Perfect to one person is just plain fried chicken to another person. Honestly, my ideal may not be yours. My recommendation is to try each method and make notes as you go. Learn what YOU like best.

That said, I shake chicken in a bag with flour and S&P and pan fry in oil, not deep fry. A cast iron pan is nice to have, it is not the final word in the taste/texture of your chicken.

Happy tasting!

sushipup is absolutely correct. Everyone who likes fried chicken generally has their own version of what is perfect. Kinda like potato salad, so many ways, so many ingredients, what is perfection to me might not be what YOU think is perfection.
Anyway, when I fry chicken, I salt and pepper, soak for several hours in buttermilk, shake off a bit of the milk, dip into seasoned flour (plain flour, S&P, a little garlic powder, a little paprika), I place on a rack and let the coating dry a bit while the oil is heating, then fry in peanut oil. I do use a cast iron skillet and panfry, not deep fry. Nowadays, I rarely fry chicken as it makes a big mess...when I want fried chicken, I generally just buy it already cooked. I think the Publix deli makes great fried chicken, and it doesn't leave a mess in my kitchen. :)
Murphy
PS I was born,raised and currently live in the deep south, where fried chicken is a basic food group!

I prefer making fried chicken on a table outside in an electric frying pan. Chicken gets shaken in a bag (outside) with flour, salt and pepper. About one inch or so of oil in the pan. Cook covered for awhile then uncover and finish frying.

To make a perfect fried chicken, you will need a perfect chicken. To me that means a free-range chicken.

I crispy pan-fry the chicken on a cast iron skillet. There is no need to go crazy on recipes.

Fried chickens you buy from the stores are all too salty, too fat and the meat too mushy.

dcarch

Every few years I get the uncontrollable urge to have that perfect fast meal....that golden crispy spicy fried chicken of the ads. So I yield and either stop at KFC take out....or drive through a pop eye, or yield to the siren call of the wonderful looking steamer tray at the buffet.
And it's always awful....salty beyond belief, greasy and the meat is either soft as in the dark meat or stringy as in the breast. nope!
The very best fried chicken is when my son fires up the turkey frier and fills the pot with peanut oil, and we do the flour, egg, crumbs or more flour and let the chicken dry before putting it into the fry basket and lower it into the oil.
I think the reason it's so good is because the vat of oil is so big that it doesn't cool down even when you add what would be a whole chicken.....and the flour is seasoned lightly with a little garlic powder ( from Penzey's) crushed dried parsley, salt, pepper and some sweet paprika.
Now I'm hungry!!
Linda C

I got this from someone here years and years ago. I make it a couple of times a year. DH really loves it. I use lard and never bothered with the thermometer.

Leila's Crispy Buttermilk Fried Chicken
Makes approximately 8 servings

This wonderful fried chicken was prepared for my family by Leila - an amazing woman who worked for us and practically raised my brother and I up from pups. It is full of delicious flavor and has the kind of crispy coating that you'll never forget. It is also fried chicken, so nowadays it's something that is served for special occasions only!

3-4 pounds cut-up frying chicken
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups self-rising flour
Ground black pepper, to taste
Paprika, to taste
Garlic powder, to taste
Vegetable oil for frying

Step 1 - Cut your chicken into parts and wash well. Place in a large bowl and pour buttermilk over. Allow to sit for at least an hour.

Step 2 - Mix and sift together flour, black pepper, paprika and garlic powder.

Step 3 - Pour enough oil in a large, cast iron skillet to fill it about an inch deep. Heat to 375 degrees. Use a thermometer to carefully regulate the temperature and prevent the oil from burning.

Step 4 - Remove each piece of chicken from the buttermilk and shake to remove the excess. Dredge in the seasoned flour.

Step 5 - Drop pieces in the hot oil, four at a time. Do not crowd, as this will reduce the temperature of the oil and cause the chicken to absorb more grease. I like starting with dark meat pieces first and saving the white meat for the last. Cook each piece six minutes per side. Turn when the underside is nice and brown. To ensure doneness, cut a small hole in the thickest part - the juices should run clear.

Step 6 - Serve and enjoy - either hot from the pan or room temperature! Despite some of the nutritional counts of this recipe, it is practically unbeatable for bringing back the taste (and smell) of home.

There's pan fried or deep fried. I usually pan fry.

Pan fried means, to me, that the chicken isn't coated with anything beyond possibly a thin dusting of flour or cornstarch. It may be salted or spiced. Then it is fried on high heat in a pan, perhaps a cast iron skillet, ''on'' oil but not ''in'' oil if you see what I mean. The surface is deeply browned and a bit crunchy. Don't waste the skin, I leave it on, or fry it separately into a sort of cracklings snack. I like this approach for dark meat with bones. I tend to overcook breasts by the time they are sufficiently dark brown.

Deep fried means, to me, that the chicken is coated with a batter and submerged ''in'' oil or shortening. This could be done in a pan, pot, fryer, etc. The crispy crunchy bit is the batter, not the chicken. I l haven't done much deep frying and haven't yet tried the delights of buttermilk. So far, I usually do a tempura, or use panko crumbs. And I like breast meat, cut into tenders.

