r/Cooking • u/malmal47 • 14h ago
Advice from the chefs of reddit.
So I've started cooking more and more, mainly beef and chicken as I don't eat pork and am picky with fish, I've started to try frying. I'm still relatively on the fresh side of learning to cook and I've been having issues with frying chicken. Whenever I do, I have an issue of the skin ending up frying off, and have a hard time flipping the chicken in the grease. Any advice to try and fix this issue?
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u/jacobsiwak 14h ago
Dry your chicken thoroughly. Either start with a very hot pan or a completely cold one, nothing in between - and make sure you some fat. If the skin is still stuck, let it sit longer. Use stainless steel or cast iron where you can use a metal spatula and firmly scrape the pan as you flip to make sure you get all the skin. More than anything, practice. Pan roasting is no rocket science but it’s certainly tricker than a straight roast or a regular fry.
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u/malmal47 14h ago
I've definitely been trying to practice more often, just a bit of a stinker when it doesn't come out well. Maybe part of it is I'm not drying it well enough. What I've been doing is letting the chicken marinate in buttermilk with my seasonings before I fry it and coat with flour. Could that also be causing problems with it too?
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u/padishaihulud 13h ago
Yeah, if it's not dry when it hits the pan the skin won't brown properly. That browning action is what allows it to cleanly release from the pan. The buttermilk marinade is fine, but you have to dry it off first.
A couple other tips:
Wait until the oil in the pan is hot before putting the chicken in, and also start with the skin side down. When you think you are ready to flip, gently try to pick it up; if there's resistance then it's not ready. It should release from the pan cleanly.
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u/Suspiciously-evil-Dr 14h ago
A big thing for me was to learn to let it sit longer on a steel pan, it doesn't always "self release" but longer gets you a better result for crisp and less difficulty flipping. I made skin on chicken thighs with very little oil for like 4 weeks straight (dieting) and never lost a skin, the thesis was that it's nigh impossible to overcook a chicken thigh so I think they went hand in hand.
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u/Nejura 14h ago
Either switch to deep frying so there isn't a surface for the skin to adhere to, add a layer of dredge/batter to buffer the skin, or switch to an air dry roasting method in a convection oven or rotisserie.
The skin and meat stick because the moisture vaporizes out, combined with the proteins and forms a sticky glue on both the metal and the meat. Oil helps lubricate and keep the moisture away from both but it can be easily overwhelmed as water soaks up a tremendous amount of heat as it vaporizes.