Our authentic Southern Fried Chicken recipe is a true delicacy and one of the most iconic dishes in America. It's not hard to see why; crispy golden brown skin, juicy meat seasoned perfectly with just enough spices - it doesn't get much better than this!
You can enjoy this culinary delight by following our expert chef guide's step-by-step tutorial on how to cook southern fried chicken.
⬇️ Table of Contents
Fried Chicken - Grandma's Secret
Salt the chicken the night before frying. The salt adds flavor, which the chicken needs, and pulls out some moisture in the skin, making it easier to get crispy chicken. The chicken skin will also tighten up around the chicken pieces, helping the fried crispy skin not fall off on the first bite.
Method #1:
- Wash and dry off the chicken pieces.
- Do a good job drying.
- Salt the chicken (lightly)
- Place the chicken on a large cookie sheet and cover it with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
For one whole chicken, 10 pieces are possible; sprinkle on just enough to lightly cover each piece of chicken. Less is more in this case. Before frying, rinse the salt off under running water. Then pat very dry.
Method #2:
Brine the chicken the night before to add moisture and flavor. The brine forces osmosis to take place. Which is an exchange of moisture from a bi-directional relationship with the protein. The brine flavor and moisture of the brine go deep into the chicken.
Whole Chicken Cut Into 10 Pieces
📋 Ingredients
Our recipe is full of flavor without overpowering the natural chicken flavor. Think of classic fried chicken on Sunday.
Chicken Brine
- 💧 Water
- 🧂 Kosher Salt
- White Sugar
- 🧄 Garlic
- 🧅 Onion
- Black Pepper
- 🌿 Thyme
- 🌿 Oregano
- 🌿 Rosemary
Marinade
- 🥛 Buttermilk
- 🌶️ Hot Sauce
- 🧄 Garlic Salt
- Paprika
- 🧂 Sea Salt
- Black Pepper
Dredge Flour Mix
- All-Purpose Flour
- Cornstarch
- Paprika
- 🧄 Garlic Salt
- 🌿 Thyme
- 🌿 Oregano
- 🧅 Onion Powder
- 🌶️ Chili Powder
- Creole Seasoning
- 🧂 Salt
- Black Pepper
🔪 Instructions
Marinade the Fried Chicken:
The marinade provides flavor and helps keep the chicken moist. The pieces of chicken will go directly into the flour dredge when it's time to cook.
Value of the marinade.
- Increases moisture
- Adds flavor
- Tenderizes the chicken
The marinade is the "Wet" part of our future flouring dredge process. This process will use this exact same buttermilk marinade, which means one less step, less mess, and a time saver.
Marinating overnight, 8 hours is good for the best possible tenderness of the fried chicken. Tip: If you go too long with the marinade, you'll start to over tenderize the chicken.
📖 Dry Ingredients
The flour that comes to mind is All-Purpose, but is that the best option?
Bread Flour vs All-Purpose Flour
What Creates the Crispiest Fried Chicken?
The answer varies. It's a combination of all-purpose flour and cornstarch. The cornstarch lightens the overall texture, while the all-purpose flour has the right amount of protein to give it crunch.
There is one other secret ingredient on the recipe card below.
🍳 Cooking Fried Chicken
If you have a deep fryer, I would suggest using it as it offers even heat coverage of the chicken while frying. This promotes even cooking and browning.
I like using cast-iron skillets. Cast iron is considered the best in the south for frying chicken. Many classic southern restaurants fry their chicken using cast iron.
First, if you choose to use cast iron, use one with really high sides/walls. Just make sure you have enough oil to cover the top of the chicken.
Frying Oils
To make the best-fried chicken, use peanut oil. It offers a higher smoke point which is closer to 450 degrees. Tip: Once the oil has exceeded its smoke point, it has become rancid and ruined.
The restaurant Chick-Fil-A uses peanut oil.
The second best option is canola oil. It adds flavor and is made from corn. Do not use straight vegetable oil as it is bland without flavor.
The best possible combination is peanut oil and Crisco. In the way of flavor and controlling the smoke point this is a hard combination to beat.
Tip: Add a touch of bacon grease to the oil for the win!
🎥 Watch How To Make
🙋 FAQS
Cornstarch adds a light and airy texture, which lends itself to making the fried chicken crispier. Helps with the chicken skin bite experience. It is the main ingredient in recipes like Tempura.
Yes, you can perform the dredging process ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator covered on a racking rack until you are ready. I like to re-dredge the chicken a second time before frying.
Bake in the oven set to 250 degrees until hot enough to your liking.
The air fryer works great as well.
💭 Chicken Frying Tips
The oil needs to be at least 350 to 360. Frying with a temperature of 360 works best; the oil recovers quicker each time you add another piece of chicken.
