Why Fried Chicken Tastes Better at Restaurants

• Brining or marinating your chicken adds flavor and juiciness, so build in time to let it soak.
• Season both your brine and your flour coating, so every bite has bold flavor from the crust to the meat.
• Keep your oil hot, give each piece space to fry and double-coat in flour for the crispiest, most golden results.

There aren’t many things I’m afraid to cook. Over the course of my career, I’ve gone into restaurant kitchens to try my hand at making pasta from scratch, learned sous-vide techniques from their inventor and even spent time interning at a whole-animal butcher shop. But I’ve never gotten up the nerve to make fried chicken from scratch in my home kitchen.

Why? While it’s not as highly technical as some of the other skills I mentioned, I simply don’t want to waste the calories on a less-than-stellar attempt. But just as there’s truth in the dictum that even bad pizza is good, fried chicken has its appeal as long as it’s hot and fresh. In the interest of expanding my culinary arsenal, I decided to talk to some of my favorite experts on the subject. 

Whether they make a classic Southern bird with generations of cred or an Indo-Pak innovation on everyone’s favorite indulgence, the chefs I spoke to all have one thing in common: They make some of the best fried chicken in America. If you’re reading this and are ready to learn why fried chicken tastes better at restaurants, trust me, you’re in the best of hands.

To Brine or Not to Brine?

That is the question. At Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in New Orleans, Edgar “Dook” Chase IV prepares the same fried chicken that his grandmother Leah made famous in the 1940s. As executive chef at the family’s restaurant, Chase says he must adhere to the recipe, “If not, I think [Leah will] come down and pay us a visit, and certainly the community would tell us.”

And the storied Dooky Chase’s recipe doesn’t involve brining. Instead, the New Orleans signature rests in a marinade. Chase says that home cooks should allow their chicken to soak for at least an hour or two.

John Delpha made a name for himself on the barbecue circuit as well as in the kitchen, winning the grand championship of the Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational Barbecue in 2009 with his team, IQue. But it was his fried chicken that later garnered notice at Rosebud Bar & Kitchen in Somerville, Massachusetts. The New England chef says that he uses a water-diluted buttermilk brine. 

“I do it for a minimum of six hours,” he says. His brine also includes Tabasco sauce for a zap of heat and “a touch of vinegar” for additional acid.

Don’t Forget Your Seasoning

Kaiser Lashkari agrees about the importance of a good brine. A native of Pakistan, the chef-owner of Himalaya Restaurant in Houston has become just as strongly identified with his HFC (Himalaya Fried Chicken) as he is for Anthony Bourdain–beloved dishes like mutton biryani. 

His skinless chicken pieces are trimmed of fat, then brined in Indian spices, a blend he calls “a trade secret.” He says that his inimitable spice mix helps kill any unpleasant smell from the chicken, leaving an aroma that’s driven by garam masala.

Chase believes in spicing both the brine and the coating, he says. In fact, Dooky Chase’s sells its fried chicken blend at the restaurant and on Gold Belly.

Delpha keeps it simple, saying that he uses just “garlic powder, onion powder, a touch of cayenne and a little bit of salt and pepper” in his flour.

Extra Flour Makes It Extra Crispy

Though Chase says he keeps it “really, really simple” with just seasoned flour, Delpha says that to make his chicken as crispy as possible, he adds cornstarch to all-purpose flour. Meanwhile, there’s rice flour in Lashkari’s blend. 

Delpha also recommends double-coating your meat. And after he applies two layers of his seasoned flour mixture, he lets the chicken rest. “I put it in the refrigerator to relax and let the coating become intact,” he explains. “I leave it in the refrigerator for at least an hour.”

Don’t Overcrowd the Pan

Delpha says he believes that the biggest error that home cooks make when trying their hand at fried chicken is packing too many pieces into their pan. “You need to have enough space so that the oil can flow freely around the chicken. And if the chicken pieces are touching each other, then there’s parts of the chicken that aren’t getting touched with oil,” he says. 

Fry at the Right Temperature

Chase believes that if you’re not happy with the chicken you just fried up, the most likely culprit is the temperature of your oil. If you don’t already have one, he recommends purchasing a high-quality thermometer to make sure your oil is between 325 and 350 degrees—the latter is the temperature that he sticks to at Dooky Chase’s. “So when you put it in at 350, you just need 15 to 17 minutes, and you got a perfect fried bone-in chicken,” he says. 

He adds that with traditional eight-piece cuts, you should put your dark meat in the oil (all three chefs prefer vegetable oil) first, then follow up with less forgiving white meat. Remove the pieces in reverse order, “making sure all of it is not dry, it’s all still juicy and it has that perfect crisp.”

Delpha agrees, but adds that there’s no shame in your fried chicken game if you decide to finish your bird in the oven. “That’s a good way to do it, too, less time on the stovetop, so less time standing over the frying pan,” he says. 

Just set your oven to between 350 and 375 and cook your crispy chicken until your thermometer reads 165 degrees, 10 to 15 minutes.

The Bottom Line

Knowledge is most certainly power, and after talking to the experts, I’m no longer afraid to make the leap. I’ll be serving fried chicken next time I gather a group. And assembling your favorite people is a must. 

As Chase puts it, “The main thing is making sure you’re inviting people over when you have fried chicken. What I always tell people at home is the biggest first step of preparing any meal is having confidence, knowing that you can do it. Just trust yourself and go with what you can do and enjoy what you like to taste and you’ll make it happen.” 

And just as he advises, I’ll be serving my chicken with a side of just about everything from braised greens to macaroni and cheese.