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How to make thick, crunchy/crispy breading???

Generally, basically, how do commercial fried food places make their
breading? I'm talking about that really thick, crispy, crunchy breading
like on Popeye's or Kentucky fried chicken, etc. What are they dipped
in and breaded with? What temperature is the oil they're fried in?
I've been trying to duplicate it at home, but without much luck.

R.M.

In article .com>,
"Ron M." > wrote:

> Generally, basically, how do commercial fried food places make their
> breading? I'm talking about that really thick, crispy, crunchy breading
> like on Popeye's or Kentucky fried chicken, etc. What are they dipped
> in and breaded with? What temperature is the oil they're fried in?
> I've been trying to duplicate it at home, but without much luck.

It looks like a batter to me. I am sure if you do a google search for
something like "fried chicken batter" you'll find several recipes.

"Ron M." > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Generally, basically, how do commercial fried food places make their
> breading? I'm talking about that really thick, crispy, crunchy breading
> like on Popeye's or Kentucky fried chicken, etc. What are they dipped
> in and breaded with? What temperature is the oil they're fried in?
> I've been trying to duplicate it at home, but without much luck.
>
> R.M.
>

I'm not sure how the commercial places do it, buy here's some tips I use for
making tender, crispy fried chicken:

- Use buttermilk for tenderness
- Double dipped - helps breading stay on
- Temperature - I use an electric skillet for keeping oil at 350 degrees,
slowly introduce new pieces to maintain temperature, and test doneness of
chicken with thermometer to 180 degrees
- Keep turning chicken for even brownness
- Keep cooked chicken crisp by draining on wire racks, not on towels. Do
*not* put into bowls after draining either. Circulating air keeps pieces
crisp

Here's one recipe by Tyler Florence. (Do not put cooked chicken on paper
towels as he suggests, though. Use wire racks on sheet pans. You can remove
the skin from the chicken if you want, too.)

Double Dipped Fried Chicken
by Tyler Florence

3 1/2 pound frying chicken, cut into 8 serving pieces
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons red pepper sauce
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne
4 cups peanut oil, for frying

Rinse the chicken pieces and pat dry with paper towels. In a shallow
platter, combine the buttermilk, water, and red pepper sauce. Soak the
chicken pieces, turn to coat, then cover, and refrigerate for at least 2
hours. If time allows, marinate the chicken for up to 24 hours because the
buttermilk promotes tenderness. Place flour in a shallow platter. Season it
by mixing in salt, pepper, oregano, garlic, paprika, and cayenne. Roll the
marinated chicken pieces in the flour, a few at a time, until well coated.
Then, dip chicken in the buttermilk bath again followed by another coat of
seasoned flour. Allow the chicken to sit in the flour and dry out while
preparing the oil, this will help the coating stay on better. The
buttermilk will keep absorbing the seasoned flour, which then fries up to
form a crunchy crust. Heat oil in a large electric skillet to 350 degrees
F. There should be about 1-inch of fat in the pan. Carefully add the
chicken pieces in a single layer, skin side down. Do not crowd the pan or
the temperature will plummet; make sure the fat continues to bubble around
the chicken. Fry for 5 minutes, then turn the pieces over and fry the other
side 5 minutes. Turn again, frying a total of 15 minutes. The turning will
produce a golden-crisp skin with even color. Remove chicken to a plate
lined with paper towels to drain. Do not put hot chicken directly in a bowl
or container, the air can not circulate and the steam will cause the crust
to fall off. Serve immediately or cool to room temperature.

I tried the Cook's Illustrated "oven-baked fried chicken" recipe. The
bird parts are soaked in a buttermilk garlic brine, flavored with
mustard and herbs, and coated in melba toast crumbs! (Don't have the
recipe in front of me, but I think it was dredged in flour, coated in
eggs/mustard/herbs, and then got a heavy coating of garlic melba toast.
It had a spectacular crunch right out of the oven. Mmm....

June Oshiro wrote:

> I tried the Cook's Illustrated "oven-baked fried chicken" recipe. The
>
> bird parts are soaked in a buttermilk garlic brine, flavored with
> mustard and herbs, and coated in melba toast crumbs! (Don't have the
> recipe in front of me, but I think it was dredged in flour, coated in
> eggs/mustard/herbs, and then got a heavy coating of garlic melba
> toast.
> It had a spectacular crunch right out of the oven. Mmm....

There an Asian product for breading called "Panko" that makes a "crispy"
coating, but also fresh bread cut into mall cubes and the piece of
chicken diped in beaten egg & cream or milk then in the bread cubes make
a nice coating. Season the bread cubes any way you wish even adding a
"spritz" (aerated mist) of wine or other liquid to lightly moisten the
bread & get the seasoning to adhere to it.

