Pan-Fried Chicken
10 thighs
2 cans evaporated milk
¼ cup soy sauce
Crisco shortening (enough to be ¾ inch deep in the skillet)
Flour Bag
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. Loveless Seasoning
1 ½ tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp. black pepper
Combine the chicken, evaporated milk and soy sauce in a zip lock bag and refrigerate overnight. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator 2 hours before cooking and set it out to warm to room temperature before cooking. Set up the Flour Bag. Heat the oil over medium-low heat in a large skillet (no more than ¾ inch deep). When the oil hits 250 degrees, prep the first batch of chicken. Drop the chicken into the Flour Bag and shake to coat each piece. When the oil hits 280 degrees, gently lay the chicken skin-side-down in the hot shortening. The oil should be about 250 degrees while the chicken cooks. Cover and fry for the first 5 minutes. Remove the cover and continue to fry until the bottom side of the chicken is golden (about 5 minutes more). Turn the chicken and fry until the other side is golden (about 10 more minutes). Allow the oil to return to 280 degrees before adding the next batch of chicken. Batch size will depend on the size of your skillet. You don’t want the pieces to touch when they are cooking.
Our comments: You don’t want the chicken to turn golden before 10 minutes on each side or it will be raw in the middle. That’s why the oil should not be more than 250 degrees while the chicken is cooking. That’s also why we cover the fry pan for the first 5 minutes. The combination of room temperature chicken thighs and medium-low heat works for us (after much trial and error). We like thighs, so know that timing might be different for other chicken parts. There is nothing better than fried chicken (except for fried shrimp … but that depends on having great sauces)! Try: 2 Tbsp. soy sauce + 2 Tbsp. honey in 2 cans evaporated milk soaked overnight.