My Ultimate Super Crispy Fried Chicken Recipe

My Ultimate Super Crispy Fried Chicken Recipe that is super duper crispy, juicy and the batter never falls off the chicken so each bite is crispy to the end!

My ultimate crispy fried chicken recipe has only 3 main requirements.

1. It’s has to be super crispy
2. The crispy skin cannot fall off the chicken easily, or with one bite.
3. It must be juicy (not dry or rubbery)

Through many trial and errors and testing I finally have a super crispy fried chicken recipe I truly love and the best part is, I have documented too! No more fiddling with pages and pages of different crispy fried chicken recipes and puzzling pieces together in my head.

The super duper best part is I no longer have to do a experiment and test a gazillion crispy fried chicken recipe test batches anymore. I kid you not, I have tested and fried so many different batches of chickens that I feel like the house smells like a takeout joint 😛 but this was definitely worth it.

INGREDIENTS

For this Super Crispy Fried Chicken recipe, try to find potato starch. While testing with all purpose flour, corn starch – I found potato starch can withstand a much higher temperature without becoming super dark or burnt. If you deep fry a lot, it’s worth it to keep a stash around the house.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

A Brine is Must for Juicier Chicken (Completely Optional On Lazy Days!)

For the spices in the brine, you can pretty much go nuts. I like to add fresh garlic and a few bay leaves to keep things simple but if you’re feeling fancy, you can definitely add more exotic spices in as long as the salt to water ratio is 3-4 tablespoons to 8 cups of water.

I keep this step optional because not everyone will want a juicy chicken and not everyone has the time to brine but whenever I fry chicken I definitely brine my chicken for a minimum of 4 hours.

A Mix of Wet Batter & Dry Mix to Get the Ultimate Crispiness

I’ve tried different methods to get a crispy batter and the results did not really satisfy me.

1. Using only a dry mix to coat the chicken (and nothing else), gave me some crispiness but not enough and the crispy bits actually flaked off very easily so there was nothing for the sauce to stick to.
2. Using an egg batter gave me a gummy result.

So I just decided to use the dry mix that we are already creating, and just add additional spices, vinegar and water to it and lo and behold it worked amazingly! 🙂 It’s a thin batter and it’s meant to be just a thin coating.

How to Prevent the Batter From Falling Off the Chicken

Make sure you dry the chicken REALLY well (with paper towel or air dry) right before you lightly coat it with the dry mix. This is a SUPER IMPORTANT step. Many people don’t mention this small minor detail but it makes a world of difference when it comes to making the crispy part stick to your chicken and well worth the effort if you don’t like your batter coming off easily and enjoy every bite of chicken to be crispy.

I found using tupperware much easier than paper or plastic bags to coat chicken

Once the chicken has been dried out, we are ready to lightly coat the chicken with the dry mix to remove the moisture from the skin even more from the starch and so that the wet batter will have something to actually cling on to and not just wick off the slippery skin. It’s important that you do a light coating only and shake off any excess mix – it’s meant to be a thin layer for the batter to stick to if this layer is too thick the wet batter will not stick to the chicken. Once it is lightly coated, let it sit for about 5 minutes

A Thin Coating of Batter Coating Goes a Long Long Way

Unless you like a thick batter coating on your chicken, a thin coating of batter will go a long long way. Make sure you let it drip off as much excess batter as possible! Too much batter on the chicken also gunks up the dry mix and makes it clumpy which can potentially just fall right off during the deep frying process.

Note: If you do end up with too much batter in your dry mix and you find that it is clumping up into chunks, you can just run your fingers through the dry mix and smush the clumps up with your fingers to break them up into smaller pieces so that it is easier for it to stick to the chicken again.

Why It Is Important For Your Chicken To Rest After Dusting it

While the chicken is resting, it is essentially drawing out the moisture out of the chicken which slightly dampens the dry layers. You’ll notice that coating becomes almost dough like – this will help you not lose all the batter into the oil during the deep frying phase. Letting your chicken rest is an important step so that your batter sticks even more to the chicken. If you don’t have 20-30 minutes to spare – at least let it rest for 10-15 mins.

Letting the chicken rest also brings up the temperature of the chicken so that it is not super cold in the centre. Dropping cold chicken into hot oil can drastically drop the oil temperature quickly as you deep fry as well, which is not ideal since a colder oil might mean an oil logged fried chicken.

Deep Frying Temperature & Oil

For this crispy fried chicken recipe, temperature is important. I ate a whole lot of burnt crispy chicken with raw insides this year (blech) and I found that my biggest issue was the outsides were always cooking faster than the insides so I was getting a lot of dark brown (borderline burnt) crispy chicken with raw insides.

• Oil Temperature at 340 degrees – This gave me a greasy feeling chicken, it was essentially oil logged. It was crispy, but not super crispy but the batter was not burnt and my chicken was cooked all the way.
• Oil Temperature at 350 degrees – This was just right. It gave my chicken a non-greasy feeling and it was super crispy, golden brown and cooked perfectly through to the centre
• Oil Temperature at 360-375 degrees – This made my chicken super dark on the outside sometimes burnt and raw on the inside. My chicken would become dark brown within 3 minutes which is not long enough for chicken to cook all the way through.

What Type of Oil Do You Use to Deep Fry?

