- [Narrator] Who doesn't love a crispy fried chicken?
A great fried chicken should have a crunchy exterior
with deep, crackly grooves and be super flavorful and juicy.
We tested a lot of fried chicken and we mean a lot.
Let's get started and put this poultry in motion.
Tasty 101 Fried Chicken.
(upbeat music)
There are lots of versions
of fried chicken around the world.
But today, we're gonna be focusing on a good old
classic American fried chicken.
We're going to dry brine this chicken.
So we'll mix together salt, black pepper,
garlic powder, onion powder, and some lemon zest.
Dry brine works through osmosis.
Essentially, salting meat ahead of time
will draw out moisture from it.
The moisture will break down the salt
and reabsorb into the protein.
This tenderizes and flavors it throughout.
Another option is just buttermilk.
But we didn't think it was as great as using the dry brine.
We also saw lots of recipes
marinading the chicken in a mixture of buttermilk and eggs,
but we didn't notice a huge difference
between this and just marinading it
in a straight-up buttermilk.
Dry brine was by far the best option.
It's a full-proof way of getting perfectly seasoned,
crispy, tender, and juicy chicken.
We're gonna start by patting dry the chicken pieces
with paper towels and then we're gonna season them
with the salt mixture to evenly coat each piece.
Now we're gonna line a large Tupperware
with some paper towels
and we'll add our seasoned chicken to it.
We're gonna stick it in the fridge and let it sit uncovered
for at least four hours, but preferably overnight.
Make sure to remove your chicken from the fridge
30 minutes before frying.
Pro tip, you want your chicken
to be at room temperature before frying.
It's important to keep all meat and poultry chilled
before cooking for safety.
But it is acceptable to let your chicken
sit at room temperature for up to 30 minutes before frying.
This step also ensures that your chicken cooks evenly
and has a superior texture.
You can use cast iron to fry chicken.
It retains heat really well
and it stays at the temperature you want.
But since it's so shallow, it can create burnt spots
where the chicken is touching the surface of the pan
and oil tends to splatter everywhere,
so it can get pretty messy.
Stainless steel pots work too,
but the head can fluctuate a little more easily.
Our cookware of choice?
The Dutch oven.
It retains heat well and it's deeper,
so the chicken doesn't burn as easily.
Let's talk about some oils.
Not every type of oil is suitable for frying
and it basically boils down to the smoke point.
Frying chicken requires maintaining
a fairly high temperature of around 350 degrees Fahrenheit
or about 180 degrees Celsius
and not every type of oil can withstand this heat
without scorching.
So make sure to check what the smoke point of your oil is.
Canola or vegetable is the standard oil
to use for deep frying and it works great.
Its high smoke point and low level of saturated fat
make it a compelling choice.
And because it's neutral in flavor,
it won't impart any additional flavors to your food.
Other alternatives such as peanut oil
have a higher saturated fat content,
so some say it makes food crispier.
But we didn't notice a big difference between this
and canola and the peanut oil
is just a little more expensive.
The traditional Southern way is to use shortening or lard,
but their smoke point is pretty low,
so it's not ideal to use
just in case you accidentally overheat your oil.
For this fry, we're gonna stick with a neutral oil
with a high smoke point, so we're going with canola.
Let's heat up our canola oil in this large Dutch oven
to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius.
We tested a variety of combinations for our coating
and here's what we found.
You can go old school and just use straight up flour,
but it doesn't stay as crispy
and the coating pulls away from the meat after it's cooked.
The all-purpose flour and rice flour combo
didn't stay crispy after sitting out
and the texture and flavor wasn't your traditional
Southern fried coating.
Flour, baking powder, and buttermilk.
This method is great, but can get a little messy
and it doesn't always stick to the chicken.
Flour and cornstarch is our runner up.
It came out of the oil super crispy,
but didn't hold up that great after sitting out.
Our winner for this chicken dinner?
The wet and dry double dipping method.
Flour and baking powder for the dry ingredients
and egg whites, vodka,
and buttermilk for the wet ingredients.
Let us show you what we mean.
