I absolutely LOVE fried chicken. Few things take me back to my childhood like sitting down to a meal with family and friends of fried chicken with all of the fixin’s.
Now, I know what you are probably thinking. “Matt, I thought that you were planning to present recipes for healthy food?” You are right, I am planning to do that. Who ever said healthy food meant only foods that are healthy for your body? Now, I am not here saying that you should eat fried chicken all the time. You really shouldn’t, but having things like fried chicken in moderation and on occasion is not inherently bad for you. Many would argue that the key to maintaining healthy lifestyle changes is not completely depriving yourself of “bad for you foods,” rather you should have them once in a while and feed the craving so you don’t find yourself eating everything in sight trying to fight it.
Fried chicken can be prepared so many different ways. Growing up it was boneless chicken breasts dredged in flour, salt, and pepper fried in a shallow pan. Simple, delicious. As I have developed my cooking skills, I have reworked my family’s recipe many times over and have finally settled with what I am sharing with you today.
There are 3 simple phases to this recipe. Brine, coat, and fry.
Step 1: Brine
Some recipes you will find will call for a salt water brine of some form, but I prefer to use buttermilk in my brine. The slight tangy notes from the buttermilk work like magic with fried chicken. Plenty of recipes use buttermilk in the dredging process, but why not take it a step further and make a seasoned buttermilk brine. So, that’s exactly what I did and I encourage you to do too.
As far as seasonings go, you can really add whatever you like in the taste of your fried chicken. I typically choose cayenne pepper sauce, salt, black peppercorns, coriander seeds, smoked paprika, and bay leaf. If you do use fresh seeds or peppercorns, give them a little toast to get fragrant and either leave them whole, rough crush them, or even grind them down to a fine powder. Whatever floats your boat!
Using a brine requires time so you are going to want to start this the morning before cooking in the evening. I aim for 8-12 hours of time brining for my fried chicken and this seems to be the sweet spot.
Step 2: Coat
It is time to dress your chicken up and get it ready for its big dance with the fryer. To help your chicken cook through without getting an overcooked crust, I recommend starting this step by pulling your chicken out of the brine and let it rest on a pan or rack for 30-60 minutes allowing it to come up to room temperature.
While your chicken is resting mix up your seasoned flour for coating. This is a prime step in making fried chicken where you can take liberty and really hit the flavor that is best to you. For this recipe I add a little salt (already brined with some salt), a hearty amount of ground black pepper, smoked paprika, a little cayenne, roasted garlic powder, and a little bit of corn starch. Whisk everything together until well combined. Drizzle a couple tablespoons of buttermilk into your dredge flour and mix it up. This will help to form extra crunchy bits of crust.
You are also going to need a bowl of buttermilk for applying the coat and helping with the crunch. It won’t hurt to get this poured out early so it can come up in temperature too.
Once your chicken has sat out for 30-60 minutes pat a couple of pieces dry at a time and start coating them. By patting the chicken dry you will help the first round of seasoned flour stick to the chicken and develop the base of the crust. For an extra crunchy crust, dip the chicken pieces into the dredge flour, then into buttermilk, and then back into the dredge flour. On the second coating, be sure to press the flour into the chicken filling all the nooks and crannies well. By coating the chicken twice you are working to develop a thicker coating lending to a crunchier crust. Once your chicken has been coated, move on to the next step….FRY IT!
Step 3: Fry
To have good results when you are frying chicken you are going to want to be very intentional about the temperature of your oil. Let the oil reach 350 degrees before you start frying and try to maintain as close to that temperature as you can. Too far under and the chicken may cook well but to get the chicken finished it will need longer contact with the oil which can make it overly greasy and dry it out. Too far over and you will have a burned crust without the chicken cooking through. One way to help keep the oil where you need it is to not over crowd the frying vessel. I fry in a 6 qt cast iron dutch oven and I never do more than 2-3 pieces at a time depending on the size of each piece. In between batches, let the oil come back up to temperature. With my frying method my goal is for the oil to cover the chicken. Typically this means my dutch oven is about half full with oil. This will give the chicken room to move while staying covered by oil without having to worry about the oil overflowing.
The time necessary to fry chicken is dependent on many factors, so your best bet is when the chicken is reaching the color you are shooting for, use a meat thermometer and see if it has reached at least 165 degrees. Once your chicken has reached a safe temperature, lift each piece out of the oil to briefly drip dry before transferring it to a cooling rack and season with a bit of salt. If you want to keep that crispy delicious crust, whatever you do, don’t place it directly on a pan, plate, or napkins to rest. Contact with these surfaces will cause the crust to be saturated in oil and soggy.
While this may seem like a lot of work, I promise you it will be worth it! Have a personal care day, feed your soul, and share with those you love.
Equipment
- Cast Iron Stock Pot
Ingredients
- High Smoke Point Oil to fill pot half way
Brine
- 1 quart Buttermilk
- 2 tbsp Hot Sauce
- 2 tbsp Kosher Salt
- 1 tbsp Black Peppercorns
- 1 tbsp Coriander Seeds
- 1 tbsp Smoked Paprika
Dredge Flour
- 4 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 cup Black Peppercorn ground
- 1/4 cup Sea Salt fine ground
- 2 tbsp Garlic Powder
- 2 tbsp Smoked Paprika
- 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
Instructions
Brine
- Using a mortar and pestle or grinder, roughly crush the black peppercorns and coriander seeds.
- Combine buttermilk, hot sauce of your choice (I use Tabasco), kosher salt, black peppercorns, coriander seeds, and smoked paprika in a glass bowl.
- Add 8 pieces of bone in chicken to the brine and let sit in the refrigerator for 8 hours before making fried chicken.
Dredge & Fry
- Remove your chicken and brine from the refrigerator 60 minutes before you are ready to cook. Begin warming your frying oil to 350 degrees.
- Combine flour and spices together in a bag. Once combined, pour a portion of the seasoned flour in a pie dish. Pour fresh buttermilk into a bowl and order the bag, bowl, and pie pan following the dredging steps.
- Remove chicken from the brine, one piece at a time, blotting to dry and placing the chicken in the seasoned flour bag. Shake the chicken in the flour, pull pieces out to dip into the buttermilk, and place it in the pie dish. Cover the chicken with a second coat of flour and transfer to the fryer.
- Fry 2-3 pieces of chicken at a time until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees when inserted into the thickest part of the piece.
- Remove chicken from the oil, briefly drip dry, and place on a cooling rack. Season lightly with salt.
- Continue steps 3-5 until all of the chicken has been cooked. Allow the oil to return to 350 degrees between batches.
