Chicken is one of the most consumed poultry meat in the whole world. Its taste, flavor, and texture make it stand out among other meats. That is why no wonder it is perfect to use in many recipes, including this best fried chicken.
Fried chicken is a very well-known dish in the Philippines and different parts of the world. It is one of the recipes that many people love to eat almost every day. It is an essential part of Filipino culture and traditions.
It is a huge part of many Filipino feasts and occasions such as birthdays, fiestas, weddings, baptismal, and many more. So, elevating or leveling the simple chicken into something extraordinary is the right idea.
Luckily, we are on the same page! We want to discover other variations and versions we could make as we recreate this delicious and classic chicken dish.
So, prepare yourself and your kitchen to continue reading this article, which featured fried chicken- our all-time favorite dish.
What is Fried Chicken
Fried chicken is a dish that you could expect to be salty, spicy, and crispy. It allows you to use any part of the chicken and the whole chicken, a Korean version of cooking it.
You could generally divide the chicken parts into different sections, such as white meat, where the wings and the breasts belong. The other section is the dark meat, where all thighs, drumsticks, and legs of the chicken belong.
To prepare the chicken pieces in frying, you typically have to coat it in a flour-based batter containing milk or eggs and then dredge the pieces to breadcrumbs or in flour.
The seasonings could be salt, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, or onion powder, where you have to mix it with flour and cornstarch for breading.
The process of marinating or dipping the chicken into the buttermilk adds its acidity to make the meat more tender. So, marination is a big part of making the chicken perfectly cooked and flavored.
After all the marinating process, dipping in the flour, cornstarch, and breadcrumbs, you could now deep fry it in a deep fryer with a heat temperature reaching up to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ways to Cook Best Fried Chicken Recipes
A classic chicken is a dish you could make with many ways of cooking. We listed down a few ways to recreate it better when cooking it.
Skillet Fried Chicken
This cooking method requires you to use a skillet pan, a non-sticky type of cooking equipment. This way, you could cook the chicken without accidentally burning it or undercooking it. You have to cook each side of the chicken for about 4 to 5 minutes in total for 10 minutes of cooking time.
Pan-fried Chicken
Pan-frying is a dry, heat way of cooking. You rely on the fat or oil as the heat transfers to the medium. It creates steam, which helps you cook meat while exposing it's topside allows you to escape the steam.
It also allows your dish to directly contact the pan, which creates greater crisping and browning. It also adds caramelization flavor to the dish you cook and retains its tenderness and moisture.
Smoked
It is a way of cooking where meat or other ingredients all has to cook over the fire. It adds flavor to the fish, meat, and poultry as you use this method of cooking. It also tenderizes and makes the texture of the protein you use to cook perfection and retain its moist taste.
Deep-fried
It is the traditional and easiest way of cooking chicken. Deep frying makes the protein submerge in the hot oil. It requires you to maintain the deep fryer's heat at a high temperature up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
In this way, you could create a dish with a golden-brown texture on the surface in a small amount of time. You also have to know the right amount of oil you have to use. How high the heat temperature and monitor it if it continues rising or dropping, which affects the cook on your protein.
Oven-Fried, CornFlake-Crusted Chicken
This cooking method has a big difference compared to the first four ways of cooking the featured dish. It requires you to use an oven when performing this way of cooking.
Instead of continuing cooking the dish in the pan's heat under a burner or deep fryer, you have to heat the oven until it reaches 390 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the perfect temperature to cook the chicken.
It requires you to spray some oil on the baking pan so, when you start cooking the chicken, it may not stick to the baking pan.
Other Delicious Variants of Crispy Fried Chicken Recipes
An all-time favorite chicken has tons of variations where you could choose and try to cook. Each version highlights the taste of the featured dish and makes sure that it honors the chicken in such away.
Spicy Chicken
This version tried to elevate the simple chicken dish into a spicy fried one. This version's twist adds hot sauce or chili flakes to the chicken's marinade before frying it. This version is perfect for those spicy lovers.
As you marinate it in the spicy buttermilk mixture, the spiciness of it penetrates the chicken's meat. Afterward, you could dredge it in seasoned flour and fry it until it reaches golden brown outside, while juicy, tasty, tender, and moist on the inside.
Best Fried Chicken Buttermilk
If you want to recreate this crispy fried chicken and elevate the buttermilk mixture used to marinate the chicken, you have to level up the ingredients you used for it. You could use different herbs and spices, but you have to make sure that each season you use to upgrade the buttermilk complements each other to avoid overpowering the chicken.