First, we're gonna combine our dry ingredients,
so we'll whisk together our flour,
baking powder, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt.
Now let's combine our wet ingredients.
So we'll whisk together our buttermilk,
egg whites, and vodka.
The egg whites add structure to the coating,
making it crispier.
It also helps the flour coating stick to the chicken
like culinary glue.
We tested this with whole eggs,
but it made the crust softer,
because of the yolk's fat content.
The alcohol evaporates quickly in the frying oil.
This sets the coating and creates flaky layers.
You often see this ingredient used in pie crust recipes
for the same reason.
If you don't wanna use vodka, you can totally omit it.
Time to double dip.
We're gonna dip the brine chicken
first in our flour mixture.
Then into the buttermilk mixture
and then back into the flour mixture.
Maybe it's more of a triple dip?
In any case, we'll shake off any excess flour
and we'll repeat with all our remaining chicken pieces.
When coating and breading your chicken,
be sure to tape off the excess buttermilk
as well as the excess flour.
This method creates all those little crackly bits
and using the semi-double dip also means
that you'll have a nice layer of crust.
Not so thin that you barely know it's there,
but also not so thick that you need an excavator
to find the chicken inside.
These chicks are ready to fry.
We're gonna put two or three pieces into our hot oil
and we'll cook them for seven to 10 minutes
just until the internal temperature reaches
165 degrees Fahrenheit or 75 degrees Celsius.
Don't overcrowd your pan.
You wanna make sure that the chicken
isn't bumping against other pieces of chicken
which can knock off the breading.
The baking powder creates these very tiny air bubbles
on the surface of the battered chicken
when it's placed in the hot oil.
The bubbles expand the surface area of the batter,
breaking up its thickness
which results in a lighter and crispier fried chicken.
Flip your chicken only once while frying.
The more you fuss with your chicken,
the more likely you are to disturb
some of the crunchy coating.
Do not move the chicken or start checking for done-ness
until it's fried for at least three minutes.
You really wanna give that coating a minute to cook.
Do not rely solely on visual cues for done-ness.
Visual cues aren't always the best way to detect
when your chicken is done cooking.
Thermometers are your friend.
It can accurately measure your oil temperature
and your chicken's internal temperature,
helping you cook to perfection every time.
We would recommend a candy or deep-fry thermometer
to check your oil's temperature.
It clips to the pot and monitors the temperature.
We'll cook these until they reach the correct temperature
and the exterior is golden brown and crispy.
To accurately determine the internal temperature,
we'll use a meat thermometer
that we'll insert into the thickest part of the meat,
but we're gonna be careful to avoid the bone.
If your chicken is getting too dark too quickly,
don't worry, you can always finish it in the oven
for better results.
Just heat your oven to about 375 degrees Fahrenheit,
about 190 degrees Celsius,
and cook the chicken for five to seven minutes
and you should be good to go.
Once our chicken's cooked,
we're gonna remove it from the oil
and we'll transfer to a wire rack.
Do not blot the excess oil on paper towels.
It's a common mistake.
You want to get rid of the excess oil,
but if you do it by laying the freshly fried chicken
on top of paper towels, this will create steam.
The moisture from the steam will soften that crispy crust
you just worked so hard to get on your fried chicken.
So to keep your crust, but banish the excess oil,
set your chicken on a wire cooling rack.
This way, the excess oil can drip down,
but the chicken won't become soggy on a moist humid surface.
Then we'll season it with salt.
Keep working around the clock
and repeat with the remaining chickens.
No pun in-tender. (giggles)
Sorry not sorry.
Make sure to clean the oil in between batches
to prevent the bits left behind from burning
and altering the taste of the oil that you're frying in.
Just don't wing it, keep it clean.
Oh man, it looks so crispy and it's so flavorful and juicy.
Now go ahead and enjoy your beautiful
and mouth-watering fried chicken.
We hope that this video or should I say chick-flick
has helped you with your fried chicken journey.
If there are other types of fried chicken
you'd like for us to fry, let us know in the comments below.
(upbeat music)