit the grocery store. I was about to go but I just don’t feel confident. Please, anyone have a list of ingredients worth using together?
I got u
Butterfly the breast to halve its thickness. Slice it into strips about 1 inch wide lengthwise. You should get as many as 8 long strips per breast
Make a marinade of 2 parts buttermilk to one part pickle juice from a jar of dill pickles. Feel free to add a few shakes of chili, paprika and garlic powder. Marinate the breasts like 2 hours, or overnight.
For the dredge you can use any of plain flour, cornmeal, breadcrumbs (plain!), crushed up cornflake cereal, crushed up rice flake cereal. 2-3 cups. Add salt, black pepper, chili, paprika, garlic powder and a small handful of Parmesan cheese from the green can. Some oregano flakes wouldn’t kill you either. Dump it all into a big bowl or a tray, and combine with a fork or whisk.
Get a heavy pot and a quart or two of neutral oil: vegetable, peanut, corn or avocado. Don’t use olive oil. Add it to the pit and gently raise heat. Use a thermometer, and get it to about 365°F.
Lay out a clean tray with a rack. Take individual pieces of chicken from the marinade, shake off excess, and cover it in the dredge mix. Move it to the rack to “tack up” for a few minutes. If it seems too wet, dredge it again.
When you have all the tenders dredged, take about 6 of them and lay them gently into the oil away from you so you don’t splash yourself with hot oil. Fry them 5 minutes or so til the crust sets up light brown and crispy. Gently move them back to the rack. Let the oil come back up to 365 and repeat for the remaining pieces. If the oil doesnt completely cover the pieces splash hot oil over with a spoon (“baste”), or gently turn with tongs
When all the chicken is fried, raise the heat up to 385. Carefully return all of the chicken pieces to the fryer for 2-3 minutes until golden brown. Remove pieces to a paper towel lined plate and shake a little salt over top to taste.
Gonna disagree here, but not with your process.
The thing that people want from fried chicken is really that the breading holds, and it’s not too salty. That’s pretty much it.
If you want a sure fire way of a light breading that sticks, just do the easiest thing ever… double fry it. This is how Southern Fried Chicken got it’s texture and crispyness, though if you Google this, you’ll get a bunch of bullshit momblogs that have no idea what they are doing.
Do what this poster says, but fry once for a few minutes to a light golden color, then bring them out for 5m rest and set of the breading, then back in for another few minutes tops until they are browned, but not burnt.
I’m a lousy Yankee and I have a love/hate relationship with KFC. That dredge mix upthread (my preference is the flour base with a teaspoon of baking powder, omit salt) gets close to what I love about the KFC crust without a pressure fryer
But I do love me some plain flour (and baking powder) crust too. 🍻
This is it, OP
Thank you. I couldn’t get the pickle juice but we’ll make it work. I’ll post photos once I’m done.
Thank you ALL, I really fucking appreciate the love I feel here.
Thank
Pro Tip: Before breading the chicken sprinkle a bit of the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients. Use a fork or slotted spoon to dip and sprinkle.
This creates little nuggets of coating that will give your finished food a bit more crunch.
Protip: sieve out the beads later and deep fry those too.
YES SIR/MA’AM. That sounds delicious
Sir, but Dru is fine. Happy cooking!
Between grue and justanotherperson, they nailed exactly how my mamaw did it. The double fry is essential for the texture and even cooking, and you ain’t getting better than buttermilk and pickle juice as a brine.