Batter-Fried Chicken

Name: Batter-Fried Chicken
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Cuisine: US & Canada
Ingredients: 1/4 cup, table salt for brining; 1/4 cup, sugar for brining; 4 pounds, bone-in chicken pieces (split breasts cut in half crosswise, drumsticks, and/or thighs), trimmed; 1 cup, all-purpose flour; 1 cup, cornstarch; 5 teaspoons, pepper; 2 teaspoons, baking powder; 1 teaspoon, paprika; 1/2 teaspoon, cayenne pepper; 1 teaspoon, table salt; 3 quarts, peanut or vegetable oil for frying

46 comments

Appears in Cook's Country August/September 2009, Cook's Country TV

This unusual, old-fashioned technique sounded simple enough, but we had to work to achieve the picture-perfect, golden-brown crust and moist chicken that we were after.

SERVES4 to 6

TIME1¼ hours, plus 30 minutes brining

has video

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

As far as technique went for our Batter-Fried Chicken recipe, deep frying easily beat out shallow frying. With shallow frying, the batter always burned on the bottom. To ensure a crisp crust, we replaced the milk in our initial batter with ...

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