You'll want an oil that is neutral in flavor and has high smoking points. Cook's Country calls for peanut or vegetable oil. For Chicken Fried Recipe Canola or sunflower oil can also work. Oils that have low smoke points like unrefined avocado oil or extra-virgin olive oils, will burn and smoke because the fat is broken down, bringing a sharp flavor for your chicken.
Ingredients
- 1/2cup Gold Medal(tm) all-purpose flour
- 1tablespoon of paprika
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 3-to-3 1/2-lb chopped-up whole chicken
- Vegetable oil
Steps
- In a shallow dish mix flour, paprika as well as salt and pepper. Sprinkle chicken with the flour mixture.
- In a nonstick 12-inch skillet, make sure to heat the oil (1/4 inch) on medium-high heat. Cook the chicken in oil with skin side down for approximately 10 min or so or until lightly brown. Reduce heat to low. Turn chicken skin sides up.
- In the oven, covered for about 20 minutes, with no turning, until the juice of chicken is clear and most thick pieces are cut to the bone (at at least 165 degrees F).
- The juices should be cooked until they are clear when you cut the meat until the bone. The juices will run clear. The temperature inside is 165degF. This is easy to measure using an automatic thermometer.
- Make sure to cover the pieces of chicken with the spiced flour to ensure the best taste.
- To get the best results, rub dry the cut-up chicken with paper towels prior to dredging them in refined flour to help coat pieces.
- If you own a big cast-iron skillet make sure you put it to good use. A well-seasoned and well-seasoned skillet is ideal for cooking chicken and will have no sticking.
- Make use of medium-high heat to cook the chicken. For the best browningexperience, the skillet must be hot at the time adding the chicken. The chicken should cook one side of the way without turning. Once it has been cooked to a good brown it should come out of the pan and not stick to it so that the second side can cook.
What's the secret of crispy chicken fried to perfection?
The batter is made up of equal parts of flour and cornstarch, which creates an extremely crisp and flaky crust. The recipe also calls for baking soda for an airy crust without any trace of doughiness. The batter is based on the flavors of black pepper, paprika and cayenne to create the "simple but unambiguous flavor" (just be aware that this amount of pepper used is deliberately excessive).
The batter does not contain dairy. Cook's Country replaced the milk in the batter by adding water. The reason for this is "When the batter is still wet and it comes in contact with heated oil, the water of the batter evaporates, leaving behind solids that stick with the poultry. When milk is added solids, the sugars present in the milk solids began to brown too quickly and formed an extremely soft crust."
How to Reheat Fried Chicken
What's the best method to heat up the chicken that you've cooked? The hardest part is, naturally, making sure the coating is re-crisps. Therefore, the microwave should be shut off. In lieu, Cook's Illustrated recommends first taking it to room temp, before heating in a 400-degree oven until the temperature is at 120 degrees F. Chicken thighs that are fried are ready in around 10 minutes. Fried chicken breasts can be ready for eating in around 15 minutes. In a pinch, you can skip the bringing-to-room-temp part. This helps the chicken to cook more evenly however it's not essential.
Fried Chicken without the Frying Fried Chicken without the Frying chicken, but don't want to eat all that fat think about baking-fried chicken. Crispy and chewy, but it only uses tiny amounts of fat that is needed in other Chicken Fried Recipe. See our Oven Fried-Chicken Recipes.