Fried Chicken – with the most insanely crispy, thick craggy crust heavily seasoned with a KFC copycat “11 secret herbs and spices”! This recipe uses a Southern buttermilk marinade to make the flesh juicy all the way through, and a breading secret trick for how to make fried chicken with an ultra crunchy, nubbly crust.
Fried Chicken
I’m going to call it (obnoxious as it is) – this fried chicken is better than KFC. There’s not a trace of soggy skin anywhere (all you closet KFC lovers know exactly what I’m talking about!) and the crust is thicker and craggier.
Every inch of this crust is insanely crunchy, and there’s loads of those nubbly bits that get extra crunchy. The seasoning is satisfyingly spot on – strong but not outrageously overpowering – the buttermilk marinated flesh is tender and juicy all the way through, and the deep golden colour is sheer perfection.
Seriously, what kind of human being could resist a piping hot pile of freshly made fried chicken?? {Vegetarians are excused}
The seasoning for this fried chicken is a KFC copycat. 11 Secret Herbs & Spices!
What you need to make the best Fried Chicken
Here’s what you need.
11 Secret Herbs and Spices (lots of it). And not much else!
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The Seasoning is a KFC copycat. There’s 1.5 tablespoons of pepper in it which sounds like a lot. But trust me, you need it for the KFC flavour and it doesn’t make it spicy. Also, remember that only a certain amount ends up stuck to the chicken itself!
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Buttermilk – in true Southern style, the chicken is marinated in a salted buttermilk. Brilliant for tenderising the chicken and injecting it with salt;
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Egg helps the flour stick better;
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Cornflour / cornstarch – makes the crust crispy but not tough. Pretty standard inclusion in fried chicken breading;
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Flour – just plain white, all purpose flour; and
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Oil – vegetable, canola or peanut oil, for neutral flavour and ability to heat to the temperature needed without burning the chicken or the oil smoking.
No seasoning in marinade?
I don’t put Seasoning into the buttermilk marinade. Reason being that the crust is quite heavily seasoned (it’s unsatisfying if it’s not flavoured enough) so if the chicken flesh is also seasoned, it’s just too much of the same flavour.
It’s just tastier to have that awesome contrast of juicy chicken flavour inside (salted but not flavoured) and the wickedly crunchy, seasoned crust on the outside. It’s the KFC way!
How to make Fried Chicken
And here’s how to make it (video below super helpful I think!):
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Marinate chicken overnight in buttermilk brine – this salts the flesh all the way through and makes it beautifully tender and juicy (also gives you room for error in cook time);
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Drizzle some brine in the seasoned flour and rub in to make lumps = extra nubbly craggy bits on crust. 🌟Secret trick that makes the crust so epic!🌟
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Coat chicken in flour then fry until golden.
How long does it take chicken to fry?
Thighs and drumsticks take 8 minutes, or until the internal temperature in centre of thickest part is 75°C / 167°F. Breast takes around 7 minutes (internal temperature at thickest part 65°C / 150°F).
Reusing the oil
Typically, oil used for deep frying can be reused 3 times or so once it’s been cleaned. However, I find that for Fried Chicken, it’s usually only good for one more batch of Fried Chicken or similarly flavoured food. I think the oil just gets too tainted by the heavily flavoured breading and while the oil can be cleaned of all the bits in it, you can’t remove the flavour.
To remove impurities, I find the best and easiest way is a Cook’s Illustrated method using a cornflour/cornstarch and water method, cooked in the oil over low heat until it solidifies and captures all the impurities. Strain the cornflour “jelly”, then store the oil for another use. (PS Using a fine strainer isn’t good enough to filter the oil after this recipe, you’d need to use a coffee filter or similar which takes ages. But for other fried recipes like Honey Chicken and Sweet & Sour Pork, straining is fine).
What to serve with fried chicken
For the full homemade KFC experience, serve it with Coleslaw*, chips, KFC copycat potato and gravy.
For a Southern meal, add a side of steamed or grilled corn, cornbread, Slaw, Potato Salad and Southern Baked Beans. A fully loaded plate – my style!
* If you or your hips are anti mayo, try the RecipeTin No Mayo Coleslaw – it’s very, very good!
Some great sides for fried chicken!
