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pan fried chicken times
2021-08-23 21:12I was on the phone with friend A-chan (yes! phone calls!) and describing my dinner in process; she was surprised that I said pan-fried chicken took 35 minutes. That's what I learned from my parents and what usually works well, resulting in cooked but juicy chicken. Sometimes I go longer if the drumsticks (I only do drumsticks) are extra thick. Not that I've experimented much.
I wondered, so looked up fried chicken recipes, and think I see the difference. Most of them talk about filling the pan 1/3 inch to 1 inch deep in oil. So yeah, they might say as little as 15 minutes, or maybe 10 a side, but I imagine it's like deep frying your chicken by parts.
Whereas the oil my family uses is a "don't stick" amount. Probably a couple millimeters at most, if that. So the cooking is partially a dry heat process, pan to chicken. (In fact sometimes my father would brown/sear battered chicken in skillets in batches, then pile them all up in a Dutch oven to finish via baking. I've done that with regular ovens, maybe more often if I'm doing a lot to free friends, but mostly I just do a skillet or sometimes two.)
A side effect of doing that is ending up with a pan rich in seasoned chicken fat, not much diluted by the cooking oil I started with. In my old egg and batter days, I would mix left over seasoned flour with leftover egg, and fry the most amazingly flavorful hockey puck of dough in the pan. These days I just mop up the skillet with bread.
I think I have a strong aversion to filling a pan with oil. Like it seems wasteful of oil or dangerous or messy, or all three. Not really an issue most of the time, but might be why I have trouble cooking corn tortillas; I don't remember my father's process well, and after various failed attempts I suspect it involved pouring more oil than usual, which goes against my "don't stick" habits.
Anyway. These Canadian drumsticks were smaller than is common in the US, so maybe they didn't need 35 minutes. Came out tasty and juicy anyway.
I wondered, so looked up fried chicken recipes, and think I see the difference. Most of them talk about filling the pan 1/3 inch to 1 inch deep in oil. So yeah, they might say as little as 15 minutes, or maybe 10 a side, but I imagine it's like deep frying your chicken by parts.
Whereas the oil my family uses is a "don't stick" amount. Probably a couple millimeters at most, if that. So the cooking is partially a dry heat process, pan to chicken. (In fact sometimes my father would brown/sear battered chicken in skillets in batches, then pile them all up in a Dutch oven to finish via baking. I've done that with regular ovens, maybe more often if I'm doing a lot to free friends, but mostly I just do a skillet or sometimes two.)
A side effect of doing that is ending up with a pan rich in seasoned chicken fat, not much diluted by the cooking oil I started with. In my old egg and batter days, I would mix left over seasoned flour with leftover egg, and fry the most amazingly flavorful hockey puck of dough in the pan. These days I just mop up the skillet with bread.
I think I have a strong aversion to filling a pan with oil. Like it seems wasteful of oil or dangerous or messy, or all three. Not really an issue most of the time, but might be why I have trouble cooking corn tortillas; I don't remember my father's process well, and after various failed attempts I suspect it involved pouring more oil than usual, which goes against my "don't stick" habits.
Anyway. These Canadian drumsticks were smaller than is common in the US, so maybe they didn't need 35 minutes. Came out tasty and juicy anyway.