Published May 1, 2001.
Our best fried chicken recipe would be worth the splatter and mess, producing seasoned meat coated with a crisp mahogany crust. We found that cutting up a whole chicken and brining it in a mixture of buttermilk, salt, and spices was the way to begin. Air-drying the brined chicken gave us an extra-crisp skin. To finish our fried chicken recipe, we coated the chicken with a mixture of flour, baking powder, and baking soda for a light, shatteringly crisp crust and pan-fried it in peanut oil for clean flavor.
Maintaining an even oil temperature is key to the success of this recipe. An instant-read thermometer with a high upper
range is perfect for checking the temperature; a clip-on candy/deep-fry thermometer is fine, though it can be clipped to
the pot only for the uncovered portion of frying.
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