This past week I finally bought the Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook that I’ve been reading so much about. I do not often use cookbooks since I get so much inspiration from blogs that I follow, but I figured that such a huge compilation would not steer me wrong. I was toying with several ideas of which recipe to make first and landed on this fried chicken recipe because, I kid you not, it had the word easier in it. Cook’s Illustrated is notorious for having complicated recipes and I was in the mood for something simple. If you have bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces, you are in luck because this recipe really is pretty simple. If you don’t have pieces, you can do what I did and cut a whole chicken into pieces. It isn’t as simple, but you end up with a chicken carcass that you can use to make some chicken stock.
The marinade makes the chicken so amazingly tender, and the batter is simply divine. Salty with a hint of spice and crunch and delicious! I could not get enough of this chicken! And it was so filling that we could have easily fed a party of six, which means I know what I am serving the next time I host a dinner party. 
Source: Cook's Illustrated Cookbook
This is the BEST fried chicken I have ever eaten. So, so, so good!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Whisk 1 cup buttermilk, 1 tablespoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon paprika, pinch cayenne, and hot sauce together in large bowl. Add chicken and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Set wire rack in rimmed baking sheet. Whisk flour, baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons pepper, remaining 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder, remaining 3/4 teaspoon paprika, and remaining cayenne together in large bowl. Add remaining 1/4 cup buttermilk to flour mixture and mix with fingers until combined and small clumps form. Working with 1 chicken piece at a time, dredge in flour mixture, pressing mixture onto pieces to form a thick, even coating. Place dredged chicken on large plate, skin side up.
- Heat oil in 11-inch straight-sided sauté pan over medium-high heat until it registers 375 degrees. Carefully place chicken in pan, skin side down, and fry until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. (Adjust heat as necessary to maintain oil at 375 degrees.) Carefully flip and continue to fry until golden brown on second side, 2 to 4 minutes longer. Transfer chicken to prepared wire rack and bake until breast pieces register 160 degrees and/or thighs and drumsticks register 175 degrees, 15 to 20 minutes. (I added pieces to the oven as they were done frying and removed them as they reached the desired temperature. Then, I snacked on the finished pieces while the rest were cooking. I highly advise this method. :) ) Smaller pieces may cook faster than larger pieces. Remove pieces from the oven as they reach correct temperature. Let chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Jesica @ Pencil Kitchen // Dec 12, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Yes!!! This is the meal i need…. with some fries or mash…
2 Miriam @ Overtime Cook // Dec 12, 2011 at 9:49 pm
This looks amazing! It’s almost 1 am and yet I am sitting at my laptop drooling…yikes!
3 Simply Tia // Dec 13, 2011 at 8:51 am
Yum! Yum. I’m sure yours was very flavorful and delicious.
4 Lisa Travis // Dec 14, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Ina Garten does this very same thing and her fried chicken recipe is my fave!
5 Clarion Mendes // Dec 14, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Hi Paula! I received your card from the My Fudo exchange today~~I look forward to exchanging recipes! I adore America’s Test Kitchen
6 Ava @ TheFatLossAuthority.com // Dec 28, 2011 at 12:42 pm
There is nothing like fried chicken! This is my mother’s favorite food of all time and so I used your recipe to make this for her and she loved it. She asked me what I did different that made it taste so good! lol
7 Dani // Apr 28, 2012 at 4:57 pm
Well – how could you go wrong here??
I loved the recipe – I have several for chicken but I always go back to this one!! The best I’ve tried!