Photo: Rob Shaw
Golden, crunchy and impossible to stop at just one piece, fried chicken is the ultimate crowd-pleaser. Whether you favour classic Southern-style chicken, fiery Nashville hot chicken or the shatteringly crisp appeal of Korean fried chicken, there’s a recipe here to satisfy every craving.
Our collection spans the globe, from Korean fried chicken burgers and Taiwanese fried chicken to Malay fried chicken scented with curry leaves and Indonesian-inspired takes. You’ll also find smoked chicken wings, spicy fried chicken alla diavola and sweet-savoury favourites such as fried chicken and waffles with palm sugar glaze. The common denominator? Easy-to-master recipes that offer restaurant-quality fried chicken at home, bragging rights included.
For game days, family dinners and weekend feasts alike, these are the fried chicken recipes worth getting your hands dirty for. Go on, skip the drive-through and try your hand at them.
While fried chicken holds its own, you may also like to serve them with a fresh component like:
- Curtis Stone’s recipe for a classic slaw
- A quick roasted capsicum, cucumber and herb salad
- Grilled marinated artichoke and buffalo ricotta salad
But we’re not judging if you want to go all out instead, a la Sunda’s classic chicken and waffle pairing.
Our top 18 recipes for crispy fried chicken at home
Eun Hee An’s soy glazed Korean fried chicken
Sunda’s buttermilk fried chicken with waffles
Sean Brock’s Nashville hot chicken
Fried chicken and coleslaw rolls
Korean fried chicken with chilli sauce and daikon kimchi
Fried chicken with garlic butter by Leonardo’s Pizza Palace
Fried chicken wings with blue-cheese sauce
Crisp chicken wings with fried shallots and red wine vinegar
Roasted salt and pepper chicken drumettes with cucumber salad
Padang chilli fried chicken (Ayam goreng balado)
Southern fried chicken with smoky maple caramel
Dan Pepperell’s fried chicken alla diavola
Dan Hong’s Korean fried chicken burger
Quick-fire fried chicken
Yama Kitchen & Bar’s Taiwanese fried chicken
Kylie Kwong’s deep-fried chicken with finger-lime sauce
Fried chicken burger with smoky mayo, cos and pickles
Malay fried chicken with curry leaves
The 411 on fried chicken
The secret to making good fried chicken boils down to a combination of techniques, not just one secret ingredient. The perfect balance involves an acidic marinade (like buttermilk) for tenderising and flavour, a starch-heavy dredge (you can use something like cornstarch) for extra crunch and controlled oil temperatures. Of course, it helps not to overcrowd the pan too.
When frying your chicken, our recipes generally recommend dipping your chicken in flour first. If dipping into egg afterwards, this will give the wet egg wash a dry, textured surface to stick to.
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