Buffalo wings
It is an authentic version of chicken that you could find in several restaurants and even in the kitchen at home. It is an elevated version of old goodie classic chicken.
Buffalo wings are a very popular version of unbreaded deep-fry chicken wings in the United States. Unlike the chicken, this version does not require you to soak it in a buttermilk marinade because you could coat it with seasonings after cooking it.
It gained so much popularity in the United States and abroad. They also applied spicy flavors to it by dredging it into spicy seasonings and other sauces to have its flavor and taste. You could also serve it as the main dish or appetizer, even as beer food or snack.
Korean Chicken
Korean Chicken is another popular version of chicken that originated in South Korea. It is well-known as an appetizer, main dish, snack, or beer food served almost every day. It is different from the classic American crispy fried chicken because it is not once fried but twice. It makes the skin less greasy and crunchier.
After frying the chicken, they hand-painted it with a sweet and sticky sauce using a brush to coat it evenly with its thin layer. You could cook it as a whole chicken with minimal spices like sugar, salt, and other light seasonings.
Crispy Popcorn
Crispy popcorn is a type of fried chicken cut into bite-sized pieces of meat and dredge into the buttermilk mixture and other spices. You could deep-fry it until it turns from light to a medium golden brown. It is a version pretty much easier to cook and eat.
Crispy Karaage
Karaage is a type of a deep-fried dish wherein you could use the potato starch that serves as the coat to the vegetable or protein you are using instead of flour. Chicken is the most popular protein used in the dish, but you could use it with seafood, too, including blowfish.
It is a Japanese version of chicken. It has an exquisite balance of aroma, taste, and texture, which would satisfy you.
This version of the dish is easy to create. First, you have to marinate the chicken. Then dredge it into potato starch. You could use a very light coating for a thin crisp skin or more robust texture when applying a thicker coating to the protein. Afterward, you may now deep fry it at the heat temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Nashville hot chicken
Nashville hot chicken is a type of fried chicken locally found in Nashville, Tennessee, in the United States. It is a specialty from that town where the name of the dish originates.
In this version, you have to marinate the chicken in a water-based blend mixture of seasonings. Afterward, dredge it in the flour and fry it.
What makes this dish stand out is when you drizzle and cover it with sauce or paste spiced with cayenne pepper. It is often and particularly served above the white bread with pickle chips.
It is a dish quite similar to the other variants, which is the Buffalo wings.
Caramelized honey and spice
This version has a coat of a super light, extra-crunchy layer of honey and spices—one of the great versions of chicken.
Honey is a versatile ingredient used in various recipes, which makes a certain dish stand out. It is a vicious and sweet food made by honey bees and some related insects.
You may use it in baking, desserts, and even spread on bread or added sweetener in some beverages, including tea. It is also great to use in fermentation and marinating different kinds of proteins.
Barberton chicken
This version of the dish commonly known as Serbian Fried Chicken is a fried chicken style originated in Barberton, Summit County, Ohio. It is where the dish's name Barberton Chicken originated.
It is a typical Serbian-American style of the featured dish served in few mainly owned Serbian restaurants in Barberton and Norton. It is a style or version of the chicken, which gives the national town recognition as the "Fried Chicken Capital of America."
Chicken Maryland
It is a variation of the featured Chicken dish wherein it is a style of chicken commonly served with a creamy gravy. Instead of cooking it in the deep fryer, they used a skillet way of cooking in it, where they pan-seared it to cook the chicken until it reached the initial browning on the chicken meat. But some used to deep-fried it.
The name of the dish "Chicken Maryland" is a historic dish native to Maryland.
Lemon-Marinated Tuscan-Jewish
This version is a Tuscany variation of chicken. They called it Pollo Fritto per Chanukkà or fried chicken for Hanukkah.
This version featured meat marinated in lemon juice brine with spices and garlic. Then, coated the meat with egg and flour. It would produce a lemony, bright flavor, which is the perfect counterpoint to the chicken's rich taste and juiciness.
Lemon juice is one of the most popular juices used in cooking varieties and produces great recipes. They often used it as a marinade or a brine to marinate meats, fish, or other seafood to add more taste and flavor. But, aside from it, you could also add the lemon juice in different recipes like pancakes and many.
It is an ingredient that promotes hydration, prevents kidney diseases, and is a great source of Vitamin C.
