Crispy and flavorful deep-fried chicken is buttermilk brined, battered, dredged, and double-fried to a deep golden brown.
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00:00 What's up, everybody?
00:01 I'm Brooke in the "Delicious Test Kitchen,"
00:03 and I'm about to make my all-time favorite, fried chicken.
00:07 While every part of the world has their own way
00:09 of battering and frying chicken in some sort of hot oil,
00:12 the fried chicken that comes from the American South
00:14 is particularly special.
00:16 It combines the techniques of enslaved West African people
00:19 who seasoned and battered their chicken
00:21 and Scottish immigrants who fried their chicken
00:24 in some sort of animal fat.
00:25 Now, I'm gonna warn you,
00:27 this is not your grandma's fried chicken.
00:29 It's not even my grandma's fried chicken.
00:31 I'm gonna show you some weird and wonderful tips and tricks
00:33 to get the most crispy, juicy fried chicken on the planet.
00:38 So I've got a chicken here.
00:39 It's about three to four pounds,
00:41 which is all you really need to make a batch of fried chicken.
00:44 And the thing that makes fried chicken
00:45 so quintessentially fried chicken is the bone.
00:48 So you don't really wanna use chicken tender pieces.
00:51 You don't wanna use chicken nuggets.
00:52 You wanna use bone-in chicken.
00:54 It doesn't have to come from a whole chicken,
00:56 but it's not that hard to do.
00:58 Breaking down a whole chicken at home
00:59 is actually pretty simple.
01:01 I know it looks intimidating to have the whole thing
01:03 just sitting there staring at you,
01:05 but what the chicken does tell you is where to cut it.
01:08 Along the legs and along the breasts and along the wings,
01:11 you'll find little lines of fat
01:13 that sort of will guide your knife
01:15 to help you find those joints
01:16 and make cutting a whole lot easier.
01:18 Before you get started breaking down your chicken,
01:20 just pat it dry with paper towels
01:22 so it's not super slick so you can get a good handle on it.
01:25 (upbeat music)
01:28 So I was able to pop out this joint
01:31 on the back of the chicken
01:32 that connects the thigh to the rest of the chicken's body.
01:36 Once I've popped that joint out,
01:37 I can just slide my knife right through.
01:39 It won't give me any resistance.
01:40 So now you can better see this line of fat
01:42 that I was talking about
01:43 that separates the leg and the thigh right here.
01:47 So I'm just gonna follow that with my knife
01:49 and it should go right through.
01:51 If you're not convinced by that little line of fat there,
01:53 you can also feel the chicken to see where the joint is.
01:57 You should be able to feel with your thumbs
01:58 right around that fat line
02:00 and feel like a joint separation
02:02 between the leg and the thigh pieces.
02:04 Once you get the legs off and separated,
02:06 you can kind of break it down to just the breasts
02:08 and the wings and work with just this piece.
02:12 So first thing you're gonna do,
02:14 just work your knife down the very center of the breastbone
02:17 until you see that little bone underneath
02:19 and just start slowly swiping away
02:22 until you release the breast meat from the breastbone.
02:25 So for this last piece,
02:26 you're just separating the wing from the breast,
02:28 same way you did the leg from the thigh.
02:30 Find the joint, pop it out, slide your knife through.
02:34 After you get those two pieces separated,
02:36 cut the breast pieces in half so that they fry more evenly.
02:39 These are the only tools that you will need
02:45 to make the most delicious fried chicken brine known to man,
02:49 or at least known to me.
02:50 Any fried chicken worth its weight
02:52 in crispy, crunchy coating and tender moistness
02:56 has a buttermilk in the brine.
02:58 Probably wondering why.
02:59 What does buttermilk do for chicken?
03:00 I've seen it in so many brines,
03:02 I don't know what it actually does.
03:03 Buttermilk has a lot of acid in it.
03:05 So what that does as the chicken sits,
03:07 it breaks down some of those tough muscle fibers.
03:09 Don't skip the brine.
03:10 But I didn't wanna dunk my chicken
03:12 in just plain old buttermilk
03:13 because that's not how we get flavor
03:15 all up and in through that meat.
03:16 So into a bowl, we're gonna go buttermilk,
03:19 Cajun seasoning, dill pickle juice,
03:23 hot sauce, and a little bit of salt.
03:26 We're gonna whisk that all together.
03:28 You might be wondering, what's in that Cajun seasoning
03:33 that she just put in there?
03:34 It's not a secret recipe, I'm happy to tell you.
03:37 It's McKenzie's Cajun seasoning recipe
03:39 and it's become my all-time favorite.
03:41 It's paprika, onion powder, garlic powder,
03:44 oregano, salt and pepper, and a little bit of cayenne.
03:47 If you don't really wanna use regular paprika,
03:50 you can go ahead and use smoked paprika.
03:52 If you want a little extra heat, use hot paprika.
03:54 Before you get your chicken into the brine,
03:56 you're gonna do one thing.
03:57 Reserve half a cup of the brine and put it aside.
04:00 We're gonna use that in the batter later.
04:01 Now I'm gonna use my trusty tongs
04:03 to get the chicken into a plastic zip-top bag.
04:06 If you don't have a bowl with a spout
04:07 that you prepared your brine in,
04:09 you can either use a ladle like I have,
04:11 or you can roll down the sides of your zip-top bag
04:15 to help make it a little bit easier
04:16 to clean up when you're done.
04:18 And then I'm gonna pour that buttermilk brine
04:20 all over the chicken.
