Crispy Fried Chicken
My mom makes the best fried chicken. It’s always perfectly seasoned, juicy, and crispy. Luckily, I paid attention and learned how to make a her recipe for crispy fried chicken!
Although we love fried chicken, I don’t make it very often because it’s not the healthiest dish. But then I discovered the air fryer! Now I can have all the fried chicken I want without the guilt!
The results are pretty close to frying in oil in that you will get a crispy, juicy piece of chicken. The only difference is that the skin will not be as crunchy as it is when you fry it in oil.
To make this recipe using an air fryer, you will follow the same steps but instead of using oil, you will put the flour coated chicken into the air fryer. Or you can season the chicken as directed below, skip the flour coating and put it directly into the air fryer. No matter which way you decide to make the recipe, you will end up with a juicy, flavorful batch of crispy fried chicken.
Crispy Fried Chicken
Ingredients
- 3 lbs of chicken parts
- ½ teaspoon pepper I prefer Lawry’s Seasoned Pepper
- ¼ teaspoon adobo seasoning
- 2 teaspoons Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
- ¼ hot sauce
- 2 cups flour
- frying oil I usually use canola, vegetable or corn oil
Instructions
Before you begin:
- For even more flavor, you can marinate the chicken in the seasonings for a few hours before cooking. Just be sure to remove the chicken from the refrigerator at least an hour before you plan to cook it. Adding cold chicken to hot grease lowers the temperature of the grease. That causes the chicken to absorb more oil and take longer to cook (which causes you to end up with greasy chicken that is not crispy).
- If you are cooking breasts, I recommend that you cut them in half to shorten cooking time.
Instructions
- Clean, pat chicken dry and place in a bowl or dish.
- Sprinkle the salt, pepper and adobo on the chicken and mix well.
- Pour the hot sauce over the chicken and mix well.
- Fill a 10” or 12” frying pan about a quarter of the way with oil and turn the burner to medium flame.
- If you are using a deep fryer, pour oil to fill line inside the fryer.
- Pour the flour into a gallon plastic bag.
- Drop the chicken into the bag and shake until evenly coated.
- After about 10-15 minutes check the temperature of the oil by flicking a few drops of water into the hot oil, if it spatters, carefully begin adding chicken to the oil. Do not overcrowd the pan.
- Turn the burner to high and fry the chicken until it is golden brown on each side. Larger pieces may take a bit longer to brown.
- Remove chicken from pan and place into a shallow dish lined with paper towels. Serve while hot.
