Fried Chicken Recipe Done On The Grill
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Take it from someone who has tried every method imaginable: This is the simplest and best way to fry chicken, and it is superb. The breading is deep golden and crispy, and the chicken flavor comes alive. And it's all done outside so the house doesn't smell, you don't set off the smoke alarm, and you don't spatter all over the stove and counters!
Serve with: a cola or root beer.
Course: , ,
Dinner
Lunch
Main Course
Cuisine:
American
Makes:
Servings: servings of 2 pieces each
Takes:
Ingredients
- 4 pound chicken
- 2 teaspoons Morton Coarse Kosher Salt (1/2 teaspoon per pound of meat)
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons Simon & Garfunkel Rub, poultry seasoning or a blend of herbs such as sage, rosemary, and thyme
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- ¾ cup corn starch
- 3 large eggs
- 4 cups vegetable oil (or enough to fill the Dutch oven to a depth of about 1-inch)
Notes:
About the salt. Remember, kosher salt is half the concentration of table salt so if you use table salt, use half as much. Click here to read more about salt and how it works. For this recipe, you want to use 1/2 teaspoon Morton coarse kosher salt per pound of meat.
Optional. 1/2 teaspoon or more chipotle or other hot pepper powder or even smoked paprika.
Optional. 1 tablespoon Accent. Accent is MSG. Don't be afraid of it. You eat glutamate all the time and it never hurts you. It is in many commercial fried chicken recipes including KFC. Click here and scroll down to MSG to learn more.
Metric conversion:
These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page
Method
- Prep. Cut the chicken into parts, separating drumsticks, thighs, wings, and breasts. Cut the breasts in half crosswise. This will make them similar in size to the thighs. Cut off excess fat, but leave the skins on.
- Dredge. To dredge the chicken, begin by sprinkling the surface of the brined chicken lightly with the herb blend, black pepper, and if you wish, hot pepper powder such as chipotle or hot smoked paprika. I strongly recommend you sprinkle it with Accent too. Accent contains MSG and it amps the flavor to 11.Wash and thoroughly dry your hands. Pour the flour and corn starch in a bowl and mix them together. Crack the eggs into another bowl and whisk them. With one hand, place the chicken pieces in the flour/starch one at a time and completely coat the meat. Keep the other hand behind your back. Shake off the excess flour (important). Then dunk the chicken in the egg, and back into the flour mix. Then place the chicken on a rack, sheet pan, or platter.
- Hydrate. When you are done coating the chicken, discard the leftover flour/starch and the egg and let the coated chicken sit in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes while you get the oil up to temp (next step). This rest hydrates the flour mix and helps gluten form and that helps the crust stay on. You can see in this picture some of the flour has not hydrated yet and remains white, while some has been soaked through by the egg.
- Fire up. Place your frying pot, preferably a Dutch oven, over a burner on the grill grate. Add the oil to the pot about 1-inch (25 mm) deep. When frying chicken, I prefer shallow frying, where the oil does not quite submerge the chicken. I believe this technique works slightly better than deep frying, where the meat is completely surrounded by oil. In shallow frying, the meat is in contact with the bottom of the pan where hot metal conducts more heat than hot oil, and the steam that’s produced by the cooking meat can escape into the air rather than being submerged in oil. Fire up your grill in a 2-zone setup. Put the pot on the hot side and bring the oil temp up to about 350°F (167°C). If it goes higher, dial down the gas or move the pot off of the flames onto the indirect side. Don’t let it go above 400°F (204°C) or it could start smoking.
- Cook side 1. With a spider, slotted spoon, or tongs, slide the meat, skin side down, into the hot oil carefully so it doesn't splash or spatter. Do not crowd the pot and try to cook pieces of similar thickness together. Close the lid of the grill, but don’t put a lid on the pot. The cold chicken will knock the oil temp down a lot, and you should adjust the grill temp to keep the oil in the 325°F (163°C) plus range.
- Flip. After 10 minutes, you can look at the bottoms of each piece. When they are golden brown, flip them over. After you flip, they should take another 10 minutes or more. Remove them when they are GBD all over, put them on the indirect side of the grill to drain (no paper towels needed), and immediately check the internal temp of each and every piece. All pieces need to have an internal temp of at least 160°F (71°C) to be safe. Thighs and drums (dark meat) are safe at that temp but they are best at 170°F (77°C). If the pieces are not all done, close the lid and let them drip dry and bake on the indirect side of the grill until the temp is just right. When the oil gets back up to 350°F (167°C), keep frying the rest of the chicken in batches. Here is the pot with chicken frying and chicken pieces next to the pot finishing cooking and drip drying.
- Serve. Plate the fried chicken and serve immediately. I like a final sprinkle of large grain salt. But taste first because the meat has already been salted. If you want to amp it up to 11, serve the chicken with a dipping sauce such as our recipes for Mumbo Sauce or Alabama white BBQ sauce. I also absolutely love it drizzled with hot honey butter, a mix of honey, melted butter, and hot sauce. If you serve biscuits with the chicken, and you absolutely should, hot honey butter is great on them too.