04:21 Once I've got the brine in the bag and on the chicken,
04:24 I'm going to press as much air out as I can
04:26 and give the bag a very tight seal.
04:28 Then I'm gonna massage some of that brine into the chicken
04:31 just to get it going a little bit.
04:32 Then I'm gonna let that sit in the refrigerator
04:34 for at least four hours, up to overnight
04:37 if you're feeling really ambitious.
04:39 This chicken has been marinating for at least four hours.
04:42 I'm not gonna lie, it's been a little bit longer than that
04:44 'cause I really wanted some flavorful fried chicken.
04:47 So I let this one go for eight hours.
04:49 Mm, it smells so good.
04:53 Don't eat this.
04:54 Now I'm gonna go in this bag,
04:55 take out each piece of chicken, and pat all the brine off,
04:58 and get it ready to be dipped
05:00 into our batter and flour dredge.
05:02 I warned you guys, this is not your grandma's recipe.
05:05 So if you're wondering why I have a paper bag, that's why.
05:08 Purpose of this paper bag is to get maximum
05:11 crispy, craggily, shaky flakiness, okay?
05:15 Once you put all your dry ingredients into the bag,
05:17 you'll be able to easily drop your battered chicken
05:19 in the bag, give it a good shake
05:21 so that all those batter and brine bits get into the flour
05:25 and then they get back onto the chicken
05:26 and they create that beautiful, crispy tapestry
05:30 that we all love to crunch through
05:31 on the top of a piece of fried chicken.
05:34 Into this bag, we're going to put a cup and a half
05:36 of all-purpose flour and a cup and a half of cornstarch.
05:40 We're also going to add four teaspoons of kosher salt.
05:43 I love putting my batter in a loaf pan
05:45 when I'm frying chicken.
05:46 It's nice and deep so you can get one good, clean dunk
05:49 and you don't have to worry about flopping
05:50 your piece of chicken all over the place.
05:52 Into that loaf pan, I'm going to whisk together
05:54 some cornstarch, some flour, and some of that Cajun seasoning
05:57 that I told you guys about earlier.
05:59 In a separate bowl, we're going to combine
06:01 that reserved buttermilk brine,
06:03 a little bit of vodka, and two egg whites.
06:08 You might be wondering why I'm even bothering
06:10 to add vodka to this.
06:11 What I found in about 25 different tests
06:15 is that when you add vodka to the batter instead of water,
06:17 it evaporates much quicker.
06:19 And what's left behind is the crispiest crust
06:21 you've ever had.
06:22 Once you've got your dry ingredients in the loaf pan
06:24 and your wet ingredients mixed separately,
06:26 just add your wet ingredients to the dry,
06:29 whisk them together until it's nice and smooth.
06:31 Then you'll be ready to dip your chicken.
06:33 Half the battle with frying chicken
06:34 is having a good frying setup.
06:36 This is the order that we're going to go in.
06:39 Piece of chicken into the batter,
06:41 shake it in the dredge,
06:44 drop it in the oil.
06:48 Our oil right now is at 325 degrees.
06:52 The reason for that, the chicken is still a little bit cold.
06:55 So when we drop in a couple pieces,
06:57 that heat's gonna drop.
06:59 When it does, we wanna maintain that heat
07:01 at about 290, 300 degrees.
07:04 Another reason this recipe is so special
07:06 is because it requires a double fry.
07:08 For the first fry,
07:09 we're focusing on getting the chicken cooked through.
07:11 And then for the second fry,
07:12 we're focusing on getting the exterior
07:13 golden brown and crispy.
07:15 One of my favorite tips for frying chicken
07:17 is to keep the white meat and the dark meat separate.
07:20 They take different frying times.
07:22 If you cook your white meat too long,
07:23 it'll get dry and tough.
07:24 But if you don't cook your dark meat long enough,
07:27 no one's gonna eat your fried chicken ever again.
07:30 A simple way around that,
07:31 fry all the white meat together.
07:32 Should take about 10, 11 minutes.
07:34 Fry all the dark meat together.
07:36 That should take about 13 minutes.
07:38 Also, you wanna make sure not to overcrowd that pan.
07:41 We wanna maintain the heat for the first fry
07:43 between 290 and 300.
07:45 If you add too many pieces of chicken,
07:47 it's gonna drop too low
07:48 and you won't be able to get that heat up
07:50 before the chicken's done cooking.
07:51 My chicken's had the first fry
07:53 and it's rested for about 15 minutes.
07:55 So it's time for that second fry at 350 degrees
07:58 so we can get that exterior nice and crispy and crunchy.
08:02 For that second fry,
08:03 the chicken should only need about three,
08:05 maybe four minutes to get nice and crispy and perfect.
08:08 Now this is giving Popeyes a run for his money.
08:13 This is the kind of fried chicken recipe
08:15 that you're gonna wanna pass down to your kids
08:17 and make sure it becomes like a family staple.
08:20 The skin is so incredibly crispy
08:22 and I can't wait to bite into it.
08:24 So I'm gonna go ahead and do that now.
08:32 Yeah, this skin is so crisp and it's well seasoned.
08:36 I don't need a single salt shaker
08:38 to make this chicken delicious.
08:39 It's a triple seasoning threat.
08:41 Shout out to McKenzie for that Cajun recipe.
08:43 That crispiness is on point.
08:44 Shout out to me for adding the vodka and the double fry.
08:47 If you want more weird and wonderful recipes
08:49 just like this one, keep it right here at delish.com.
08:52 (upbeat music)
08:55 (upbeat music)