When we fry chicken, we get different results for every time we make it. Fried chicken can turn out very delicious even if it’s chicken breast and can also be tasty outside and bland when you dig in. There are a few fried chicken mistakes to avoid if we want the best fried chicken at all times.
Before chicken can be fried, there are processes it has to go through like marinating with your favorite marinate or just seasoning and parboiling the Nigerian way before draining out the stock and frying the chicken.
For me and my different chicken recipes. My favourite method of preparing chicken before frying is seasoning with different spices depending on what the chicken stock will be used for, then frying. For every time that I marinated chicken before frying, honestly, the taste of the ingredients doesn’t really penetrate deep in the chicken. Parts like the wings and feet have no problems but the thigh and breast.
It also depends on the type of chicken to be fried. Is it our local fowl or imported frozen chicken? How I prepare my chicken o cook depends on the type of chicken and hardness. The length of parboiling also depends on the type of chicken used. Nigerians love hard chicken (Layers). This type goes well with seasoning and boiling before frying. Sometimes, this hard chicken doesn’t even need any frying.
PREPARING THE CHICKEN BEFORE FRYING
I guess my marinade never lasted long enough before the frying started. I’d like to hear from those who always marinated and just fried straight without parboiling. Does it really taste well when you dig deep into the chicken breast or it tastes a bit bland?
Like I said, my favourite is the Nigerian way of adding all the onion, seasoning cubes, green pepper, curry, thyme and other ingredients to the washed chicken and parboiling in low heat before frying. This is what I do and my fried chicken always always tastes great. No part is left out when it comes to penetration of ingredients. They go right inside and settle there waiting to be picked and enjoyed.
INGREDIENTS DETERMINE STOCK USE WHEN WE PARBOIL BEFORE FRYING
The ingredients used will help me decide what to use the stock for. Is it for stew? fried rice, jollof rice, or Nigerian soups? After taking out the chicken for frying, the ingredients used in making the stock are the deciding factor for whether it should be used for soup or stew.
If thyme and curry are added, there’s no way I’ll use that stock for soup unless it’s stewy egusi soup. I know that there are people who cannot fry chicken if there is no deep fryer in the kitchen.
There are also others who can only try fried chicken if there is some olive oil , for them no oil is good enough for frying chicken. They are not bothered about the cost of extra virgin olive oil and the large quantity of oil needed to make fried chicken.
Again, there are a few times I cook in a hurry, bring out cold chicken from the refrigerator and start cooking straight without giving it time to thaw to room temperature. Is that ok or not?
What about using some kind vegetable oils that splash the whole time and burn our arms and fingers while frying chicken. Should it be that way? No?
5 FRIED CHICKEN MISTAKES TO AVOID
- Do not fry chicken with just any vegetable oil. There are some vegetable oil sold at our markets that we think are good but using them to fry chicken will let you know better. They are not the best. Avoid using those unfiltered oils to fry chicken.Those oils that foam and splash all over the place are not good. Those trans fats jumping and hurting your arms while you fry. They can cause scars or black spots on the arms. Frying chicken doesn’t have to be that difficult where you need a very long spoon to prevent hot oil on your skin.So, our first fried chicken mistake to avoid is using just any oil in the market to fry chicken. You can use soya oil, canola oil, mamador oil, groundnut oil, coconut oil. Any other vegetable oil you know doesn’t foam as soon as it heats up and doesn’t splash unnecessarily as if water is dropping in.
- If you want to make coated fried chicken, the, do not try to coat or fry cold chicken. After removing from the fridge, the chicken has to stand for at least 30 to 45 minutes. This is to get it to room temperature. Do you know what will happen if you try to fry cold chicken?The coating will fall off in the hot oil. It won’t stick on the chicken skin. The second fried chicken mistake to avoid is coating and frying cold chicken straight from the fridge. It won’t give you great fried chicken results.
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Frying with light weight or light based frying pans. Why we recommend that we make fried chicken with heavy based fry pans or heavy based pots. So that they don’t stick on the bottom, or start getting burnt before cooking through.Heavy based cooking pots and pans retain heat in their base. They take time to really get hot so, before the hotness gets to that level of burning your fried chicken or any fried foods, it would have already cooked through. Third fried chicken mistake to avoid is frying chicken with just any light based pot.Aside using light based pots. There is one thing Nigerians and other parts of the world that eat chicken skin. One thing they must always remember is that if it’s not a non stick pot, the chicken skin that you love so much will stick to the bottom of the pot. and, when you try to remove it from the oil, that skin will pull out of the chicken still stuck to the bottom… that’s my worst part of frying chicken abeg. Once the skin sticks on the fry pan and pulls away, what is left then?
- Avoid draining your fried chicken on paper towels. Haven’t you noticed that even though this is a common practice. When you place your crispy fried chicken on paper towels, the towels soak up oil and begin to steam up without you realising.At the end of frying, you see that your crisp fried chicken has turned soggy.If you want to properly drain your fried chicken, use wire gauze. Place your chicken on wire gauze. The oven in the kitchen has a wire gauze inside, you can bring it out, place on something that can collect the oil droppings and then put your fried chicken on that to drain well.All the oil will drain out without the chicken sitting on soaked paper towels. The microwave sitting here in the kitchen also has a wire gauze that you can bring out and use when you make yummy crisp fried chicken.
- Spending money on deep fryers thinking that is what makes good fried chicken. That’s not true. Any heavy based pot can be used to deep fry your chicken.Do you know that deep fryers are not easy to clean? You can get deep heavy based less expensive frying pans and use. Deep fryers are very expensive compared to frying pots and pans. If you have a deep fryer already, no problem, if not, don’t stress to save for a deep fryer.Any heavy based, any good non stick pan can give you good fried chicken results. When you are done frying, invite us to taste and give you yummy feedback.
Don’t go yet. Check out our blog post on HOW TO COAT CHICKEN BEFORE FRYING