Buckle up everyone, because today I’m sharing my secret fried chicken recipe.
This recipe is a long time coming, because I’ve had it in mind to share this recipe several times. But due to laziness and just feeling unmotivated, I pushed it back. Luckily for me, a friend of mine stopped by to visit me and brought some uncooked chicken wings, so I took it as a sign to prepare this recipe for you guys.
If you tried my Jamaican jerk chicken wings recipe, then you would absolutely love this one. This is cooked differently, and you wouldn’t need to bake it in the oven.
Brining the chicken
I’ve seen a lot of fried chicken recipes where the brine is either pickle juice or vinegar. I personally detest both.
My go-to way of brining chicken is still the old fashioned way of using salt-water. Why? Because salt is honestly the key to great tasting fried chicken. Anything else is just for extra flavor. And in my opinion, using pickle juice adds too much flavor to chicken that it can sometimes be overwhelming.
Less is more in cooking. And although it is good for dishes to have flavor, too much of it can be a problem. Thus, I prefer to stick to the good old salt-water marinade.
Frying the chicken
To get the crispness of chicken, I would suggest deep frying it in oil. However, the air fryers made these days are getting the job done easily. So I would recommend picking one of these up if you’re not an oil fan.
I’ve heard people say you can make fried chicken in the oven, and to be honest it just doesn’t sound right. Anything prepared in the oven would be considered oven baked. Plus, I don’t think you can get the crispness of fried chicken by baking it in the oven.
This recipe calls for flour and eggs. Yes, you read that right. You might be wondering, why would I need eggs if I’m making chicken? And my answer to you is; the eggs and flour combination makes the external layer of the chicken very crunchy. Because, it allows the dry mixture to stick to the chicken before frying. Therefore, I would suggest you don’t skip it completely.
For this particular chicken wings, I decided to make my own version of buttermilk by mixing almond milk with lemon juice. I learned this trick when I first went vegan and have been doing it since. It’s a healthier option for me and I would always recommend it as a replacement for buttermilk.
Let me know in the comments if you give this recipe a try.
Fried Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1½ cup all purpose flour
- ½ tsp oregano
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp allspice
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ cup almond milk
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 3 cups water
- 2½ tbsp salt - divided
- 16 chicken wings
- ½ gallon oil - skip if using air fryer
Instructions
Marinating the chicken
- To a large bowl, add in chicken wings, 2 tablespoons of salt and water.
- Cover and Leave to marinate for 40 mins.
Dry Mixture
- To a separate bowl, add in your flour, ½ tsp salt, ginger, garlic powder, allspice, cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, cinnamon and oregano. Combine together.
Wet Mixture
- To another bowl, add in your eggs, hot sauce, almond milk and lemon juice. Whisk together.
Cooking the chicken
- Heat up oil in a large pot on medium-high heat. (Skip this step if using an airfryer).
- Once the chicken is done marinating. Take out each piece and pat dry.
- Add in one piece of chicken into the wet wixture until its fully coated. Then transfer it into the dry mixure.
- Repeat for the remaining pieces of chicken.
- Add in coated chicken into heated oil and fry until golden brown.
- Serve with your favorite sauce and Enjoy!