For deep frying, I like to use canola or corn oil, this is not limited to just this crispy fried chicken recipe – I use it for any type of frying I have to do. I have not tested with peanut oil yet (but will soonish!). Peanut oil has a super high smoking point, which makes it the ideal oil to deep fry with but to be honest it’s a very expensive oil and if you deep fry often and change the oil all the time the bill can add up! I also want to keep in mind that there are a lot of peanut allergies out there and since a lot of deep fried foods are meant to be shared, it’s something to keep in mind when using it. 🙂

In Short – Here Is The Process For My Super Crispy Fried Chicken Recipe

1. Marinade/Brine Chicken (Optional)
2. Dry Chicken Well
3. Dust in Dry Mix (and let it rest for 5 minutes)
4. Dip in Wet Batter
5. Dredge in Dry Mix Again (and let it rest 20-30 minutes after)
6. ..and Deep Fry! 🙂

This crispy fried chicken recipe works well with wings too! 🙂 Woohoo!

My Ultimate Super Crispy Fried Chicken Recipe

★★★★★ 5 from 3 reviews

• Author: Joyce | Pups with Chopsticks
• Prep Time: 40 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
• Yield: 8 pieces
• Category: Main
• Cuisine: American

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Description

My Ultimate Super Crispy Fried Chicken Recipe that is super duper crispy, juicy and the batter never falls off the chicken so each bite is crispy to the end!

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Ingredients

• 4 Chicken Legs (Separated into drums and thighs to make 8 pieces)

Brine

• 3 tablespoons salt
• 8 cups of water
• 2-3 cloves garlic (optional)
• 2-3 bay leaves (optional)

Dry Mix

• 1 1/2 cup potato starch
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoon baking powder (not baking soda)
• 3 1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet Batter

• 1/2 cup “Dry Potato Starch Mix” (above)
• 2 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 teaspoon garlic powder (not garlic salt)
• 2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional – add more for a spicier chicken)
• 6 tablespoon white vinegar
• 6 tablespoon water

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Instructions

Brining

1. In a large bowl, combine all the brine ingredients.
2. If you are using chicken legs, separate the drums from the thighs so that it becomes 8 pieces of chicken.
3. Add the chicken to the brine and let it sit for a minimum of 4 hours in the fridge or room temperature. (If you keep it in the fridge to brine, bring it out to room temperature 1 hour before you are ready to prep it so you are not dealing with super cold chicken, which can drop the oil temperature during deep frying.)

Making the Dry Mix 

1. In a large Tupperware or bowl, combine all the ingredients of the “Dry Mix” from the ingredient list and set aside.

Making the Wet Batter

1. Scoop out 1/2 cup of the dry mix into a separate bowl and add the spices, vinegar and water from the “Wet Batter” ingredient list and set aside.

Prepping The Chicken

1. Once the chicken has brined for a few hours remove it from the brine and dry it out VERY WELL with paper towel.
2. Pour the “Dry Mix” into a tupperware or a bag and put in a few chicken in at a time and shake the bag/tupperware to dust the chicken with it.
3. Make sure you remove any excess dry mix from the chicken. You want a very light dusting on it. Set the chicken in a single layer aside to rest for 5 minutes.
4. Once the chicken has rested for 5 minutes, use a fork to mix the wet batter (it may have settled and separated) and dunk the chicken into the wet batter. Make sure you let the excess batter drip off very well.
5. Add the battered chicken back into the “Dry Mix” and shake it vigorously to coat the chicken and to give it a bit of texture for some crunch.
6. Remove the chicken from the dry mix and set it in a single layer and let it rest for 20-30 minutes so it can stick to the chicken better.

Deep Frying the Chicken

1. Fill a cast iron pan or deep fryer with oil and set the temperature to 350F (177C)
2. Once the oil is hot (you can do a test if it’s hot enough by sticking a wooden chopstick or wooden spoon into it to see if it bubbles) add in the chicken slowly. Do not over crowd the pan, you don’t want the oil temperature to drop. You may need to cook this in a few batches.
3. Cook the chicken for 15-20 minutes
4. Once it has cooked for 15-20 minutes, remove it from the oil and let it rest on a rack, newspaper or parchment paper for a few minutes before digging in.
5. Enjoy! 🙂

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Notes

• For the brine, switch up the spices you add in there and have some fun with it! 🙂
• To dust and coat the chicken in dry  mixes, I find using tupperware a lot easier to do bigger batches and a lot cleaner than using paper or plastic bags.
• When you are coating your chicken in the dry mix, and you notice the batter making the dry mix clumpy – you can run your fingers through the mix and smush the clumps to break them back down into smaller bits so they can stick to the chicken better.
• After you finish deep frying your chicken, it’s best to rest the chicken on newspaper, a cookie rack or parchment paper. Try not to use paper towel, the heat causes a bit of steam between the chicken and the wet paper towel.
• This crispy fried chicken is super crispy and reheats and holds its shape really well in the oven! Set the oven to 350F and reheat it for 15 minutes and then flip it and then another 10 mins. (Be prepared for a lot of excess oils coming out!) It will crispy again once it cools for 5 minutes in room temperature. Yay for leftovers! 🙂

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Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 Piece of Chicken
• Calories: 350 cal
• Sugar: 0 g
• Sodium: 503 mg
• Fat: 18 g
• Carbohydrates: 29 g
• Fiber: 1 g
• Protein: 17 g

Keywords: crispy fried chicken recipe, fried chicken recipe, fried chicken, extra crispy fried chicken

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