This is great beginner's way to fry chicken if it's your first time frying anything! I've written this recipe so that you will be able to fry not only the chicken you see in my picture... But any kind!
Things you'll Need:
- ANY chicken. I used 4 drumsticks.
- Milk (Buttermilk is best)
- Self Rising Flour
- Favorite seasonings (I used Mrs. Dash)
- Frying oil (Vegetable is fine, Canola is better, Peanut is even better)
- Paper towels
- Baking sheet
- MEAT THERMOMETER
For this recipe you HAVE to have a thermometer. This is not a 'timed' recipe. I'm not going to tell you to cook your chicken for X amount of time. Instead, I'm going to teach you how to cook food/chicken SAFELY. There may be less pictures than usual, because I didn't PLAN on turning this in a blog, but this was easier to tell my friends my 'recipe' Haha. Excited? Let's jump in!
Step one: Soak/marinate your chicken in milk for at LEAST 30 minutes. I had mine in the fridge for about 2.5 hours. Buttermilk is always best in this scenario, so all you need to do is add about 1 tablespoon of vinegar for each 1 cup of milk the chicken is in. I poured the milk in a separate measuring cup, then added the vinegar. Let it set for about 5 minutes to curdle and then poured it over the chicken in the Tupperware container.
I used my dutch oven for my fryer. In the past we pretty much use any pan in the house. Since we have invested in this dutch oven we have stopped using our slow cooker and a few other pans altogether. It does everything. I just have to remind myself that it retains heat VERY well!
Let's talk frying oil. With out going into a big spill about 'smoking points' and 'will effect your foods taste' , Just know that if you have ever set your smoke alarm off trying to fry something there's a very good chance it's because you heated your oil too high or you weren't using the right kind of oil. See Ingredients List and chose one of those for a place to start.
There are SO many different way to see if your oil is ready. Stick a wooden spoon in it and see if it bubbles. Put a tiny 'test' piece in it. But. Have you tried Temping your oil? To see what it's Actual temperature is? We want our oil to be 350 degrees. Turn your heat down if it is higher than 375. There are oil thermometers out there, but I just used my regular meat thermometer.
Oh. Start your stove out on medium heat. That was about a 5 on my stove top.
I didn't take a picture of putting the self rising flour on the chicken. All I did was grab the chicken with one hand and spoon the seasoned chicken on with the other hand. IF you are not a food service worker, and do not casually have food safe gloves at your house, just use a pair of tongs. OR throw the chicken in a zip-lock bag with the flour. It's your chicken.
Even with the size of my kettle, I only fried 2 pieces of chicken at a time. (I could have gotten away with 3, but that would have left one piece of chicken to fry by it's lonesome) You do NOT want to crowd the oil. It will drop the oil temperature and will take forever to cook!
*Almost forgot! We are putting COLD chicken in HOT oil. this will cause TWO things:
1) This will cause a loud noise and some oil flying. It's fine.
2) This will LOWER your oil temperature. Do NOT turn your heat up to adjust. Just let it be. The oil temp will also be lower for your next batch. Do NOT turn your heat up. Just wait a minute before putting new chicken in. *
How do you know how long to cook my chicken if what I chose is a different size?
Good question! When your chicken is in the hot oil frying, leave it in there until you are satisfied with the COLOR. If we left the chicken in here until it was DONE, it would be black on the outside.
I left my chicken in there for about 5 minutes.
This is where you take your chicken out and put it on paper towels to soak up the excess oil.
Your chicken looks perfect and beautiful right? Right? Temp it.
Mine came to 92 degrees. Spoiler Alert: That's VERY underdone.
That's why proper frying is a TWO step process!
(Unless your chicken is very thin, then when you temp it at this point it might even be done!)
We are looking for the magic number 165 for chicken.
"If it flies '65" Is what I tell all my trainees. All poultry/birds/turkey MUST be at 165.
So do you put it back in the oil?
No! We bake it :)
My oven was already on from hash brown casserole cooking at 375, so I threw it in there at that temperature. The foil is strictly for clean up. When this was said and done, I threw the foil away, wiped the pan with a clean towel and put it back in the cabinet.
How long in the oven?
Depending on how close you were to 165! I was pretty far off, so I left it in there for about 10 minutes. It still wasn't ready, so I checked on it in 5 minute intervals. The last interval was SO frustrating because it said 160 haha. Nope! Gottta go back in! Two of the pieces were actually done early, so I plated those up first and put the other two back in the oven.
Don't just stick your thermometer in anywhere!!!
ALWAYS temp ANY thing in the thickest part of the center of the meat for accuracy.
In this case, we have dark meat on the bone, so I stuck it in at the top round part, and made sure it was close/touching the bone.
The chicken that was ready first temped to be 173! (Even after it had been sitting on the plate for a second) So, you KNOW it was done! Anything above the 180-200 area is just going to be dried out. Dark meat is very forgiving to that rule. White meat is not, and will dry out quick.
Don't forget that meat CONTINUES to cook for a little bit as it sits. Just because it's out of the fryer/oven , doesn't mean it magically stops cooking. Heat doesn't work like that.
There is so much more about frying I could teach you! But, I will just show you those tips on different recipes!
I paired my chicken with homemade hash-brown casserole and broccoli salad!
Feel free to comment below with any questions or comments! I love to help!
Let me know if you use this technique!
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