HELP - fried chicken burns quickly

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chaim baconman

Assistant Cook
Joined
Feb 16, 2012
Messages
3
i love fried chicken but whenever i make it, it usually gets burnt on the outside very quickly and i end up having to finish it in the oven. i have a thermometer and everything. could it be the cornmeal i put in with the flour? i use a cast iron dutch oven by the way also. please help.
 
No enough oil, temp too high. And I never make fried chicken with cornmeal. Burns too easily. What are your ingredients you are coating them in? Eggs, milk, flour, breadcrumbs, cornmeal, buttermilk? Do you want a soft crust or chrunchy? Can you give us more information please. Do you still have the same amount of oil at the end as you started with? Are you using left over oil? If so, has it been strained through a cheesecloth?

Bet you never thought frying chicken could be so complicated. But everyone has their own way of doing it. :chef:
 
Are you trying to fry it (oil come 1/2 - 2/3 up the pieces) or are you trying to deep fry it (submerge the whole piece IN the oil)?
 
Poor thing. By the time she answers all these questions, she will never want to fry chicken again. :ohmy:

Someone needs to give her distinct directions and ingredients for fried chicken. Any volunteers? :ermm:
 
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It is the usual case on Internet forums that the OP doesn't provide sufficient info to answer the question. Part of the process, particularly when the OP made it their first post ever, is for them to come back and give some sort of feedback so the process can proceed. Otherwise we could write a book covering every aspect of frying chicken and still might not answer the question.
 
So true Greg. We all have our own method and recipe for Fried Chicken. I alwys make sure the oil stays half way up the pieces so that when I turn it over, the other side is going to be completely cooked also. And dependiing on which piece is in the pan, I make sure each side gets a minimum of 10 minutes each side. Nothing worse than be halfway thourgh your favorite piece and come across a half cooked piece that is raw toward the middle. A definite turnoff. :chef:
 
It is the usual case on Internet forums that the OP doesn't provide sufficient info to answer the question. Part of the process, particularly when the OP made it their first post ever, is for them to come back and give some sort of feedback so the process can proceed. Otherwise we could write a book covering every aspect of frying chicken and still might not answer the question.

Not only that, but sometimes they don't come back at all.:ohmy:
 
Not only that, but sometimes they don't come back at all.:ohmy:

I was avoiding negativity. :)

You just know that in about 5 years somebody will reply to this topic and add their own question which is only vaguely related to the OP at all. Some of us will read it when it gets resurrected and remember several people in the current topic and wonder whatever became of them.

Or they'll reply to the OP with the perfect answer, the OP having never returned. :)
 
I was avoiding negativity. :)

You just know that in about 5 years somebody will reply to this topic and add their own question which is only vaguely related to the OP at all. Some of us will read it when it gets resurrected and remember several people in the current topic and wonder whatever became of them.

Or they'll reply to the OP with the perfect answer, the OP having never returned. :)


In this case, several members have posted, but the OP still has only the one original post. It happens fairly often.
 
sorry for late reply, can't surf internet at work... i'll try to address everyone's questions.

i coated the chicken in egg and used a mixture of about 80-90% flour and the rest was bread crumbs and cornmeal. the oil was about 1 inch deep in the dutch oven, and the oil thermometer read about 325F. it started looking burnt on the outside within the first 3-4 minutes. i used new corn oil. chicken was refrigerated then spiced then put in egg and coated in flour mixture and sat for about 10-15 mins before putting in oil. internal temp was not even above 100F after a few minutes and to avoid being too burnt i just baked it to finish off.
 
Sorry about the off topic chat. We sometimes get a bit carried away...

Okay... In following your recipe I realize it's not any big help to give you another recipe, because you probably want to fix your own recipe. So I'll offer a few suggestions:

As noted above, remove your chicken from the refrigerator and set it on the counter and let it get nearer to room temperature, perhaps an hour would be reasonable (although not a long time due to food safety rules).

Recipes I've seen and cooked applied the flour to the chicken first, then the egg dip, then rolling in cornmeal, crushed corn cereal, crushed crackers, etc. I wonder if a coating with such a large amount of flour might be the problem since I haven't seen any recipes using that much over the egg coating.

