Bacon aside, there are few things I love more than fried chicken. What can possibly be more soul satisfying than a moist, flavorful piece of chicken encased in a thick, crunchy crust? Not much, I say.
Yet despite my affinity for fried chicken, the crispy skinned allure of Colonel Sander's Original Recipe overruns my better judgement a few times a year. Every time I step foot into a KFC to sate my hankering, I feel a twinge of hypocrisy, and yet I'm at the mercy of the fast food fryer. Well today, I said enough is enough, and I set out to come up with the best buttermilk fried chicken recipe. A fried chicken that the Colonel himself would swoon over, with a thick, crunchy, aromatic crust, and a tender juicy interior that's infused with flavor, right down to the bone.
I know, this is a bold statement. Some may even call them "fightin' words", but I wouldn't say it if I didn't think I could back it up. If you've been following along for any length of time, you know I have a history of making audacious claims when it comes to poultry.
To make my ultimate fried chicken, I've employed a few tricks that I've learned over the years. The first is to brine the chicken. This is a must for any roast chicken, and it works equally well in fried applications. The fundamentals of brining are simple: you're soaking the chicken in a salt and sugar solution that flavors the meat, much like a marinade would, while increasing the chicken's moisture content. For my fried chicken, I decided to user buttermilk instead of water, and I stuffed it full of aromatics such as onion juice, garlic, celery seed and rosemary. After a night soaking in the buttermilk brine, the chicken is literally bursting with flavor from the inside out.
Satisfied that I'd given the chicken the love and flavor that it needed, I moved on to the skin. In fried chicken circles, there's much debate over how to get a nice crunchy crust. I've found the double dredge gets a nice thick crinkled crust that stays crunchy long after the chicken has turned cold (not that there would ever be chicken left on the plate long enough to go cold). Since the brine is quite salty, I avoided adding any salt to the flour, but that didn't stop me from cramming in more flavor with spices like onion powder, paprika and more celery seed.
The last secret to making the best fried chicken is to let the coated chicken air dry for about an hour before frying it. This does two things. The first is that it gets the chicken up to room temperature, which helps it cook evenly once it's in the oil. The second benefit is that some of the surface moisture evaporates, making the chicken crisp up nicely as it's fried.
I won't lie to you, this is a rather involved recipe that takes some time, but it's not impossible to make on a work night if you put the chicken in the brine the night before. I like serving this with fluffy biscuits and plenty of honey to drizzle on both the biscuits and chicken.
Recipe
Best Buttermilk Fried Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon celery seed
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cloves garlic (finely grated)
- ½ small onion (finely grated)
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 4 whole chicken legs
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground celery seed
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 Litre vegetable oil (for frying)
Instructions
- Put the 1 teaspoon celery seed, 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, ½ teaspoon black peppercorns, and 1 bay leaf in a spice grinder and grind. Add the spices, ½ small onion and 2 cloves garlic into a gallon sized freezer bag with the 2 cups buttermilk, 1 tablespoon salt and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar. Seal the bag and shake to combine. Add the 4 whole chicken legs and seal the bag, pushing out as much air as possible, so the chicken is submerged in the buttermilk. Refrigerate overnight.
- In a gallon sized freezer bag, combine the 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon onion powder, 2 teaspoons paprika, 1 teaspoon ground celery seed and ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper and shake to combine. Remove the chicken from the buttermilk brine and use paper towels to dry off the chicken and remove any extra bits of spices. Add the dried chicken pieces into the freezer bag with the flour one at a time and toss to coat. Shake any excess flour off as you transfer the chicken to a wire rack.
- Strain the buttermilk brine through a sieve to remove the spices. Dip the chicken in the buttermilk mixture, then put each piece back in the bag with the flour and apply a second thicker coating of flour. Place the chicken on the rack and let it air dry for at least 1 hour.
