Bacon aside, there are few things I love more than fried chicken. What can possibly be more soul satisfying than a moist flavourful 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 flavour, 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 flavours 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 flavour, from the inside out.
Satisfied that I’d given the chicken the love and flavour that it needed, I moved onto 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 flavour 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.
Other Favorite Chicken Recipes
Ingredients
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1
teaspoon
celery seed
-
1
teaspoon
dried rosemary
-
1/2
teaspoon
black peppercorns
-
1
bay leaf
-
2
cloves
garlic (finely grated)
-
1/2
small
onion (finely grated)
-
2
cups
buttermilk
-
1
tablespoon
salt
-
1
tablespoon
granulated sugar
-
4
whole chicken legs
-
1 1/2
cups
all-purpose flour
-
1
tablespoon
onion powder
-
2
teaspoons
paprika
-
1
teaspoon
ground celery seed
-
1/4
teaspoon
ground black pepper
-
1
Litre
vegetable oil (for frying)
Steps
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Put the celery seed, rosemary, peppercorns, and bay leaf in a spice grinder and grind. Add the spices, onion and garlic into a gallon sized freezer bag with the buttermilk, salt and sugar. Seal the bag and shake to combine. Add the chicken legs and seal the bag, pushing out as much air as possible, so the chicken is submerged in the buttermilk. Refrigerate overnight.
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In a gallon sized freezer bag, combine the flour, onion powder, paprika, celery seed and 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 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.
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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.
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In a large heavy bottomed pot, add the 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.
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?
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 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.
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
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.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Paul, I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed this! Hope all goes smoothly in the hospital for you.
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/
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!