It's not at all unusual to start at 365F-375F and quickly brown the chicken pieces, then reduce the heat to 325F and cover and continue cooking for 30 minutes until done. The recipes that had that didn't have a heavy floury coating. I conclude that your cooking temperature being too hot is not the cause of your problem.

I feel like I'm stepping off the deep end and I may live to regret it when the experts chime in, but I think you should change your crumby coating mixture, and particularly I would lose the flour. I think you've made in effect an egg-flour batter that won't stand such high cooking temperatures, perhaps compounded by using refrigerator cold chicken pieces.
 
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Greg, I don't know if you ever saw the piece from ATK, but they used Bisquick for their flour mixture. Down south the folks swear by buttermilk. They soak the chicken parts in buttermilk for no less than an hour, longer if possible. So ATK went with this idea. They removed the chicken parts from the buttermilk letting each piece drain first. Then they rolled it in the Bisquick. They found that the more pieces they rolled in the flour mixture, the more crumbly the mixture became. And the more crispier it fried up. So they tried not draining the parts as much and placed them right in the Bisquick mixture. That way the mixture became crumblier. I believe they placed their seasonings in the Bisquick mix. No bread crumbs, no eggs. Nothing else.

Also I think she needs more oil. It should always come up to half of the piece. And like size pieces should be cooked together. Legs, thighs and wings. Breasts should be cooked separately. I cook my pieces for ten minutes on each side. The breasts a little longer. And once the temperature comes back up, I lower it by 25º. Then I start timing it. Also, when you get to the last pieces to put in, check your oil to make sure it hasn't become too dirty. And to make sure you have enough still in the pan to come up to half way on the pieces. If not try to remove any pieces of the coating sitting at the bottom or floating and add some more oil. Let it come up to temperature. You wouldn't think so, but oil does evaporate. I definitely do not use a cover on mine. That raises the temperature way above where I want it. And the steam from the chicken dilutes the oil.

When you first place the pieces in the oil, it seals the coating helping it from becoming greasy when you lower the temperature. I also drain my chicken on brown paper bags. Paper towels just stick to the chicken. Paper bags do not. I also keep a piece of foil over it. If I am cooking a LOT of chicken (like two or more chickens) I place the pieces in a warm oven (150ºF.) till all the pieces are done. I hope this information helps.

I don't use breadcrumbs or cornmeal. They burn too quickly. Remember, breadcrumbs are from a product that has already been baked. Now you are cooking them again by exposing them directly to the heat. It is not like meatballs or meatloaf where they are mixed inside the meat. Cornmeal burns quickly also. It needs liquid to slow down the cooking process if you are going to expose it to the heat directly. That's why foods that have been coated with batter, (dry and liquid mixed together) don't burn as readily. Good luck. :chef:
 
Addie I recall the ATK episode, and like you said they didn't use egg. The OP's problem as stated is that the outside burns before the inside is cooked. ATK's batter if you could call it that would be a milk-flour batter instead of an egg-flour batter. I'm suggesting that the latter is more susceptible to burning. Or stating it another way, if you don't get of the flour then get rid of the egg. There are plenty of ways to fry chicken that don't involve eggs. And of course there are plenty of fried chicken recipes involving a milk or buttermilk soak.

The OP says the oil is 1" deep. That's plenty to suffice for pan frying. BTW one way to handle the breasts is to cut them in half, to end up with a size similar to the other pieces. (The oil is soaking into the breading, not evaporating.) Your suggestion of draining on brown paper bags vs. paper towels is a good one!

There are plenty of cornmeal and breadcrumb pan fried chicken recipes on the Internet. I presume at least some of them are good. However I like ATK's idea the best. I've always found that whenever ATK tests any recipe they are either the best or among the best. I think we agree that the OP has to use a different coating recipe. I think the method chosen is more appropriate to chicken nuggets or strips which can be cooked more quickly without burning the coating. Flour then egg then crumbs is often used as a breading for skinless boneless chicken or for pan fried fish fillets.
 
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It's generally true that unrefined oils have much lower smoke point than their refined counterparts.

The majority of supermarket oils are refined and should provide the higher smoke points needed for fried chicken.

I use corn oil for most frying with no issues.
 
Question??? Does peanut oil leave a peanut taste on the product being fried? I have never bought it, but have considered it. :chef:
 
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