Don’t you just love the feeling of sinking your teeth in a crispy and juicy piece of chicken? I know I do, which is why I always see to it that whenever I whip up a batch of fried chicken, the skin should always remain as crisp as it was when fresh off the pan even after an hour or so of cooking.
If you struggle with soggy chicken skin when saving your fried chicken for later, I would be happy to tell you about this simple technique on how to keep fried chicken crispy at all times. Read on to find out more!
Fried Chicken Mistakes To Avoid
Before we get into how to keep your chicken crispy after cooking, I think it would be greatly beneficial to you to go over these easily made mistakes that you should avoid when cooking a batch of fried chicken.
- Not Using The Chicken Breasts
Unless you buy your chicken part by part, you shouldn’t waste any part of a whole chicken just to fry the wings or drumsticks. Other parts of a whole chicken can also be great when fried. A large chicken breast can easily be turned into crispy chicken fingers with the simple help of a sharp knife.
- Not Prepping The Chicken At Room Temperature
One common mistake home cooks usually do is frying cold chicken straight from the fridge. If you fry a cold piece of chicken, the chicken will tend to cook unevenly, and will tend to have either burnt or soggy skin on one side.
- Not Using Brine
Another procedure that home cooks often overlook when cooking a batch of fried chicken is the use of brine. If you have eaten a piece of chicken that has dry insides, that is because it wasn’t cooked with brine. Before you fry your chicken in piping hot oil, you should at least soak it in brine for a couple of hours before you cook it to achieve a nice juicy center.
- Not Using Breading
Sure you can get crispy chicken without the use of breading, but don’t expect your chicken to have moist meat. Aside from adding an extra crunch to your chicken, breading actually helps contain the moisture of the meat.
What’s more is that the breading also carries a lot of flavors that the chicken skin alone won’t be able to contain. Simply put, using breading makes for a crispy, moist, and very flavorful chicken that people won’t get enough of.
- Using The Wrong Type Of Oil
If you want to get crispy food, you should use oils like canola, peanut, or vegetable. What’s special about these types of oils is their low smoke point that will maintain a steady temperature for your chicken to evenly cook at.
- Resting The Chicken Over Paper Towels
You may think that you’re actually doing a good job by resting your fried chicken over paper towels because paper towels take away the excess oil and fat from your chicken, wrong!
Though paper towels do really help reduce excess oils, it will also rob you of the crispy feeling you get when you bite into your chicken because it will make your chicken skin become soggy.
Keeping Your Chicken Crispy
It’s funny how I really used to think that there’s no way chicken can be kept crispy for an hour or so after cooking, but turns out, there’s a simple way to do so with the use or very simple materials that you can find in your kitchen.If you want to keep your chicken crispy for later, here are the only two things that you will need:
- Cooling Rack
- Baking Sheet
Once you have gathered the materials you will need, all you will need to do is:
- Set your oven at low heat, preferably 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Place your cooling rack on top of some baking sheet
- Place your freshly fried chicken on the cooling rack. But before you place your chicken pieces on your cooling rack, you must remove any excess oil from your chicken first. You may do so by lightly dabbing some paper towels on your chicken.
- Place the baking sheet and cooling rack inside your oven.
- Before you serve your chicken, turn your oven’s broiler on for about 2 minutes or so for an added crisp.
A Quick Recap
Fried chicken is a great dish you can serve for large parties or family gatherings. It is simple to cook and most people love it. However, to create a nice batch of chicken that people will continue to ask for, you must be mindful of the common mistakes that home cooks make when cooking fried chicken. I hope this article was very helpful in letting you know how to make fried chicken the right way and how to keep it nice and crispy for yourself or your guests.
If you liked this article, and would like to know more about cooking, please leave us your feedback in the comment box below. Until next time, enjoy!