- In a large heavy bottomed pot, add the 1 Litre vegetable oil. The oil should be at least 2" deep. Heat over medium high heat until it reaches 340 degrees F. Carefully add the chicken to the hot oil. The temperature will fall a bit, and you want to keep the oil right around 320 degrees F for the duration of they frying, so adjust the heat source as needed. The chicken will take about 12-15 minutes to cook through and should be golden brown on the outside. You can use a meat thermometer to check and see if the chicken is cooked on the inside, but take the chicken out of the oil once before checking, or the juices coming out of the chicken will make the oil splatter.
- As the chicken is done, remove them from the oil and drain on a paper towel lined wire rack. Let the fried chicken rest for a few minutes and serve.
Nutrition Facts
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Erick says
In your recipes, do you use kosher or regular table salt? Thanks!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Erick, good question. I used to use kosher salt when I lived in the US, but it's hard to find in Japan, so now I generally use table salt. If the recipe was made using kosher salt, I should have labeled it as "kosher salt" in the ingredients list.
Erick says
Thanks! Big Fan of your recipes. Keep it up.
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks!
Marilyn Wilson says
The burner works on a regular propane tank (which is sold individually). Most folks use because it is healthier to use peanut oil to fry their turkey and it's among the most secure cooking oils that can cook your turkey at temperatures of 450 degrees F.for more information visit here; https://www.deepfriedepiphany.com/
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Paul, I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed this! Hope all goes smoothly in the hospital for you.
Paul says
Thanks Marc. Cooked this tonight, first time I deep fried breaded chicken (I cook a lot but normally focused budget meals). I'm going to hospital tomorrow for a couple of days and wanted to cook something to stop my family blowing the food budget on takeaways while I'm gone. Plus I had buttermilk and a rice side already around. When I'm not sure what to do (eg, for fried chicken some recommend sr flour, corn starch, rice flour etc), I get confused but I know I can always go to norecipes.com and get a good recipe that works.
Eaglestar says
this is terrible, way too many ingredients. Cloves?? Get real. Try serving this in Texas and they will run you out of town on a rail
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Jennifer, sorry for the slow response. Yes you can separate the leg and thigh. As for keeping this warm, place them on a wire rack over a sheet pan and put them in an oven set the the lowest temperature. You should be able to hold them like this for about an hour without drying them out too much.
Jennifer S says
If needing to cook in batches to serve 12 people WHat is the best way to keep the chicken warm and not drying out? Also is it possible to make smaller portions by using the leg and thigh separate? thank you.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Gary, glad to hear you've been enjoying the site:-) Regarding alcohol in dishes, are there specific ones you're having trouble finding?
Gary Molotov says
So I'm trying this later and I just thought I'd chime in and say something every single one of your recipes I've tried I think I'm at about 20 or more I've tried not one has disappointed but alot of recipes I can't make due to liquor laws in Canada and lack of stock at liquor stores of forign wines and such and just go to replacement for them ?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Sherry, yep, I don't see any reason why you couldn't triple it, though you'll either need to use a bigger pot to fry it or fry it in more batches. As for a printer friendly version, unfortunately I wrote this recipe before switching to a recipe plugin that supports printing, that's why there's no print option. Just cut and paste the recipe portion into a text editor and print from there.
Sherry Perry says
can you double or triple the recipe? Also, is there a printer friendly version?
Thanks...anxious to try it!
