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Batter-Fried Chicken

From

August/September 2009

Batter-Fried Chicken

As far as technique went for our Batter-Fried Chicken recipe, deep-frying easily beat out shallow-frying. With shallow-frying, the batter always burned on the bottom. To ensure a crisp crust, we replaced the milk in our initial batters with plain old water. It turned out that when wet batter hit the hot frying oil, the moisture in the batter vaporized, leaving behind the solids that adhered to the chicken. With milk, the sugars in the milk solids browned too fast and produced a soft crust.

Using equal parts cornstarch and flour in the batter ensured a crisp crust on the chicken. And baking powder added lift and lightness without doughiness. We flavored our batter with black pepper, paprika, and cayenne for simple but unambiguous flavor.

Serves 4 to 6

Halve breasts crosswise and separate leg quarters into thighs and drumsticks.

Ingredients

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