5 Tips for Perfect Chicken + Fried Chicken Wings Recipe

Honestly speaking my chicken frying skills have not always been up to par, luckily I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks over the years which has helped me perfect the art of frying chicken.

Because we love our Arteries at my home,  fried chicken is not something I cook on a regular basis, but when we do I like to make it memorable for all participating parties.

I have some basic tips and trick I use to get that tasty crunchy golden on the outside with a juicy and tender inside.  

Compiling my knowledge, experience and professional tips I put together this list of five important factors when frying the perfect piece of chicken.

Some of these you may already use, but when all tips are executed together, you will be delighted by the crunch, tenderness and moisture of this chicken.

1. Start with a Good Pot

To get that perfect fried chicken you must have the right cooking equipment.

If you already have a deep fryer that’s fine to use.

I use my dutch oven to deep fry most things including my chicken.

With the dutch oven your chicken will be submerged in the oil which allows for an even frying.

No flipping necessary.  Using my 5 qt dutch oven I fill up the pot a little over half which is about 2.5 qt of frying oil .

2. Hot Oil Please

A huge an important step in deep-frying is the temperature of your oil.  Oil needs to be hot!

The temperature of your frying oil needs to be anywhere from 350°to 375°

When you oil is not hot you’ll have breaded chicken sitting in an oil and collecting all that unnecessary fat back into the crust resulting in a soggy and greasy hot mess, instead of a crunchy and crisp delightful crust!

You can use a thermometer to check the temperature of your oil, or you can get all primitive like me and use the flour sprinkle method or my favorite, the wooden stick method.

For the flour method you take a pinch o flour and sprinkle on top of the oil, if it starts to sizzle and cook as soon as it hits the oil than you’re ready to fry it up! 

For the wooden spoon method you take the handle of the spoon, and push it to the bottom of the pot if bubble of cooking oil start to pop, you are ready, if not give it some more time and check back in a minute.

3. Give The Chicken Time

After I brine the chicken, I dry it off, this help the batter stick to its skin. 

I season it a bit more before I put it in the flour mixture.

After shaking it in the batter you should let it sit for a few more minutes untouched.

This allows for the flour to get stuck to the chicken skin and it also produced little crusts and chunks and crunch.

With the brine the drying and the extra sitting, and seasoning it can seem a bit much and time-consuming, but it’s all worth the wait to have the best fried chicken EVER!

Occupy your time by  washing dishes, or preparing sides to go with the chicken, use the time wisely, your tasters will thank you later. 

4. A Good Reason to Season

We’ve all tasted a piece of chicken where the seasoning was not good, whether it was not enough or too much the seasoning of the chicken can make it or break it!

When I started frying chicken, I would always under season.. Chicken is a bland and mostly flavorless meat. It needs a good mixture of seasoning and spices to bring it back to life. 

Season the batter but if you do happen to under season, add some salt to the chicken as soon as it finishes frying. 

The brine is also a huge part of seasoning the brine will infuse the flavor inside and throughout the chicken… so let me tell you more about this. 

5. Brine Baby Brine

Last but probably the most important steps.

If you were subjected to some high school chemistry then you know of a little process called osmosis, when water moves through the membrane or in this case the chicken.

I hate to bore you with all this science stuff but it’s kind of pertinent to the conversation just bear with me for a minute. 

Then you have diffusion wear particles move through an area with a higher concentration of the particle to areas with lower concentration. The water and salt together end up work their way through the chicken, creating a flavorful  moist and tender chicken.

Brining also prevent the chicken from drying out during frying. 

You can add all sorts of goodness to your brine, I stick to cloves of garlic, onions, salt and granulated sugar, once in a while I may through in some soy sauce depending on the final flavors I want to reach. 

Get creative and add all your flavors before you even start cooking, which will lend to a tastier final result. 

Brining infuses flavor throughout the chicken, and that’s exactly what you want!

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Which tip works best for you?

Do you have any more tips or tricks you would like to share?

Please let me know in the comment section I would love to hear from you