Fried Chicken

chicken
fried
base
Author

Robin Fisher

Published

August 13, 2023

This recipe is a base ingredient for other recipes. Although, it’s also excellent as as stand alone dish.

I developed this recipe with peanut oil. Any oil with a smoke point over 400 °F will work.

The coating uses tapioca starch because I find that it makes for a crispier coating. Cornstarch will work nearly as well. If you want a heavier coating potato starch works well.

This technique works well for every shape I’ve tried, including:

Ingredients

Per 2lbs of chicken:

Marinade

  • 1 egg white
  • 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp vodka
  • 6 tbsp (heaping 1/3 cup) corn starch

Coating

  • .5-1 cup flour
  • .5-1 cup tapioca starch (corn starch ok)
  • 1 tsp backing powder
  • 1 tsp salt, or to taste

Process

  1. In medium bowl whisk the egg white until foamy (30-60 sec depending on whisking intensity).

    Add wine, soy sauce, and vodka. Whisk to combine.

    Add corn starch to marinade. Whisk to combine.

    At this point you can add grated/microplaned ginger and/or garlic to the marinade.

  2. Cut chicken in desired shape.

    🍗 The shape of the chicken is critical!

    The chicken cooks from the outside in, this means that the thickest part of the shape determines the cooking time more than mass.

    For example, cubes and strips will cook at roughly the same time (2-3min ymmv). On the other hand, a thin chicken thigh will cook at a vastly different times — one may be done at 2-3 minutes while the other may take up to 5.

    When in doubt, USE A THERMOMETER. USDA recommends 165 °F. Actual safe eating temperature is more nuanced than this, that is a topic for another post, you will never go wrong with USDA guidelines.

    🔪 Consistency makes convenience

    Cutting consistent shapes or triming whole pieces to roughly the same size will make frying more consistent.

    If you have a wide range of sizes, try to select similarly sized pieces when grouping your batches.

  3. Add chicken to marinade, mix thoroughly, and let chill/sit for at least 30 minutes up to 6 hours.

    ⏰ Watch the time!

    You can go up to 24 hours but understand the salt in the wine/soy will start breaking down the chicken.

    If using ginger in your marinade DO NOT leave the chicken in the marinade for longer than 4 hours.

  4. Whisk all ingredients for coating together in a very large bowl. I recommend at least 150% the size of your marinade bowl as we’ll be working with ALL of the chicken during the coating step. You can add spices to this base coating, to taste.

  5. Working in batches, add all of the chicken in to the coating mixture.

    • Add a bit of chicken
    • Brief toss to coat — no need to coat thoroughly at this point. All you want to do is expose more of the coating mixture
    • Repeat until all of the chicken is in the mixture.

     

  6. With your hands (really, it’s important; wear gloves if you want) mix the chicken in the coating. Alternate between a mixing motion and pressing everything into the bottom of the bowl.

    😰 Tired of your fried chicken’s coating falling off?

    Pressing the coating into the chicken is important to ensure the coating tightly binds to the chicken.

    Continue with this process until coating mixture has been completely used. There should be very little of the coating mixture left in the bowl.

  7. Transfer coated chicken to a baking sheet. Let stand for at least 10 minutes to help the coating bind better.

    🎶 Prevent the chicken from sticking together!

    Leave a bit of space around each piece.

  8. To avoid reducing the oil temperature or overflowing the pot, fry the chicken in small batches. Fry at 375 °F only until the chicken is cooked through (2-3 minutes for smaller pieces, 3-4 for larger pieces).

  9. After the first fry let the chicken stand for at least 10 minutes. This will improve crispiness after the next fry.

  10. Fry the chicken a second time, in batches, at 400 °F.

    Fry for at least as long as the first fry. My rule of thumb: first fry time + 1-2 minutes.

    When finished the chicken will be deep golden brown or even dark brown.

    If serving immediately, season with salt, pepper, or whatever spices you desire. Otherwise continue with the recipe you’re making this for.

    🎶 Second fry batches

    These batches can be significantly bigger than your first fry batches, depending on your frying vessle and amount of oil.

    This is because the chicken is starting the fry at a much higher temperature and most of the mositure in the chicken has already been lost in the first fry, meaning the oil will “boil” much less.

    For example, with 2.5 gallons of oil, I may do the first fry in 3-4 batches, and the second fry in one batch.

Acknowledgements

I don’t remember all the resources I used in developing this recipe, but here are a few:

Editors: