Southern Fried Chicken

Making Southern Fried Chicken Ahead

Refrigerate 3 days. Reheat on a rack at 190°C / 375°F for 12 minutes. It is also excellent cold, which is the point of a picnic.

Making Southern Fried Chicken

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1. Submerge the chicken in the buttermilk with the salt, hot sauce and pepper. Refrigerate 4 to 24 hours.

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2. Whisk all the dredge ingredients together in a wide bowl. Drizzle in 3 tablespoons of the brine buttermilk and rub it through with your fingers until the flour is speckled with small clumps.

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3. Lift each piece of chicken from the brine, letting the excess drip off, and press it firmly into the flour, packing it on. Shake off the loose flour only.

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4. For a heavier crust, dip it back into the buttermilk and dredge a second time.

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5. Rest the coated pieces on a rack for 20 minutes. The coating will turn from powdery to pasty, which is exactly what you want — it will not fall off in the oil.

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6. Heat the oil in a deep cast-iron skillet to 175°C / 350°F, filling it no more than halfway.

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7. Fry in batches of three or four, skin side down first, for 8 to 10 minutes, then turn and fry 8 to 10 minutes more. Keep the oil between 160 and 175°C / 320 and 345°F throughout.

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8. Check with a thermometer: breasts are done at 74°C / 165°F, thighs and drumsticks at 79°C / 174°F where they are best.

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9. Drain on a rack, season immediately with a pinch of salt, and rest 10 minutes before serving.

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Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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Worth Knowing

• A rack, never paper towels. Paper traps steam and softens the bottom crust within a minute.
• Fry dark meat and white meat separately; they finish at different times.
• The oil will drop about 20°C / 70°F when the chicken goes in. Start it slightly hotter than your target.

Behind the Recipe

Buttermilk brine works through both salt and acid: the salt helps the muscle retain water while the lactic acid gently loosens the proteins, so the meat stays juicy through frying. Dampening the flour with a spoonful of buttermilk creates shaggy clumps that fry into the ridged, craggy crust that defines Southern chicken.

Good Alongside

A cold lager, sweet tea, or sparkling wine · Serve with coleslaw, biscuits and hot sauce · Finish with peach cobbler

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Philadelphia Soft Pretzels, Boston Baked Beans, 3 Ingredient Biscuits.

Swaps and Variations

• Out of buttermilk? The usual stand-in is a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar stirred into 250 ml of ordinary milk and left five minutes; it is thinner than cultured buttermilk, so a batter may need a little less of it.
• Fresh herbs work in place of the dried thyme at roughly three times the quantity — a teaspoon of dried is about a tablespoon of fresh, chopped.

Quick Answers

Nutrition per Serving

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

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