Ramen-Crusted
This ramen-crusted chicken is a bit different chicken than the original version of the dish. Its breading is used instead of breadcrumbs. They used crushed ramen.
Its spices and seasonings are also far beyond the original since they use ramen flavorings to the featured version of the very well-known fried chicken, after putting the chicken in the brine with buttermilk and ramen seasonings flavor.
You could put in the crushed ramen as breading and then deep-fried it. It is a bit similar to the Japanese version of the dish, but the difference is that instead of breadcrumbs like panko, you used crushed ramen.
Ramen is a Japanese noodle made from wheat flour, water, salt, and Kansui or alkaline water. It acts like a breading when finely crushed. It is one of the most elevated versions of the dish.
Crispy Chicken Sandwiches
In this version of the featured dish, you could make your fried chicken fill or spread in a sandwich. It could also be an alternative to substitute in burger patties.
You have to toast the buns after brushing it with butter in the broiler. You could either place perfect size chicken breasts on the buns along with the mayonnaise, lettuce, pickles, and tomatoes.
It is one of the famous versions of this chicken dish. And you could also try it at your home since it is easy and affordable.
Chicken Piccata
Chicken Piccata is an Italian all-time favorite version of old and classic crispy fried chicken. This version of the dish features meat pounded into thin and topped with a buttery sauce called lemon caper.
This dish is closely similar to Lemon Shrimp Linguine. The featured version of chicken could serve along with pasta and other recipes like braised vegetables.
You could slice or butterfly the chicken breasts and flattened them in an even thickness. Season and dredge it in flour before frying it in olive oil or butter.
What makes this dish the perfect version of the chicken is its lemon caper sauce, which makes it stand out among other variations.
This version is very popular in the United States.
Chicken Katsu
Chicken Katsu is a Japanese version of chicken made with panko breadcrumbs and popular in Hawaii, Australia, California, London, and other parts of the world.
This version is also well-known as tori katsu or panko chicken. Katsu also means cutlet, so chicken katsu means chicken cutlet.
It is a dish developed in Japan in the twentieth century because of Western Influence. It is also a chicken nugget version of America. But instead of using American breadcrumbs, they used Japanese panko breadcrumbs.
Generally, they serve katsu with tonkatsu sauce made with pureed fruit-based brown sauce or seasoned ketchup. It is one of the best versions you could try when elevating chicken.
Fully Loaded Mexican With Green Chili-Corn Waffles
It is a Mexican version of the classic chicken and waffles combination. This version is a waffle built with roasted green chilis, flavored corn, crunchy cornmeal coated chicken soaked in buttermilk with hot sauce and lime. You could also use lemon in case lime is not available.
Instead of using breadcrumbs like American bread crumbs or Panko breadcrumbs, they used crushed cornmeal that serves as the dish's breading.
This Mexican-inspired variation of the classic dish elevated it to be a restaurant-quality dish. You could add and drizzle the featured version with Mexican crema, anchovy, honey glazed bacon, guacamole, and salsa Roja for more flavor and taste to the dish's version.
Trivia about Crispy Fried Chicken
In the 1830s, the first recorded expression of fried chicken in American English often appeared in various American cookbooks in the 1860s to 1870s. The origin of the crispy fried chicken in America's Southern states was in Western African and Scottish cuisine.
Fried Chicken became a staple food in America. Before Worldwar II, it was usually and often served during holidays and special occasions because of its expensive ingredients and limited chicken meat source.
But it became the traditional slave foods in the American Civil War along with chitterlings and watermelon.
Based on the National Chicken Council, there are 1.25 billion Chicken wings consumed in 2012 on Super Bowl weekend. They also declared the 6th of July as the National Fried Chicken Day.
In the United States whitepages.com, there are 26 people listed "Chicken" as their last name.
During the fourth century, the recipe of deep-fry chicken called Pullum Frontonianum was a recipe you could find in the Roman cookbook of Apicius.
Not all chickens are suitable for frying because types of chicken are suitable in all types of cooking except frying. Buttermilk brine, where you have to marinade your chicken meat, is essential to make your chicken tasty and delicious.
Tips
Here are some wonderful ideas you could use to pull out the great version of your beloved chicken.
- You have to soak and marinate the chicken in the buttermilk before cooking it.
- You have to use the right oil to help your fried dish incorporate its flavor and taste.
- To make sure that you achieve a crispy coating to your chicken, you have to double dredge it in the flour.
- To keep the chicken's crispness, after the first batch of chicken, you could place it in the 250 degrees Fahrenheit oven.
