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Fried Chicken - ultra craggy crispy crust!

Course Main dishes, Poultry

Ingredients

  • 1.8 kg 3.6 lb chicken bone in, skin on small thighs (< 180g/6 oz), drumsticks, whole wings, breast (< 180g/6 oz) (Note 1)

Buttermilk marinade:

  • 1 cup 250 ml buttermilk (Note 2 for sub)
  • 1 tbs salt
  • 1 egg

Fried Chicken Breading:

  • 2 1/4 cups 365g all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup 115g cornstarch corn flour

KFC 11 Secret Herbs and Spices:

  • 3 tsp salt
  • 3/4 tsp celery salt
  • 1.5 tbs pepper (Note 2)
  • 1.5 tsp sweet paprika (ie. not hot or smoked)
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper optional
  • 1/5 tsp onion powder
  • 3 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp mustard powder
  • 3/4 tsp ginger ground
  • 1/5 tsp thyme dried
  • 1/5 tsp oregano dried

To fry:

  • 1.5 - 2 litres quarts vegetable oil (or canola or peanut)

Instructions

Buttermilk Marinade Chicken:

  • Mix Marinade in a bowl until salt dissolves.
  • Pour over chicken in a ziplock bag, massage to coat chicken. Press out excess air, seal, refrigerate 12 to 24 hours, turning once or twice.
  • Pour chicken and marinade into a large bowl.

Breading mixture:

  • Whisk together Breading and all Spices.
  • Drizzle 4.5 tablespoons of Marinade into the flour mixture. Use fingers to rub in so you get lots of pea-sized lumpy bits all throughout (this creates extra super crunchy craggy bits).
  • Spread out in a shallow dish or pan (easier to work with).
  • Getting ready to cook (work in this order):
  • Preheat oven to 80°C/175°F and place rack on a tray - to keep chicken warm. (Note 3)
  • Add oil to a wide, heavy-based pot to a depth of 6 cm / 2.5 " (my 26cm/10.5" cast iron pot = 1.75L/quarts oil, Note 4)
  • Heat oil over medium to medium-high heat to 180°C/350°F - maintain temp as best you can (Note 5).
  • Cooking order: Start with thighs and drumsticks, wings next, and cook breast last. (Note 6).

Breading:

  • Squidge a piece of chicken in the remaining marinade, place in flour.
  • Coat well, pressing firmly to adhere. Transfer to a plate.
  • Coat 2 or 3 more pieces - just for one cooking batch, covering oil surface in a single layer. (Note 7)

Frying:

  • Carefully place chicken in oil - it will bubble energetically but it will not spit.
  • Once the chicken is in, oil temperature should drop to 150°C/300°C - adjust heat to target this.
  • Cook thighs and drumsticks for 8 minutes or wings for 5 minutes, or until deep golden brown and internal temperature at the thickest part is 75°C / 167°F.
  • Fry breast for 6 minutes or until internal temperature at the thickest part is 65°C / 150°F (time depends on size).
  • Place onto rack and keep warm in the oven. Repeat with remaining chicken, coating each batch just prior to cooking.
  • Serve immediately!
  • Classic sides: Coleslaw, mashed potato, and gravy, steamed or grilled corn with butter, cornbread or soft rolls, fries, Southern Baked Beans!

Steps

Notes

1. Chicken - I buy bone-in thighs, drumsticks, and wings for ease. For true KFC/Southern experience, cut up your own chicken so you get breast pieces as well - ensure you keep the skin on and bone-in. Cut the breast into 2 pieces through the bone.
Small pieces for thighs and breast is better - 200g/7 oz or less, to ensure they cook through so you don't need to worry about the fuss with finishing them in the oven. I've cooked 220g/7.7oz bone-in thighs with no problems. If they get to 250g/8.8oz then you either need to take them to very deep golden in the oil OR finish in the oven.
2. Buttermilk - make your own if you can't find any. Add 1 tsp white vinegar into milk, stir, leave 10 minutes. Will curdle. Use per recipe.
3. Keeping chicken warm - this is the temp at which chicken will stay warm, keep the coating crispy but will not continue to cook the chicken inside. Rack required to ensure the underside of chicken stays super crispy.
4. Frying vessel - I feel safe using a heavy cast iron pot. For most oil efficiency, use a wok - shape means you will use about 30% less oil with the same surface area for frying. If you have a deep fryer, I salute you!
5. Oil temperature - use a thermometer or surface scanner thermometer. If you don't have one, test by throwing in a lump of breading - should sizzle straight away but not burn quickly. OR stick a bamboo chopstick in and touch the base of the pot - if bubbles rise from the floor of the pot, oil is hot enough.
Cook time will vary based on factors like chicken size, pot heat retention, the stability of stove, etc. Best to use a thermometer to check the internal temperature. The cook times provided in the recipe are for the chicken weights specified and heat oil temps provided, assuming a cast iron pot is used. Also, use crust color as a guide.
6. Cooking order - thighs and drumsticks cook at the same time, cook together first. Then wings, then do breast last. Reason: dark meat stays juicier in the warmed oven, and breast cooks faster.
7. Batch cooking - don't coat all chicken then leave it lying around while you cook a batch, it will sweat and the crust will be compromised 😩
8. Recipe source: Some techniques adapted from Kenji’s recipe on Serious Eats with some steps simplified/amended based on my testing. Spices are my KFC copycat “11 secret herbs and spices” mix.
9. Nutrition impossible to calculate so I'm sharing the KFC nutrition for 100g / 3.5 oz KFC fried chicken (no bone)