Use a temperature probe to know your oil temperature. If the oil gets too hot, the flour will burn.
Frying chicken to golden brown and crispy, then finished in the oven, is an excellent method to control the doneness. If you have a deep fryer, cook the chicken the entire time in the deep fryer. No oven is needed. Watch the internal temperature and stop cooking once you reach 160 on the white meat and 168 on the dark meat.
Allow the chicken to rest before eating, so the internal temperature reaches the desired doneness. The chicken's internal temperature will continue to increase once out of the oil.
📖 Recipe Card
Southern Fried Chicken
Suggested Equipment
Ingredients
Marinade
- 3 cups Buttermilk
- 3 Tablespoon Hot Sauce It will not make it spicy-hot
- 1 Tablespoon Garlic Salt
- 1 Tablespoon Paprika
- 1 Tablespoon Sea Salt
- 2 teaspoon Black Pepper
Flour/Dredge Mix
- 3 cups All-Purpose Flour
- ⅔ cup Cornstarch Lightens the texture
- 1 ½ Tablespoons Baking Soda Lightens the texture
- 1 Tablespoon Paprika
- 1 Tablespoon Garlic Salt
- 2 teaspoon Thyme Dried
- 1 teaspoon Oregano Dried
- 1 Tablespoon Onion Powder
- 1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
- 1 Tablespoon Creole Seasoning
- 1 Tablespoon Salt
- 2 teaspoon Black Pepper
Frying Oil
- 4 cups Peanut Oil Oil amount depends on the size the fryer. Use enough oil to cover each piece of chicken.
Chicken Brine
- 3 cups Water
- ½ cup Kosher Salt Use what you have. If using table salt reduce to ⅓ cup
- ⅓ cup White Sugar
- 3 cloves Garlic Minced
- 1 whole Onion Sliced
- 1 tablespoon Black Pepper
- 1 Tablespoon Thyme
- 1 Tablespoon Oregano
- 1 teaspoon Rosemary
Instructions
- Brine the chicken: To make the best fried chicken possible, perform an overnight brine to add additional moistness to the fried chicken and adds an additional depth of flavor.
- Method #2: The next best is salting the chicken an hour or two before cooking, overnight is best.Overnight: Rinse and dry the chicken. Salt the chicken, then place the chicken on a cookie sheet with parchment, then cover with plastic wrap.When ready to cook, rinse the chicken pieces off under cold water. Pat very dry using a paper towel.
- Chicken marinade: Mix the ingredients together for the buttermilk marinade, then add the cut-up chicken to it. Store in the refrigerator until ready in air tight container, or large freeze bags. Place the freezer bag on a cookie sheet or in a large bowl to help keep your refrigerator clean. Minimum marinade time: 1 - 2 hours.
- Dredging the chicken: Mix the dry ingredients together for the flour/dredge mix and combine well in a large bowl.Next, take each piece of chicken out of the marinade and add it to the flour and make sure it's coated well.Want to make sure your fried chicken has a thick crust, you can repeat the dredging process twice.
- Frying the chicken: Fry oil needs to be between 350 to 360, closer to 360 is best. Each piece of chicken being added to the oil will lower the oil temperature a small amount. Cook the chicken until the internal temperature reads 160 degrees on the white meat, and 170 degrees on the dark meat.Then allow the chicken to rest for 3-5 minutes. However long you can wait to dive in 😊If using a large skillet or cast iron 🍳, fry the chicken to golden brown and delicious and finish in a 350-degree oven until the internal temperature reads 160 white meat/ 170 on the dark meat. The oven helps with even cooking.Once out of the oven the internal temperature will continue to rise a few degrees to reach the perfect doneness.
Notes
- Do not overcrowd the pan and be patient when adding each piece of chicken.
- When you add too much chicken too quickly, it lowers the oil temperature and can cause the chicken to become oily.
- The pan, adding too much chicken at once, can cause steaming and cause the flour dredge to come off.
- Start cooking the dark meat first (legs and thighs), as it takes the longest to cook.
- If you like extra-thick crust-crispiness, repeat the flouring dredge process twice before frying.
The flouring process: Out of the buttermilk marinade, into flour, then back into buttermilk marinade, then into flour one last time before adding to the frying oil. - You can dredge and flour the chicken and place it on a roasting rack, then into the refrigerator to set up. Some people believe the crust turns out better due to the dredge having the extra contact time.
- How to make sure the crispy chicken skin does not fall off on the first bite? Answer: remove the chicken skin. Pull it all off. The into the marinade.
- Not ready to eat yet? Store the cooked chicken in a low-temperature oven of 200 degrees until ready.
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