We usually do not cook anything fried at home, but when we do, it has to be this crispy, juicy fried chicken. This fried chicken here is crispy, spicy, and tender. Sure, there will be some cleaning to do for after making this chicken, but even as you cook each piece you will know this chicken is worth it.
🥣 Cooking Time: 30mins (+8hrs prep time)
🍲 Serves: 12-14
Ingredients
For the marinade 12-14 chicken drumsticks 2 cups of plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon of salt 1 teaspoon of black pepper ½ tablespoon of garlic powder ½ tablespoon of onion powder 1 teaspoon of ground cumin 2 tablespoons of chipotle powder
For the coating 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon of salt ¼ teaspoon of black pepper ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder ¼ tablespoon of onion powder ½ teaspoon of chipotle powder
3-4 cups of canola oil
Directions
1. In a large container, prepare the marinade by mixing Greek yogurt with all spices, and set aside.
2. Clean the chicken drumsticks, patting them dry with paper towel, and add them into the Greek yogurt marinade.
3. Once all the drumsticks are covered in the spicy marinade, cover the container with plastic, and allow to marinate in the fridge for at least 8hrs before cooking.
4. 1 hour before cooking, remove the drumsticks from the fridge and proceed to prepare the coating.
5. Using a large bowl, mix the flour with all spices and set aside until the chicken is ready to be fried.
6. In a cast-iron skillet, or in a good frying pan, add canola oil and heat over medium-high heat. The oil should cover a depth of 3/4″ in the skillet, and reach a starting temperature of 350°F. Adding the chicken will lower the oil temperature, but it will need to stay around 325°F while frying.
7. While the oil warms up, start dipping the drumsticks into the flour mix, fully coating each piece individually, and patting the excess off. Place them aside on a large dish ready to be fried.
8. Prepare a large dish lined with paper towel, this will be used to dry the excess oil from the fried chicken once cooked.
9. When the oil has reached the desired temperature, start frying the drumsticks 4-5 pieces at a time in the skillet.
10. Fry the pieces, turning with tongs every 2 minutes, and adjusting heat to maintain a steady temperature of 325°F until skin is deep golden brown. The cooking time should take 10-12 minutes depending on the size and thickness of each drumstick.
11. Remove the chicken from skillet, allow excess oil to drip back, and place the pieces on the dish lined with paper towel.
12. Repeat with remaining drumsticks, allowing the chicken to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving, and pair with with any sides of your choice. Bon appétit!
Notes
Always make sure to fill your cast-iron skillet 3/4″ to help the chicken cook as evenly as possible while frying. I used a 10″, which required me to use 3½ cups of canola oil. Depending on the size of your skillet or frying pan, you might end up using more than 3-4 cups of oil.
Typically when I deep fry, I like to do it in a dutch oven to keep splattering to a minimum. However, since we had recently moved with no dutch oven at hand my good old cast-iron skilled made this chicken possible. There was definitely a lot more splattering using the cast-iron skillet, but the clean-up was definitely worth it. Every piece of chicken was extremely juicy, and the skin was perfectly crisp. If you want to avoid the extra cleaning, and have a dutch oven or a high-sided pot, you can skip the cast-iron skillet for sure!
Don’t be scared to try other chicken pieces for this recipe! The reason why I used drumsticks only is pretty simple: they were on sale! Keep in mind that the temperature and time will differ when cooking other pieces.
You can also use peanut oil, or vegetable oil to fry chicken. Typically, canola or vegetable oil are cheaper and easier to find.
As you can see here I paired my fried chicken with guacamole, corn salad, and white rice. The beauty of fried chicken is that you can pair it with any side dishes you and your family like.
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