• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Norecipes - Elevating Everyday Meals

menu icon
go to homepage
  • Recipes
  • Ingredients
  • Cuisine
  • Type
  • Start Here
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Recipes
    • Ingredients
    • Cuisine
    • Type
    • Start Here
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • ×
    Home » Recipes » American

    Updated: Mar 6, 2022 by Marc Matsumoto · 131 Comments

    Best Buttermilk Fried Chicken

    Secrets to the best fried chicken. Learn my 3 secrets and get the recipe for the best buttermilk fried chicken.
    Recipe Pin

    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

    • Paprika Chicken
    • Chicken Teriyaki
    • Chicken Chili
    • Chicken Parmesan

    📖 Recipe

    Best Buttermilk Fried Chicken

    4.67 from 3 votes
    Print Pin Discuss
    Prep Time 10 minutes mins
    Cook Time 15 minutes mins
    Total Time 13 hours hrs 20 minutes mins
    Yield 4 servings

    Units

    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 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.
    • 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.
    • 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 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.
    Recipes in your inboxDon't miss out SIGN UP!

    More American

    • With a rainbow of toppings and a zesty ginger dressing, this Chinese Chicken salad is a treat for all of your senses.
      Chinese Chicken Salad
    • Matcha oatmeal makes for a delicious healthy breakfast with loads of fiber and antioxidents with a kick of caffeine. Topped with coconut cream, fresh berries, and pumpkin seeds.
      Matcha Oatmeal
    • Dipping coconut fried shrimp in a orange chili sauce.
      Crispy Coconut Shrimp
    • This easy homemade poke bowl is topped with Shoyu Poke and various colorful vegetables and comes together in about 10 minutes.
      Poke Bowl

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

      Leave a Reply Cancel reply

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

      Recipe Rating




    1. Marc Matsumoto says

      November 24, 2014 at 5:30 pm

      Hi Gary, glad to hear you've been enjoying the site:-) Regarding alcohol in dishes, are there specific ones you're having trouble finding?

      Reply
    2. Jennifer S says

      March 03, 2015 at 5:49 pm

      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.

      Reply
    3. Marc Matsumoto says

      March 09, 2015 at 4:34 am

      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.

      Reply
    4. Eaglestar says

      April 16, 2016 at 10:08 pm

      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

      Reply
    5. Paul says

      April 21, 2016 at 1:41 pm

      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.

      Reply
    6. Marc Matsumoto says

      April 22, 2016 at 12:43 am

      Hi Paul, I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed this! Hope all goes smoothly in the hospital for you.

      Reply
    7. Marilyn Wilson says

      August 15, 2016 at 10:05 am

      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/

      Reply
    8. Erick says

      September 29, 2020 at 4:35 pm

      In your recipes, do you use kosher or regular table salt? Thanks!

      Reply
      • Marc Matsumoto says

        September 29, 2020 at 4:38 pm

        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.

        Reply
        • Erick says

          September 29, 2020 at 5:01 pm

          Thanks! Big Fan of your recipes. Keep it up.

          Reply
          • Marc Matsumoto says

            September 29, 2020 at 5:18 pm

            Thanks!

            Reply
    « Older Comments

    Primary Sidebar

    Hi, I'm Marc Matsumoto, a retired chef living in Tokyo, and I founded No Recipes to empower home cooks of all levels by sharing essential techniques and my kitchen secrets.

    Start Here →

    Trending Recipes

    • Omurice is a mashup of savory sweet chicken fried rice with a creamy omelette.
      Omurice (オムライス)
    • Crisp juicy fried chicken glazed in a sweet and sour orange sauce that's redolent of fresh citrus thanks to a triple dose of orange.
      Orange Chicken
    • Dipping coconut fried shrimp in a orange chili sauce.
      Crispy Coconut Shrimp
    • Crispy panko chicken tenders served with lemon wedges and lettuce in a basket.
      Panko Chicken Tenders
    • Luxuriously smooth scoop of homemade matcha ice cream.
      Matcha Ice Cream (No-Churn)
    • Edamame

    Trending Categories

    • Fall
    • Japanese (Modern)
    • Japanese (Traditional)
    • Japanese (Chinese)
    • Stir Fry
    • Easy Weeknight

    Footer

    About

    • About
    • Help Me
    • Hire Me
    • Photography
    • FAQs

    Connect

    • Email Updates
    • Contact

    Legal

    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy

    Copyright © 2023 Marc Matsumoto. All rights reserved