Kristen says
I made this last night and it was ab-so-freaking-lutely amazing. It was my very first attempt at making fried chicken (a few months ago I finally bought a cast iron skillet and it has been getting lots of use!) and I just have to say your recipe has set the bar very high for any fried chicken I'll eat from now on. When my husband and I took our first bites we couldn't even speak because the flavor was just spot on. Thanks for such a great recipe! It's a definitely "bookmark and make again and again" kind of dish. 🙂
John Ee Chee Hong says
Hi Marc Matsumoto, I cooked fried buttermilk fried chicken yesterday(not your recipe), I would just like to give my opinion that you can add a sidenote how to make the chicken taste better, usually i take chicken from freezer and cook and I went to supermarket and marinate it directly bypassing the froozen one and that supermarket has low quality chicken, but the fact is that it wasn't frozen, it tasted better than most of the chicken i had from most supermarket i bought, tasted even better than some high qualities one. If you want to push your chicken soup recipe one step further, to qualify to be the best, every detail has to be looked into like using distilled water to make your chicken soup, may i also suggest to tell your readers or advise to use fresh ingredients. I am a fan of Japanese food and sushi has not much ingredients,basically seaweed and rice and maybe salmon or whatever fish they are using and what makes a good sushi?? It all boils down to the freshness. of course sushi still requires some technique like how you press the rice and wrap it in the seaweed but it is mostly the freshness that will make it standout from the rest.I am a Chinese and i eat lots of asian food, I can tell you one thing, fresh and not fresh can make a huge difference of the taste. I tried your terriyaki chicken recipe and it was the best ever terriyaki chicken recipe on the internet, not sure on this, but based on your description, it probably would be the best. I found out on your chicken soup here, will give it a try soon, so to sum it out, fresh ingredients is the most important factor and the fact I believe your recipe is good by reading it, fresh ingredients with your recipe will definitely make the best buttermilk chicken and best chicken soup recipe where money cannot buy unless you buy the ingredients and cook it yourself or get someone to cook it for you 🙂
circahappy says
oh.. no.. you are killing me with this recipe. I am going to make it this weekend. Thanks for sharing.
Marc Matsumoto says
Yep, better than nothing, but you're probably not going to get enough salt into the chicken with only 1 hour. You may want to add more salt into the buttermilk brine.
Jeannie Irvine says
I don't have time to marinate overnight. I'm thinking about marinating one hour, is that better than nothing?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi SeitanicEater, Aside from the obvious seasoning it provides, buttermilk tenderizes the chicken, and together with the salt in the brine helps it retain more moisture. You're most likely not going to see the tenderizing or moistening benefits by brining it in buttermilk, but I think it should help flavor the seitan (though I haven't worked with the stuff enough to say for sure). I say try it and if it doesn't seem to be doing anything you can leave it out next time.
SeitanicEater says
Hi Marc, I really like this idea/recipe. But as a vegetarian, I plan on tweaking it quite a bit and I'm not sure how well it would work...thought maybe you could help. I am thinking about using seasoned seitan in place of the chicken. I'm hoping that the buttermilk brine will enhance the flavor of the seitan the same way as it does chicken. Here's my question: what does the buttermilk do? Does it improve the flavor, the texture or both? Do you think it's pointless to use the brine and just go straight to the breading since I'm not using chicken? Thanks!!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Deborah, you can use breast meat, but because it has a lower fat content it tends to dry out and will not be as flavorful as using legs.
Deborah Geary says
Marc,
Can I make the buttermilk fried chicken with chicken breasts?
Su says
I'm making this tonight!!! It already smells soooooo good, just drying on the rack, before frying!!!! Thank you Marc!
Marc Matsumoto says
You can bake it, but it will not turn out as crisp as if you fried it, you'll end up with a bready exterior, unless you pour a good deal of oil over the chicken before baking, but at that point you'll have negated any calorie savings of baking. If you're going to bake the chicken you may want to consider using an egg wash and breadcrumbs instead of flour.
Natalie says
what if I full baked the chicken instead of partially fried and baked?
Marc Matsumoto says
It depends on the size of the chicken. There's plenty of brine and flour to coat larger legs, but you may need to increase the frying time if they are very large.
Margaret says
Hi Marc,
Your recipe of 4 whole chicken legs is about how much in weight?
Jeremy says
Thank you, I thought it contributed in some way to the chemical processes that render the chicken more moist
Marc Matsumoto says
It balances out the salt, giving the chicken a mellow savory taste. It's not intended to make the chicken sweet.
Jeremy says
Hi Marc, could you tell me what the point is of adding sugar to a brine?