Eve’s Fried Chicken

Food

Content note: This is a food related post.

This is my fried chicken recipe. Really and truly. I overheard a friend describing her process and my takeaway was “flour and buttermilk.” I’ve trial-and-errored my way from that point to this one.

All times and ingredients assume two chicken breasts sliced once flat and once down the middle (eight chicken strips total). Clean up any rough edges on the chicken to make frying it easier. Or don’t if you’re like me and enjoy wonky pieces and don’t mind the mess so much.

Tools

  • Either a fry daddy (regardless of brand), combination steamer / fryer, or a pretty large sauce pot
  • Cereal bowl
  • Large mixing bowl
  • Large jug (like a gallon I think) of high temperature tolerant oil (think veggie oil or canola, not olive oil; canola tastes better)
  • Candy thermometer or digital thermometer capable of tolerating at least 390F
  • Either silicone coated tongs rated to 450F or a frying specific wire ladle

Ingredients

  • Two cups of all purpose flour (I’m bad … I used bread flour; you can too; just don’t use cake flour)
  • Two teaspoons salt (preferably plain kosher salt)
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • 2 teaspoons cumin (normally I’d say go wild with cumin but this amount is a decent subtle amount for this recipe … most of y’all don’t want to go overboard on this)
  • At least five grinds from your pepper mill (if you don’t have a pepper mill, this is going to be a bit disappointing but you can use like a teaspoon pre-ground pepper)
  • Buttermilk

Instructions

  1. Heat the oil
  2. Mix the flour, salt, chili powder, paprika, cumin, and ground pepper in a large mixing bowl (you can use a fork)
  3. Put roughly a cup and a half of buttermilk in the cereal bowl (you may have to refill this as you make more chicken)
  4. Your setup should be raw chicken, flour mix, tongs on a plate, hot oil (behind the oil and flour mix, place a large plate with two paper towels on it). Whether you set this up left to right (as listed here) or right to left (like I did last night) is up to you and your kitchen setup.
  5. Once the oil reaches temperature (390F-400F), dip one piece of chicken in the buttermilk and cover it completely. Pull it out and roll it around in the flour. Take another piece of chicken and do the same thing with it.
  6. One at a time, dip the breaded chicken pieces into the oil, gently wading them through the oil before dropping them in completely.
  7. Set a timer for six minutes. (If you use different size or shape chicken pieces, you’ll need to increase or decrease this time to accommodate.)
  8. Hold the fried chicken above the oil for roughly a minute to let the oil drain. Place the chicken on the plate with the paper towel.
  9. Return to step 5 and repeat until you’ve fried all the chicken.