What is the secret to making the fried skin on fried chicken so thick and crunchy...

What is the secret to making the fried skin on fried chicken so thick and crunchy? The crunch on the chicken I make is so weak it might as well be roasted chicken. Is it the amount of flour you use? How do you get so much flour to stick on the chicken?

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Rice flour produces a much crunchier batter than wheat flour does. If you are using a breading then use panko; those are much crunchier than ordinary breadcrumbs.

Let your breading dry for a while (maybe 30 min) before frying

When you're done frying, place your chicken on a RACK to cool down, rather that sitting on a plate or tray. You want air to be able to circulate around the chicken. If it sits on a plate then the rigid surface will trap steam against the the chicken which makes the coating turn soggy.

Flour -> Egg -> Flour

I heard that part of the reason KFC and the like are able to make it so good is because they use heavy duty equipment.
They use something called a pressure fryer or something like that. Apparently it makes it easier to fry large batches quicker and at an even temperature.

>Is it the amount of flour you use?
Duh.

>How do you get so much flour to stick on the chicken?
Thick batter.

Yes, they do use pressure fryers but that doesn't have any effect on the crispiness of the coating.

>using a batter for fried chicken

I think I do well with chicken.
instead of buttermilk I make a thick sour creme/milk mixture (buttermilk here is fake anyway)
I cut put the chicken and salt it and keep it in the fridge uncovered for 24 hours. The skin will turn greyish pink and dry out. I then sets to room temperature (you've committed yourself to cooking it at this point) for about 4 hours on a rack.
I dredge with:
seasoned flour -> sour cream mix -> seasoned flour

Cook dark meat (legs thighs) at 320F fryer temp
Cook light meat at 340F fryer temp.
Pic related. The darker spots are from my oven as I was keeping the chicken warm while finishing the batch.

Did you use a paper bag

Everyone knows you need to use a paper bag

Didn't KFC basically bastardize the Colonel's recipe decades ago?

I heard he would go to various KFCs and loudly complain about their cooking.

Damn man that looks good. What temp did you keep the oven on? Should probably lower it if it's making your chicken darker

Oh. Guess it was just hearsay then.

Yeah, noticed that 200F makes the grease pool on the surface of the chicken so I bumped it to 400F which does a better job, but I had them on the top rack. Will try 400F again but put them near the bottom next time.

>redunk into egg after flour
>the fucking flour comes off
Yeah, sound advice, retard.

let it cool down a little bit and fry it a second time.

in addition to some other advice already here like double frying:

crunch up some corn flakes and coat your chicken with it.

>>the fucking flour comes off

That doesn't happen though.

I tried that recipe for KFC. It was pretty good. It did taste like kfc. The only problem was not having the pressure fryer. The texture of both the chicken and the breading was a little off. It was still super good though. I would recommend adding MSG to those ingredients as well.

Also once I tried to use a batter and flour technique. Dredge in flour, then batter, then flour again. I was trying to replicate the extra crispy texture from popeyes. It didnt work out at all. I think my batter was too thick and had too much egg. It came out wayyy overbreaded and lots of parts were too hard, some too eggy. Next time im just sticking to buttermilk marinade and shaking in flour.

the flour doesnt come off idiot. Obviously you have no experience cooking because if you did you would know it obviously doesnt come off. Get real dipshit.

seriouseats.com/2015/07/four-secrets-for-better-fried-chicken.html

How has no one been able to give OP one of the most important answers?

Gluten. You want a fuck ton of gluten, use bread flour, or if you can find it there's "flour" you can buy that's 80% protein (gluten) which will make the best fried chicken you've ever had when combined with other techniques

>he doesn't use beer

Refrigeration.

Never drop your wings in hot oil at room temp. Dredge and bread it at room temp, then tray it and chill it. That makes all the difference.

Grilling, broiling, braising....that's all room temp shit. Frying; you best chill that shit. It will make it crispy and dank. Fucking try it side by side nigga. Room temp chicken vs. chilled chicken....you'll know whats up son.

>frying cold chicken
Enjoy your 120F internal temps after 12 minutes of frying. Fried chicken tartar.

I started playing around with sous viding my chicken parts before frying. Haven't found the perfect time/temp combo yet but the results are promising

I do a flour dredge, then egg wash, then my magic step is a final roll/press in seasoned flour that I built up texture in by spritzing it with a spray bottle of water and stirring it around until I like the size of the flakes. Then I rest them at room temp for 20 minutes. When the entire coating looks evenly dampened from the egg wash in the middle coat, in the oil they go. My coating has a texture and never falls off.

use breadcrumbs

Is fried chicken a sandwich?

only if you use breadcrumbs.
Which nobody should.

Corn starch makes it suuuuuupppppeeer crispy

Double dredge.

KFC isn't crunchy.