I have recently become addicted to a commercial product called "Zatarans
Creole seasoning" added to the breading mix it produces a very good
flavour. It does have MSG as an ingredient though.
---
Joseph Littleshoes

Ron M. wrote:
> Generally, basically, how do commercial fried food places make their
> breading? I'm talking about that really thick, crispy, crunchy
> breading like on Popeye's or Kentucky fried chicken, etc. What are
> they dipped in and breaded with? What temperature is the oil they're
> fried in? I've been trying to duplicate it at home, but without much
> luck.
>
> R.M.

I don't know about their breading concoction although I suspect buttermilk
as a base and double or triple dredging as others have mentioned. KFC uses
pressure-fryers, not a regular deep fryer.

Jill

Joseph Littleshoes wrote:
> June Oshiro wrote:
>
>> I tried the Cook's Illustrated "oven-baked fried chicken" recipe.
> There an Asian product for breading called "Panko" that makes a
> "crispy" coating, but also fresh bread cut into mall cubes and the
> piece of chicken diped in beaten egg & cream or milk then in the
> bread cubes make a nice coating. Season the bread cubes any way you
> wish even adding a "spritz" (aerated mist) of wine or other liquid to
> lightly moisten the bread & get the seasoning to adhere to it.
>
> I have recently become addicted to a commercial product called
> "Zatarans Creole seasoning" added to the breading mix it produces a
> very good flavour. It does have MSG as an ingredient though.
> ---
> Joseph Littleshoes

I like Zatarain's Fish Fry seasoning. It can be used with chicken,
vegetables, etc., not just fish, and nets a nice crispy result, already
seasoned. I haven't tried it with "oven frying" yet but I will soon.

Jill

"Ron M." > wrote:
> Generally, basically, how do commercial fried food places make their
> breading? I'm talking about that really thick, crispy, crunchy breading
> like on Popeye's or Kentucky fried chicken, etc. What are they dipped
> in and breaded with? What temperature is the oil they're fried in?
> I've been trying to duplicate it at home, but without much luck.

I tried a pretty good recipe for getting a very crispy thick crust that I
saw in the charter issue of that new magazine "Cook's Country", by the
"Cooks Illustrated" people. The recipe basically does a one hour soak in a
mixture of 2 cups buttermilk and 2 tablespoons of salt. This is followed by
making a mixture of 3 cups of flour and 6 tablespoons of buttermilk (and
spices). Not quite a dredge, not quite a batter. This mixture is "pressed
on" the chicken pieces one by one. It becomes obvious what they meant by
"pressed on" as soon as I tried doing it. The frying is more or less the
normal technique, first with the cover on the pan for 6-8 minutes, turn
pieces over, then 6-8 minutes with the cover off. I used my 70 year old
Vollrath cast iron chicken fryer with about 3/4" of oil to do it. The oil
started at 375, but dropped to around 300-310 and stayed down there.

I was very satisfied with the resulting thick crispy coating, a little less
so with the spices. They gave a spicier variant too. That's something I'll
experiment with further to get to my liking.

"wff_ng_6" > wrote:
> The frying is more or less the normal technique, first with the cover on
> the pan for 6-8 minutes, turn pieces over, then 6-8 minutes with the cover
> off.

I think I might have the timing off here, but whatever it was is the normal
time range for frying chicken, nothing special. All of the cooking is done
by the frying, it is not finished in the oven like some fried chicken
recipes use.

Thanks for the tips, but I'm talking specifically about the breading
and getting it "thick and crunchy", and not necessarily on fried
chicken. I named those two fried chicken places (Popeye's and KFC) just
as examples.

Ron

jmcquown wrote:

> Joseph Littleshoes wrote:
> >
> > I have recently become addicted to a commercial product called
> > "Zatarans Creole seasoning" added to the breading mix it produces a
>
> > very good flavour. It does have MSG as an ingredient though.
> > ---
> > Joseph Littleshoes
>
> I like Zatarain's Fish Fry seasoning. It can be used with chicken,
> vegetables, etc., not just fish, and nets a nice crispy result,
> already
> seasoned. I haven't tried it with "oven frying" yet but I will soon.
>
> Jill

I had seen the packaged products, rice, red beans, fish fry etc. but had
never tried them, but a few weeks ago a local market started carrying
the "Zatarain's" creole seasoning for $1.50 and i thought to give it a
try.

I had not thought of using it as anything other than a flavouring agent
(great on scrambled eggs) for which it works very well. But due to your
post i liberally sprinkled a whole chicken with it after rubbing the
chicken with butter. Roasted the chicken and made a sauce from the pan
drippings and was very pleased.

I am going to have to give their other products a try.
---
JL