I know deep frying is an effort. Preparing, cleaning up, disposing of the oil.
And – well, you know. My hips prefer me to avoid fried foods. 😩
Therefore I don’t deep fry often. So when I do, I make sure it’s worth it.
THIS is worth it!!! – Nagi x
PS Don’t ask me for a chips recipe yet, I’m still not happy with my homemade ones! But if you want KFC style potato and gravy (as seen in the video), here is the recipe! drop a comment below and I’ll be happy to share it.
Watch how to make it
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Fried Chicken - ultra craggy crispy crust!
Ingredients
- 1.8 kg/ 3.6lb bone in, skin on small thighs (< 200g/7oz), drumsticks, whole wings, breast (< 200g/7oz) (Note 1)
Buttermilk marinade:
- 1 cup buttermilk (Note 2 for sub)
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 egg
Fried Chicken Breading (Note 9):
- 2 1/4 cups flour , plain / all purpose
- 3/4 cup corn flour / cornstarch
KFC 11 Secret Herbs and Spices (Note 9):
- 3 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp celery salt
- 1.5 tbsp black pepper (Note 2)
- 1.5 tsp sweet paprika (ie. not hot or smoked)
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper , optional
- 1.5 tsp onion powder
- 3 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp mustard powder
- 3/4 tsp ginger powder
- 1.5 tsp dried thyme
- 1.5 tsp dried oregano
To fry:
- 1.5 - 2 litres / quarts vegetable oil (or canola or peanut, Note 8 for re-use)
Instructions
Buttermilk Marinade Chicken:
- Mix Marinade in a bowl until salt dissolves.
- Pour over chicken in ziplock bag, massage to coat chicken. Press out excess air, seal, refrigerate 12 to 24 hours, turning once or twice.
- Pour chicken and marinade into large bowl.
Breading mixture:
- Whisk together Breading and all KFC Secret Herbs & Spices.
- Drizzle 4.5 tablespoons of Marinade into flour mixture. Use fingers to rub in so you get lots of pea sized lumpy bits all throughout (this creates extra super crunchy craggy bits).
- Spread out in a shallow dish or pan (easier to work with).
Prepare to cook (work in specified order of steps):
- Preheat oven to 80°C/175°F and place rack on tray - to keep chicken warm. (Note 3)
- Add oil to a wide, heavy based pot to a depth of 6 cm / 2.5 " (my 26cm/10.5" cast iron pot = 1.75L/quarts oil, Note 4)
- Heat oil over medium to medium high heat to 180°C/350°F - maintain temp as best you can (Note 5).
Breading:
- Cooking order: Start with thighs and drumsticks, wings next and cook breast last. (Note 6).
- Squidge a piece of chicken in remaining marinade, place in flour.
- Coat well, pressing very firmly to adhere. Transfer to plate.
- Coat 2 or 3 more pieces - just for one cooking batch, covering oil surface in single layer. (Note 7)
Frying:
- Carefully place chicken in oil - it will bubble energetically but it will not spit.
- Once chicken is in, oil temperature should drop to 150°C/300°C - adjust heat to target this.
- DO NOT TOUCH chicken for 2 minutes - to let the crust bond with the chicken skin. After this, you can move them around but oil should be deep enough that you do not need to flip (but you can if you want!).
- Thighs and drumsticks - cook for 8 minutes (wings for 5 minutes), or until deep golden brown and internal temperature at thickest part is 75°C / 167°F.
- Breast - fry for 6 minutes or until internal temperature at thickest part is 65°C / 150°F (time depends on size).
- Place onto rack and keep warm in oven. Repeat with remaining chicken, coating each batch just prior to cooking.
- Serve immediately!
- Classic sides: Coleslaw, KFC copycat potato and gravy, steamed or grilled corn, cornbread or soft rolls, fries, potato salad, Southern Baked Beans!
Recipe Notes:
- Might seem like a lot of pepper, but it's key to KFC flavour and doesn't make it spicy. Remember that not much of the seasoning actually ends up on each piece of chicken.
- Hot & Spicy version - just add 2 tsp cayenne pepper into the breading! That will give it a nice buzz (but won't blow your head off)
- There is more breading coating flour than you need, so you'll throw out 1 cup or so. As wasteful as it sounds, I've tried using less and it gets messy/hard with the last pieces. So I conceded and upped the breading quantity - because this recipe is all about the crust!
