The One Ingredient that Makes Fried Chicken So Much Crispier (2024)

FAQs

The One Ingredient that Makes Fried Chicken So Much Crispier? ›

Pure cornstarch is gluten-free, so it inhibits gluten development as the chicken is tossed from buttermilk to flour. This helps make the breading snappier and crispier after frying. Cornstarch also absorbs excess oil and even moisture from the chicken, making for a less greasy coating.

The best way to keep fried foods crispy? Just place them on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet. If you're frying multiple batches, throw the whole setup into a low oven to keep everything warm as you keep frying and adding to the rack.

The perfect temperature for frying foods is 375°F (190°C). This temperature provides the ideal combination of heat and oil saturation to achieve a crispy, golden-brown texture. However, some recipes may require higher or lower temperatures depending on the type of food being fried.

(Note that dextrin from corn, potato, and other starch sources also exists but behaves differently from wheat dextrin.) Food manufacturers discovered many years ago that wheat dextrin can make fried foods crispier—and remain crispier longer—than those made with most conventional flours alone.

KFC deep fries its chicken for 15 minutes and then drains the oil off for another five minutes – 20 minutes in total. If you don't have a deep fryer, heat up plenty of oil in a large saucepan and do it that way.

Oven instructions

Place the chicken skin in a single layer, skin-side down, on top of stainless steel wire rack on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Pop the tray in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Then, flip the chicken skins skin-side up and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden and crispy.

An oven at 250 degrees, or on a general "warm," setting, will keep the chicken hot enough to serve without overcooking it and drying it out, and the extra dry heat from the oven actually helps keep the exterior perfectly crispy.

If your oil temp is too high, your fried chicken will be scorched on the outside with meat that is undercooked. If the oil is too cool, your chicken will be greasy and will lack the golden-brown crispy exterior you want.

Use Cornstarch or Rice Flour

Michael says that cornstarch or rice flour in combo with flour will give you the crunchiest batter. Even cake four will cook up crunchier than all-purpose flour because it doesn't have a high gluten level.

If you prioritize a crispy texture and don't mind spending a little extra money, potato starch is the way to go. If you prefer a lighter and more delicate crunch and want to keep costs down, corn starch is a solid choice.

How do you make deep fry more crispy? ›

If you want crispy food, you need to dry it out. So when you deep-fry, and because water and oil don't mix, you're pushing out all the surface water with very hot oil. When hot oil comes in contact with water, tiny surface explosions (the bubbles you see) create craggy, crispy food.

Ingredient Tips

My not-so-secret tip to the best fried chicken is a combination of FLOUR, CORNSTARCH, and BAKING POWDER. When mixed with the flour, the cornstarch makes the flour coating crispier and gives it that golden brown color! (It has to do with prevention of gluten development.)

Rub with Salt and Baking Powder

Both substances pull moisture out of the skin. But baking powder has additional powers. It prods some of the skin's proteins and fat to break down, which, combined with its alkalinity, accelerates the Maillard reaction, for skin that browns and crisps more quickly.

My not-so-secret tip to the best fried chicken is a combination of FLOUR, CORNSTARCH, and BAKING POWDER. When mixed with the flour, the cornstarch makes the flour coating crispier and gives it that golden brown color! (It has to do with prevention of gluten development.)