How to make extra crispy and crunchy breading like KFC?

First, use self-rising flour or use 1 teaspoon of baking powder added to each cup of all-purpose flour that you're using for the dredging and coating mixture. The carbon dioxide produced during frying will cause the coating to expand and become more flaky.

If you want more tender and flavorful chicken, first brine the pieces in buttermilk that has been mixed with several tablespoons of salt, some black pepper and whatever other seasonings you like. Otherwise just dip the chiken in buttermilk seasoned with salt and pepper.

Before dredging the chicken, sprinkle a little milk or water over your seasoned flour mixture. Shake the flour mixture around so that it asborbs the liquid, this will help create small crunch bits that will later adhere when you dredge the chicken. Dredge the chicken and then return to the milk and then dredge again to get a thicker coating of flour. Deep fry in enough oil to submerge, or pan-fry in enough oil to come about 2/3 up the chicken and turn a couple times to promote even browning. Alternatively, after pan frying until evenly brown all around, remove from oil and place on a baking rack on a sheet pan and finish cooking in the oven until the chicken is done.

The way to get crispy chicken is double breading the chicken and immersion frying. Basically, you need a tub with your flour and seasonings in it, a basin for water and someplace to place the breaded product. You should also invest in a shaker basket of some sort (you can use a strainer or whatever you have that you can put chicken in and clean afterwards that also has holes to allow the flour excess to fall away from the chicken. Once you have the station set up, you are ready to start breading.

Take your chicken pieces and dip in the water, then place them in the flour. Remove from the flour and shake the excess off the chicken (preferably back into the flour basin). Then re-dip into the water, straight up and down to ensure very little breading loss. Then back into the shaker. By the way, the shaker is also how you develop the little crispy crumblies that dot the outside of fried chicken. Then you deep fat fry in oil that is deep enough to fully cover the chicken.

Also you should use cake flour if you can get it. The flour that KFC and others use is extremely fine and that is going to be the closest thing you will find to what you are looking for.

Also bear in mind that KFC uses pressure fryers--like pressure cookers, only filled with oil--which results in a faster fry. I suspect this will affect the final texture.

Update by an anonymous user: KFC uses pressure fryers for their original recipe chicken. extra crispy is done in an open fryer. 15 min. 350 f (former kfc mgr. )

Update by another anon user When I worked at kfc we cooked the extra crispy and the original in the pressure fryers, the extra crispy was a different breading and yes it was double breaded, otherwise the same process though. This was after prism took over though so it might have been different. (also a Former mgr)

I suggest you read this http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/jul/24/kfc-secret-recipe-revealed. I haven't tried it myself though so I can't speak with experience.

Aside from taste, the crispiness aspect of fried foods really comes down to how you fry your food. Proper frying temperature is critical along with breading technique.

Personally, my favorite breading comes from panko breadcrumbs.

This technique makes the chicken so crispy you can't sit still and eat it!!!

Put your favorite seasonings along with self rising flour in a large bowl. Add chicken 1 piece at the time and coat w/ mixture. When all pieces have been coated, add water into the bowl until you reach a batter consistency, making sure each piece is coated. At this point you will need to add more dry seasoning flour mix to cover the battered chicken. Roll and toss the chicken pieces unti covered in the dry mix. Shake of excess and place in heated oil of your choice and fry until done. This works perfectly for me every time and the chispiness can't be beat!

First boil the chicken in cocacola, and then fry it with flour + egg

its have been an ancient question on how to get chicken crispy like kfc. here is kfc recipe mix for breading. 10 kg cake flour 650 grm milk and egg. 1 kg salt 1 kg seasoning also note that kfc breading consist of dry ingrediants milk and egg powder that why their chicken is crispy we all know that the milk is browning and egg binding. and yep they uses pressure fryer. if you need to archieve almost similar result with your recipe you need a pressure fryer or just forget about it.

i am working with fried chicken in fact i made my breading from scratch using their measurement in making my recipe. my chicken is much more crisper and dryer than kfc. i reduced milk and egg by 150 grm added 2.5 kg brown bread flour sift my breading twice before i started breading chicken. the result was amazing i am supply breading to small restaurants competing against the giants Freddy Hirsch etc the difference is my breading is one product you open the breading and bread chicken thats all.

the only way to get away without using fressure fryer is steaming the chicken. double bread it and fry in the open chip fryer. i gave that method to chicken xpress for their hot wings and its working. yeah we can cook too in South Africa.

Use bread crumbs and egg white for coating the chicken. First mix up corn flour, garlic powder, onion powder and little pepper powder. Then coat the chicken with this. Then dip the chicken in egg white, then bread crumbs coating. Fry it in medium flamed oil. Try this very crispy chicken which is equal to KFC chicken.

I normally use all purpose flour cornmeal onion powder garlic powder paprika and meat tenderizer.Just wet the chicken with water or with marinade,toss in a ziploc with flour and seasonings.Then fry for 20 or 25 min in the fry daddy and presto!!!!

You only need to add your favorite seasonings to a bowl of rice flour. Then you coat the chicken with the rice flour, fry and eat it.