Good fried chicken comes down to two things most recipes rush: the marinade time and the patience to fry it low enough that the inside actually cooks through before the outside burns. Get both right and you end up with a crust that shatters slightly when you bite into it, over meat that’s still juicy underneath.
Recipe 1: Classic Crispy Fried Chicken
What You’ll Need
- 1 whole chicken, cut up
- 1-1/2 cups buttermilk (or an alternative brine)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus salt and pepper
- About 4 cups vegetable shortening, enough for a 1/2-inch depth in the pan
How to Put It Together
1. Marinate the chicken
Start the marinade well ahead of time. Place the chicken pieces in a zip-lock bag, mix the buttermilk with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, and pour it over the chicken. Seal the bag and refrigerate for at least 2 hours — up to 24, if you can plan that far ahead. The longer soak makes a real difference in tenderness.
2. Dredge in flour
When you’re ready to fry, combine the flour with 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper to taste in a shallow dish. Pull the chicken from the marinade, coat each piece completely in the flour mixture, shake off anything excess, and set the pieces on a wire rack over a jelly-roll pan while the shortening heats.
3. Heat the shortening
Heat about 4 cups of vegetable shortening in a deep 12-inch frying pan over medium-high heat until it reaches roughly a 1/2-inch depth.
4. Fry skin-side down
Lay the chicken in skin-side down, cover the pan, and cook for 5 minutes. Check how evenly things are frying and rearrange pieces if some spots are browning faster than others. Cover again and cook until evenly browned, about 5 more minutes.
5. Flip and finish cooking
Flip the pieces over and finish cooking uncovered, another 10 to 15 minutes, until the chicken is fully done through. Pull it out and return it to the wire rack to drain — this keeps the bottom from going soggy while it cools slightly.
No Buttermilk on Hand? Combine 3 quarts of water with 1 tablespoon of salt in a large bowl, add the chicken, cover, and chill for 8 hours. Drain, rinse with cold water, pat dry, and continue on to the flour coating as usual.
Recipe 2: Easy Caribbean Chicken
This one trades the deep fryer for the oven, but keeps the crunch with a cornflake crust — and then goes somewhere completely different with a mandarin orange and rum sauce that’s sweet, a little tangy, and genuinely unexpected the first time you taste it.
What You’ll Need
- 4 chicken breasts, rinsed and dried
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1/2 cup cornflake crumbs
- 2 tablespoons margarine or butter
- 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1 can (10 oz.) mandarin oranges, drained, juice reserved
- Water or rum (light or dark)
- 5 teaspoons concentrated orange juice
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
How to Put It Together
1. Bake the chicken
Dip each chicken breast in the beaten egg, then coat it thoroughly in the cornflake crumbs. Arrange the breasts in a single layer in a greased or foil-lined shallow baking pan. Bake at 350°F for about 1 hour, until the chicken is tender and fully cooked through.
2. Build the sauce
While the chicken bakes, melt the margarine or butter in a medium saucepan and stir in the brown sugar, then set it aside briefly. Add water or rum to your reserved mandarin orange juice until it measures exactly 1/4 cup, then stir that into the melted margarine and sugar. Stir in the concentrated orange juice next.
3. Thicken and serve
In a small cup, dissolve the cornstarch in the 2 tablespoons of water, then add that to the saucepan. Bring everything to a boil, stirring constantly, until the sauce turns thick and clear. Fold the drained mandarin oranges in gently and heat through. Pour the hot sauce generously over the baked chicken right before serving.