Frying Chicken at Home

Yesterday DH decided he wanted fried chicken and champagne for dinner, at home, while watching the debate - inspired by the LUSH dinner, but we already have plans for Sat nite. It turned out OK, but I'd like to do better. Here's what I did, with ideas for what I might change, and I'd like your feedback. It's not like I plan to do this all the time, but if I am going to do it, and make the mess, I want to do it right.

Cut chicken into parts (leg, thigh, wing, cut each breast into 2 pieces, save back for soup)
Toss chicken parts in seasoned flour (4 tsps of mixed spices to 1 cup unbleached white flour)
Cook uncovered in hot oil approx 10 mins on each side (in batches, so it wasn't crowded)

My thermometers are not up to the high temps of frying oil, and I was not able at all to accurately measure the temp. I need a better thermometer. I believe the oil was too hot, though the coating did not burn. It was definitely cooked in that time, the breast pieces were overcooked.

I think it could have had more seasoning, maybe 5 tsp instead of 4, or less flour might be needed (I used a variation on what is purported to be one of the many copycat recipes for KFC's spice mix, which included salt, pepper, sugar, rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage, nutmeg, paprika, onion and garlic powders). Is soaking overnight in buttermilk necessary? I saw recipes with and without, and I didn't have a day's notice, and so didn't soak it. I also think frying at a lower temp than I had might help, though not too low. It really wasn't greasy, and I know it can get greasy if fried at lower temps.

Have you seen the Expert's guide to fried chicken at home???

With respect to the breasts being overcooked, maybe your oil wasn't too hot (especially if the crust did not burn). Breasts cook faster than the other parts so you're best served to fry them separately from wings/thighs. And if it wasn't greasy and the crust not burnt, maybe it was just a breast thing.

As for seasoning, my thought is that less is usually better. Black pepper and salt are musts (so is a little cayenne for me), and I usually like to add some garlic powder, but not much more in my flour mixture. I like to get a little flavor from my brine of buttermilk and hot sauce (lately I've incorporated a little honey, but I have yet to perfect this addition), so I don't want to cover up the tang of my buttermilk mixture with too many spices/herbs.

For brining, I brine in salt water overnight, rinse really well in the morning (but some salt will be absorbed no matter what so use caution when adding salt for crust), and then soak for several hours (at least 4) in the buttermilk mixture. This method has always produced an incredibly moist, tender and tasty bird for me.

You don't have to brine in salt water or soak in buttermilk, but then I don't believe you can expect your chicken to be as moist (salt water brine) or tender (buttermilk) as it could be.

BR wrote:Have you seen the Expert's guide to fried chicken at home???

Aha! I knew it was here somewhere, and I was looking all over. I kind of thought it might be in the recipe index, but sadly it wasn't. I'll book mark it Thanks!!!

leek wrote:...I used a variation on what is purported to be one of the many copycat recipes for KFC's spice mix, which included salt, pepper, sugar, rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage, nutmeg, paprika, onion and garlic powders.

William Poundstone in his book, Big Secrets had a sample of KFC seasoning analyzed and all that was found was salt, black pepper, flour and MSG. The real secret to Sanders' recipe was frying in a pressure cooker. I've also heard this is not recommended (unsafe) in the home kitchen.

I use seasoned flour(paprika, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, onion powder), and ad epp fryer at home(350 degrees), and the chicken comes out good every time.

I also brine the chicken for at least 4 hours before coating in flour and deep frying.

First, the chicken should be cut into 10 nearly equal sized pieces and the only bone that should be cut is the breastbone. The ten pieces are: 2 wings with tip sections removed, 2 thighs, 2 legs, rear half of the back (contains the tail and oysters - best parts of a fried chicken) and 3 pieces of breast (anterior to the breast bone/ including the wishbone and the remained of the breast split down the middle).

Soak these in milk plus lemon juice overnight.

Coat in seasoned (salt & pepper) flour by shaking in a paper bag.

Fry in 0.5" hot grease, lard plus bacon grease, until mahogany brown on all sides. Make gravy using the milk/lemon juice from above.