How Too Much Flour Can Ruin Fried Chicken
From baked to grilled or even smoked, there are many tasty ways to cook chicken. When it comes to fried chicken, however, it's often the breading that steals the show rather than the actual meat. It's for the same reason that the texture can make or break the dish, so even if the inside is perfectly juicy, but the outside is soggy, it won't be as appetizing.
Being that flour is the main component in fried chicken batter, you might assume that more of it is better. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. A thick breading won't yield an extra crunchy one, and too much flour can actually make fried chicken soggy instead.
As FoodsGuy explains, fried chicken gets its characteristic crunch as a result of the hot oil removing the natural moisture in the wet ingredients. Therefore, if you have layers of flour held together with buttermilk and egg, there's a lot more that the hot oil has to penetrate. As a result, your fried chicken breading doesn't have the chance to crisp up properly.
Fried chicken doesn't require as much flour as you'd think
When making fried chicken, flour is a must. You won't, however, need a whole sack of the ingredient. According to Southern Living, a single coat of flour goes a long way. For best results, the outlet recommends adding your flour into a large Ziploc bag and then shaking the chicken inside. Just make sure not to overcrowd the bag, and whatever flour ends up sticking to the chicken is all you need.
If you're working with a specific recipe or don't want to give up the traditional wet hand dry hand technique, Taste of Home's alternative method works just as well. When you dredge each piece of chicken in flour, give it a good shake to eliminate any excess. Most fried chicken recipes call for a layer of flour followed by egg and breadcrumbs, Taste of Home says, so too much flour will also make it more difficult for the eggs to stick to the chicken. If you want your fried chicken to be perfectly crisp, the right ratio of ingredients, especially when it comes to flour, makes all the difference.