The best crispy fried chicken

Name: The best crispy fried chicken
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: vegetable oil, lard or a mixture of both; 1 large free-range chicken jointed into 8 (ask your butcher to do it); plain flour; cayenne pepper

Dairy-freedf

“A brilliant Friday-night fakeaway, here you’ll use a couple of paper bags to shake up your chicken with the simple but delicious seasoning. The end result is totally worth it – tender chicken pieces with a beautiful crunch. ”

Serves 4

Cooks In35 minutes

DifficultyNot too tricky

Jamie Magazine Chicken American Mains

Nutrition per serving

Calories 800 40%
Fat 56.4g 81%
Saturates 12.6g 63%
Sugars 0.6g 1%
Protein 46.4g 93%
Carbs 26.2g 10%

Of an adult's reference intake

Jamie Magazine

By Paul Levy

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Ingredients

vegetable oil, lard or a mixture of both
1 large free-range chicken , jointed into 8 (ask your butcher to do it)
plain flour
cayenne pepper

Tap For Method

The cost per serving below is generated by Whisk.com and is based on costs in individual supermarkets. For more information about how we calculate costs per serving read our FAQS

Jamie Magazine

By Paul Levy

Tap For Ingredients

Method

In a large, deep cast-iron frying pan, add the fats until about one-third full.
Heat it until a haze rises, or a cube of bread browns in a minute or less.
Place some flour in a brown paper bag – this is not optional, the best bags come from Wholefoods, but two greengrocers’ bags doubled-up will do. Plastic bags make the coating claggy.
Season with a pinch of sea salt, a sprinkling of cayenne and lots of black pepper.
Shake the chicken parts in the bag. The chicken parts should be dry when tossed in the flour – to soak them in buttermilk, or use batter, is heresy.
Shake off the excess flour, then fry the chicken in batches, so as not to crowd the pan. Do the dark meat first, skin-side down, turning. When the chicken is golden all over, cooked through and perfectly juicy with a crunchy crust, it's done.
Drain the chicken on kitchen paper and serve quickly – though some prefer it cool, at room temperature.