Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Buttermilk Fried Chicken is the ultimate comfort food!

Bone in, skin on chicken is soaked in a buttermilk brine, coated, and fried until golden and crispy!

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Buttermilk Fried Chicken

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Buttermilk Fried Chicken is one of those finger licking comfort foods that everyone loves but not everyone cooks. There is a fair amount of time, labor, dishes, and oil involved when making this Southern favorite, but each tasty morsel will make you smile.

When making homemade buttermilk fried chicken, you can’t go wrong with some Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes and Collard Greens with Bacon. My mouth is seriously starting to water as I write this.

What chicken works best for buttermilk fried chicken?

You can totally make boneless skinless buttermilk fried chicken, but it won’t turn out like the crispy-on-the-outside moist-and-tender-on-the-inside Southern fried chicken we all dream about.

The skin not only helps keep the meat inside moist and prevents over cooking, but will get extra crispy on the outside when dropped in hot oil.

When cooking chicken pieces that still have the bone inside, the cooking process will take longer but the chicken will be more moist and delicious.

How do you make Buttermilk Fried Chicken?

Buttermilk fried chicken is definitely a labor of love. It is not the kind of dinner recipe you can come home from work and have on the table thirty minutes later. If you’re looking for a quick and easy chicken dinner recipe, you’re better off making something like Perfect Cashew Chicken, Chicken Piccata, or Perfect Chicken Parmesan.

This Buttermilk Fried Chicken recipe involves soaking your bone in skin on chicken pieces in a seasoned buttermilk brine. Then coating them in a seasoned flour. Then frying the coated chicken pieces in a lot of oil.

Deep frying used to scare me, but once you get the hang of it, there’s actually less splatter than if you’re cooking in a hot pan with just a bit of oil. A really good quality cast iron pan works really well for deep frying chicken. A trusty thermometer is also one of those kitchen tools that’s necessary for making this recipe.

Reasons why buttermilk is used to marinate or soak chicken prior to cooking:

• Buttermilk is acidic. In fact, if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make a buttermilk substitute by combining 1 cup of milk with either 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Both the vinegar and lemon juice are highly acidic. The acidic dairy helps tenderize the meat.
• Buttermilk adds a bit of flavor. It also helps the chicken absorb any spices you include in your soak.
• Finally, after a long soak in buttermilk, the seasoned flour coating will be able to stick to your chicken prior to coating. This, combined with the cooked skin, will give you that crispy flavorful outside.

How long do you soak chicken in buttermilk before frying?

My recommendation is to soak your chicken pieces for at least 6 hours. You need to give the buttermilk enough time to break down and tenderize the chicken.

If you’re a planner, a good buttermilk brine soak overnight will only make your chicken pieces even more tender. I, on the other hand, often don’t know what I’m making for dinner until the night of.

5 from 2 votes

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Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Buttermilk Fried Chicken is the ultimate comfort food! Bone in, skin on chicken is soaked in a buttermilk brine, coated, and fried until golden and crispy!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword buttermilk, chicken, fried chicken

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

soak time 6 hours

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 8 servings

Calories 459 kcal

Author Krissy Allori

Ingredients

• 3 pounds chicken whole pieces, bone in, skin on (I used breasts and drumsticks)

For the soak:

• 2 tsp black pepper freshly ground
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp rosemary dried
• 1/2 tsp thyme dried
• 1/2 tsp oregano dried
• 1/2 tsp sage dried
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 cups buttermilk alternatively, you can use 2 cups milk + 2 tbsp lemon juice

For the seasoned coating:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

For frying:

• 4 cups oil high heat tolerant for frying

Instructions

1. Combine chicken pieces with black pepper, salt, paprika, rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, white pepper, and cayenne in a large bowl or resealable plastic bag to coat.

2. Add buttermilk to fully coat chicken. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

3. Combine flour, salt, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, white pepper, and onion powder in a large resealable plastic bag or shallow dish.

4. Remove chicken from the buttermilk and and shake to remove any excess. Dredge each piece in the seasoned flour. Shake off any excess and transfer to a plate.

5. Heat cooking oil in a large Dutch oven to 350 degrees F. Add the white meat pieces of chicken to the pan and cook for 16-18 minutes, turning halfway through. Remove chicken from the oil and transfer to a cooling rack set over a paper towel lined baking sheet. To keep warm, set on baking dish, tent with foil, and keep warm in 200 F degree oven.

   

6. Allow oil to once again heat to 350 degrees F. Add the dark meat pieces of chicken to the pan and cook for 18-25 minutes, turning halfway through. Remove chicken from the oil and transfer to a cooling rack set over a paper towel lined baking sheet.

   

Recipe Notes

The oil should be at 350 degrees F to start, but when the chicken goes in it will drop to about 300 degrees. It should rise back to 305-310 degrees F  and the heat should continually be monitored and adjusted so that the temperature is held steady at these values.

Internal temperature of cooked chicken should be about 165 degrees F. The white meat should take less time to cook than the dark meat.

Since most of the buttermilk and a great amount of the oil is discarded, the nutritional information was based on consuming 1/4 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup cooking oil, divided amongst the 8 servings.

Nutrition Facts

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Amount Per Serving

Calories 459 Calories from Fat 234

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 26g 40%

Saturated Fat 7g 35%

Cholesterol 127mg 42%

Sodium 702mg 29%

Potassium 374mg 11%

Total Carbohydrates 19g 6%

Dietary Fiber 1g 4%

Protein 34g 68%

Vitamin A 14%

Vitamin C 3.3%

Calcium 2.4%

Iron 16.1%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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