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
He was booted out while I was deep frying. But other than that, he was firmly planted next to the shoot table for every second while I was filming and photographing this chicken!!!
AMAZING! This is even better than KFC…was a huge hit with the family
1000% recommend
Totally delicious and cost effective. I followed the instructions but need to press the breading more firmly as it fell off a bit on eating, not cooking.
I’ll definitely make it again. My family usually want the drumsticks etc but they snapped up the breast for this so I’ll probably just do breast meat next time.
I LOVE this recipe and want to cook it again for the family this weekend but I have to be gluten-free for 4 wks. Any tips on what flour could I use instead of the plain??
Hi JB, I haven’t tried with a gluten free alternative just yet sorry! N x
Can you use SKINLESS chicken pieces for this recipe?
I used skinless breasts with the other cuts with skin on. It was all good but they ate the breast meat first.
Can you use SKINLESS chicken pieces for this recipe?
Can you use boneless skinless chicken breast instead?
Hi Katie, I feel they may dry out too much here – Bone in has much more flavour too! N x
What’s the egg for?!
It goes into the marinade for the chicken Helen, which essentially helps the breading mixture stick as well 🙂 N x
Bravo Tin…….
Bravo Nagiiii…
Hi, I haven’t tried this yet but it looks incredible. Can I air fry these instead of frying?
No sorry! Fried chicken MUST be fried to set the crust! N x
This was amazing. I made it with chicken breasts and flattened them out a bit and did it as a buttermilk chicken burger. Really fab, so tasty.
This turned out amazing!
Thank you for the recipe!
My partner actually thinks it’s better than KFC – it’s crunchy, has great flavour but is less oily which he loves.
I only had time to marinade for 8 hours, yet chicken was soft and moist and the breading came out so crunchy which was a beautiful combination.
I didn’t have enough oil to deep fry so I cooked one side for 8 minutes then turned it over and cooked the other side for 8 minutes. This worked as well and was very good. It was a rare treat to fry anything in my kitchen but I’m glad I tried it this once (well, maybe again!).
Made this last night and it was a total hit. My partner’s kids were dancing around the kitchen they were so excited to get stuck in to it. We served it with coleslaw and Mac ‘n cheese. The kids gave it 11/10. Will definitely do again!
Ooh also we weren’t organised enough to marinade overnight so ours was a 6 hour marinade and still tasted great. Excited to see the difference next time with the longer marinating time.
I wanted to prepare chicken breasts, which I always bread in flour-egg-breadcrumbs, but saw this recipe on instagram and gave it a try… wow! The flavour! The crispness! It was truly delicious and almost no effort.
I accompanied with the tomato sauce of your chicken parmiggiana, which also came out wonderfully.
I will definitely be using this marinade and breading more often. I will still use my old method because, well, it is also delicious and since my mother and my grandmother always used/use it, it just tastes like home.
Can you prepare ahead of time by quickly frying to set the crumb but then finishing off again in the deep fryer to serve at dinner?
This is a winner in our house! the kids are always bugging me for KFC, but I wont support Fast food Chains. The feed back was “WOW! this is 100% BETTER than KFC!
Its so crispy and delicious, and super simple to make! i woke up this morning craving more!
seriously if you haven’t tried this do so! Thanks Nagi!
Oh that’s awesome Ainsley, and homemade is soooo much better than any soggy chicken from KFC! N x
can i cook the chicken in a air fryer
Not this one Richard, you need the hot oil to set the batter – N x
thank you alots
We cooked this on the air fryer and it was delicious!!!
What temp and how long did you cook this in the air fryer, please?
I usually make my KFC rip offs in the air fryer and I get good results
Wow my favorite kfc fried chicken! I would love to try it But i dont have celery salt. Wat could i replace for that or is it ok to omit it?
Hi, Can one use boneless chicken for this recipe?
Thankyou for sharing this recipe- l cooked up a batch today and it was amazing- best KFC style chicken ever and crunchy till the last bite. THANKYOU
Hi Nagi, can I use onion and garlic granules instead of powder?
Thanks
Julie
I used finely chopped onion and garlic since I had no powder and it worked out very well 🙂