I don't deep fry too often.

I'm going to try Leila's version of fried chicken this evening - has anyone else made this recipe? I'm going to add a bit more seasoning to it, however, but otherwise I will follow the instructions given.

Lars, that's the way I learned how to do it, too, and it's always been wonderful. Now I realize that it's been years since we made it. But I'll wait a bit, the kitchen just got cleaned up after T'giving, and this is one dish that I only do before we need another deep cleaning, IYKWIM.

I'm still making it. I do soak the chicken in buttermilk, with a few good splashes of Tabasco sauce, for several hours, or overnight.

I don't care for cast iron. I use the stainless steel fryer my mother bought at a home party when I was about 4 years old (that means that the pan is about 56 years old). I love chicken any which way, but I'm in heaven when it's fried. I use vegetable shortening. My go to recipe is a combination of two recipes from "Cooking With the Chicken Man", by Leonard Thomas. In my opinion, his "method" was a game changer for me.

Spicy Buttermilk Fried Chicken:

1 (3-pound) chicken, cut into serving pieces

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp coarse black pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp onion powder

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup Old Bay Seasoning

1 tsp. cayenne

2 cups vegetable shortening

Wash the chicken and pat it dry. In a bag or bowl, combine the chicken, buttermilk, salt and pepper. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

In a large paper or plastic bag, mix the onion powder, garlic powder, flour, Old Bay Seasoning and cayenne.

Put a few pieces of chicken in the bag and shake to coat. Repeat with the remaining chicken. Shake off any excess flour. Place the chicken on a baking rack until time to cook.

In a 12-inch skillet, heat 1/2 inch shortening to 350 degrees. Add the chicken, skin side down, and cover. After 5 minutes, uncover; the pan should remain uncovered for the remaining time. After 5 more minutes, turn all the pieces over. Continue cooking about 10 minutes, or until well browned and crisp and the juices run clear. Remove the chicken to paper towels. Let sit for 5 minutes and serve.

Thanks for the tips! I'll add some of my Habanero sauce to the buttermilk, but I won't be able to soak it overnight unless I cook it tomorrow instead. I think an hour in buttermilk should be enough, however. I don't have Old Bay Seasoning, but I do have Cajun seasoning that I make myself, and that's what I normally use, although I may try rosemary in the buttermilk also.

I have oil leftover from the Thanksgiving tempura, and so I want to use that, although I will not cook the chicken in the deep fryer. I was thinking of using a Dutch oven. Mine is heavy anodized aluminum, however, and I almost never use it. I think my cast iron skillet is probably not deep enough.

You only need an inch of oil in the pan. I don't like the "deep" fry, I like the pan-fry.

I am from the south. I love fried chicken. I do like a lot of people soak in buttermilk with tobasco and dip in flour and fry. The trick is to get the chicken done inside and keep the outside from being either over cooked or greasy. Now a days I am lazy and just go to Publix and get fried chicken I like theirs better than KFC.

Three things. Soaking. It can be in water or buttermilk, but either way (and overnight), it improves the chicken. Medium temp on vegetable oil, 10 minutes on each side. Last, it doesn't matter what you season the chicken with, it never tastes different? Just shake it in a bag with flour. We'll add seasoning salt, cayenne, a dash of cinnamon (a recipe on this site suggested it), or nothing, and it tastes the same regardless? My son can eat his weight in fried chicken legs, so it must be decent.

I did notice that the seasoning did not change the flavor much. I ended up soaking the chicken for almost two hours because I got distracted by a phone call from a friend that I will be seeing this Saturday, and I've not seen him in months, even though he is not that far away. I missed his last book signing, and so maybe he will autograph the last book of his I bought.

I would not want cinnamon on chicken unless it was a Lebanese recipe, and even then I would want as little of it as possible. I did use some Adobo seasoning mix that I had bought and never used because I generally make fresh adobo.

My oil may have been too hot because the chicken turned a dark brown after cooking only 6 minutes on each side, which cooked it thoroughly. I had bought large packages of breasts and thighs on sale, and so I had five breasts and ten thighs. I only cooked on breast (cut in half) and two thighs, and I frost the rest in packages with one breast and two thighs in each package. I used up the last of my freezer paper doing this, as I wrap the meat in freezer paper before putting it in Foodsaver bags. This seems to prevent freezer burn, but I usually do not leave meat in the freezer that long. My new microwave does a great job of defrosting meat - the old one not so much.

I like Popeye's fried chicken, but some of the best chicken I've had was at the bus station in Lake Charles, Louisiana. I got great food everywhere I went in Louisiana, but I haven't been there in a while.

My fried chicken is very simple but it is grown on the farm by me. S&P in the sack of flour to coat. Fried in my electric skillet. I use half lard and Crisco. What makes it so good is I also use a little bacon grease. Not too much, but makes the best fried chicken. When our vet comes to the farm to test cows he always asks for fried chicken for lunch. One of our hay hands asked for my method to give to his mother-in-law and wife. Last I heard he is still alive.