Learn to Cook: How to Fry Like a Pro



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Frying at home gets a bad rap. It’s easy to see why—the fear of sputtering hot oil or undercooking food is enough to make even the most confident home cook opt for baked instead of fried. We’re here to allay your fears by teaching you the ins and outs of safe and successful frying.

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44 Comments

  1. With a dutch oven that deep, why wouldn't you fill it 3/4 capacity with oil for a great deep-frying effect, rather than allowing the pieces to burn on the bottom? A dutch oven would be ideal for this because of its great heat retention.

  2. I prefer to fry in my countertop fryer. It is easier to regulate the temp and has a lid. After frying it is better to put the food on a wire rack over a half sheet pan to keep the fried exterior from betting soggy. The other option is air frying just make sure you have something to catch any juices for easy cleanup. For air frying I have a multifunction toaster oven and I place the baking pan on the bottom the the wire rack in the middle with the air frying basket on that. Again these are my personal preferences your' may differ.

  3. I dunno about covering the frying vessel as it cooks. Frying drives moisture out of the meat, so the bubbling that you see is little bubbles of moisture. They evaporate but will condense on the cover. Which would drip back into the pot???

    My personal tips are: use a wok. The wide rim helps to reduce spatter and clean up. Use the accessory rack which hangs over half of the wok which you can place the cooked chicken. If you're using a 100% flour batter, replace it with a 60% flour 40% cornstarch batter. Also double fry the chicken: cook once then let it rest for at least 15 minutes. Then raise the temp to 375 for the second fry. To prevent the kitchen from stinking up the kitchen, get a fine mesh hand strainer and catch all of the particle buildup.

  4. Thank you for your efforts in sharing your knowledge, pay no attention to all these ungrateful shit talkers. I was about 6 when it became one of my chores to kill and dress the rabbits, kill the fryers and pass them off to the women to scald and pluck while the smaller kids chased each other around with the chickens feet grabbing at the girls by pulling on the tendons causing the foot to open and close. My mother and grandmother would already have the first of the chicken cut up and in the pan frying while continuing to prep the rest of it for whatever else they had in mind, more often than not simultaneously dealing with and preparing the fruit and vegetables from the days picking, some for dinner, the rest canned or froze, made into pies and whatever else they decided. My mother always made our bread, ALL of it, my father insisted. The rabbit , all of us kids preferred the rabbit BBQed we would stand in line while my father and grandfather drank beer from a small keg, with a glass to get a little beer while the rabbit cooked on the BBQ, SMELLING FUCKIN GREAT! The first piece to get done of course is always the flank, a tasty morsel and we all hoped for the prize, as between us kids it was of course the sign that you were the favorite at the moment. About this time though it was time for me to feed the livestock, move the water's in both gardens and orchards and whatever else the adults could think of.My sisters of course never did any of this they hung with mom and grandma doing the girl stuff, my brother was to little to do anything. I felt picked on and left out of all the good stuff. I was out and doing my work before light everyday, the other kids didnt get up until later, when my initial chores were accomplished and I returned to the house breakfast was being eaten or had already been eaten, often there would be only scraps left in the pan, if I hurried doing my chores so that I did not miss the good stuff ,I would be sent right back out the door while being accused of not taking care of the animals who locked up could not fend for themselves while selfesh me thought only of my belly, this conclusion being reached because theres no way I could have done everything in that amount of time. I would then have to stay out there in the freezing cold a sufficient amount of time that there was no question, by now having only enough time to get cleaned up and change into my school clothes before I missed the bus. WOW I got carried away and just kept going, PARDON me, chicken brought me back in time, I was only going to thank you, I had no intention of wining about anything. Thanks for the ear, dont trip im no victim and those things hold no sway over me. Take this down if you like or dont, it has no bearing on me and nothing to do with your video. I will leave it now that its wrote.Discarded baggage of which I was unaware. Thank you again have a great day!

  5. A few things unaddressed here: firstly, make sure your chicken has time to release its chill from fridge. Second, I found medium heat did not keep oil up to temp (gas heat, TWO thermometers — one a candy and one an ambient probe used in food industry) even with spot checks. Had to go almost high all the way through. Used very same dutch oven. Four minutes covered did not give a browning. I had to finish my batches in the oven. It truly appears that there is no sure-fire fried chicken recipe unless you have an industrial pressure cooker.

  6. Kindergarten cooking school! Gone wrong! Le Creuset pots? What are you going to do with all that oil afterwards? Le Creuset can cost more than a temperature-controlled deep fat fryer! These will produce beautiful golden brown chicken, safely cooked to the centre. It beats me that people go to all the trouble of producing these useless YouTube videos.

  7. I liked this. Good tip on putting the lid back on. I have done it myself. I like the chicken dark. The quick read thermo is great for testing the done ness as well. I was amazed at how much I over cooked chick and pork both. I'm old and of course, my Mom cooked pork to death. They had to in those days. But this looked good like what I was used to for fried chicken.

  8. Not sure what type of fried chicken people in the comments section are accustomed to . But this looks just like fried chicken here ( in the Caribbean) . The chicken is usually marinated and seasoned long before and some powdered season in the flour coating. The darker portions are usually delicious.

  9. Just reviewed the video and I couldn't prepare and cook fried chicken legs, thighs or anything properly using these instructions. Better work on actually doing it right and taste testing it before submitted your video to you tube. First problem, you don't explain the proper preparation for the chicken and that is big. Second you don't talk about any coating recipe, and finally you temp's are not correct for deep fried chicken. I only cook deep fried at 280 degrees. But my coating works well for that.

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