- Don't overcrowd the pan when cooking the fried featured dish.
- Ensure that when you place your chicken in the frying pan, it is at the right temperature, 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Don't use very fancy breading with your chicken.
Troubleshooting
If you want to save your classic and lovely chicken dish, you have to follow these steps to avoid ruining your dish.
- If your chicken becomes soggy, you could place it in the oven at 250 degrees Fahrenheit heat temperature to save the chicken.
- Avoid putting too much breading on the meat because it might not get the right cook to it.
- If your chicken is a bit oily after frying, put it in a kitchen towel tissue paper or strain it very well to get rid of the excess oil.
- If your chicken's first batch is not good, try setting the heat to the right temperature then you could cook the first batch of chicken again.
Best Serve With
Chicken does not deserve to serve it alone. So, we find some recipes that you could pair up with chicken and make it stand out.
- Rice- is one of the perfect recipes to pair up with the chicken recipes.
- Java Rice- is a rice dish that helps the recipes to incorporate good taste and flavor.
- Shanghai Fried rice - is another rice dish that would help the featured recipes to stand out.
- Ketchup- is a sauce commonly served along with the featured fried recipes.
- Sweet and sour sauce- is a sauce perfect for those who want their chicken recipes to have an authentic flavor.
- Sweet and spic- is another well-known sauce perfectly paired up with chicken to balance its salty and savory flavor.
- Gravy- is the most popular sauce paired up with the chicken. It perfectly complemented the featured recipes' taste and flavor.
- Pineapple Shake - is a common drink served along with the featured recipes.
- Buko Pandan - is a wonderful dessert that you could serve after eating chicken.
- Pinakbet - is a vegetable cuisine that you would love to pair up with chicken recipes.
- Ginisang munggo- is another dish that highlights the recipes' tastes and flavors.
- Chopsuey - is a very common dish that many people love to eat and the featured chicken recipes.
- Ginisang sayote- is a staple dish perfect to pair up with the chicken recipes featured here.
- Maruya saba banana- is a simple dessert that you would love to serve with the chicken recipes.
- Potato Croquettes- is a dish perfect for serving as a side dish and the chicken recipes.
- Mango Graham Cake - is one of the most popular recipes you could eat along with the chicken.
- Seaweed salad - is a dish that matches the flavor palette of the featured recipes.
- Braised Vegetables - is another vegetable dish that matches the taste and flavor of the featured recipes.
- Creamy Pasta Salad- is one of the perfect pairs of recipes you could serve with the featured recipes.
- Drop soup- is soup cuisine that is perfect for serving with fried dishes like Chicken recipes.
- Crab and corn soup- another dish to serve with the featured recipes.
- Sausage gravy- is a type of soup and sauce dish that perfectly matches the chicken featured recipes.
- Coke/Sprite- is one of the suitable drinks to pair up with the chicken recipes.
Conclusion
Many people love to eat chicken. It seems that it contains a magical power that makes everyone happy when they see and eat it on different occasions.
A simple, old classic chicken may not be so attractive today because as the modern-day approaches, there are tons of varieties of dishes you could explore within your kitchen.
We searched and looked for different ways to cook and variations you could choose from to recreate. So, if you are fond of chicken and desiring to elevate it, don't worry. We already give you what you need.
Fried Chicken is an authentic dish that you would love to serve and share with your loved ones as we desire to share it with you. Hence, take all your stuff, get ready your ingredients, and let's get started.
Recipe
Best Fried Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 kg Chicken legs
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoon Calamansi juice
- 2 pcs Eggs beaten
- ½ teaspoon Seasoning
- 1 cup Flour
- ½ cup Corn starch
- 2 cups Oil
Instructions
- In a bowl, season chicken legs with ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, calamansi juice, and seasoning. Cover the bowl and set aside for 30 minutes.
- In another bowl, combine flour and corn starch. Add ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper.
- Transfer the flour mixture onto a wide plate, and prepare the beaten eggs.
- Heat oil in a pan, when the oil is hot already, first, roll the chicken leg onto the flour mixture and coat it well, then dip it into the beaten eggs, and lastly, roll it again onto the flour mixture. Do the same procedure with the remaining chicken legs.
- Carefully put the chicken leg into the pan and cook it over low heat for 8-9 minutes each side or until golden brown.
- Drain excess oil from the chicken using paper towels or by putting it in a strainer.
- Serve hot and enjoy!
