He didn't flour before coating.

I would concur. There also is, i believe, a sweet spot for oil temperature. Too cool, and you have the flabbier underfat, too hot, and the coating cooks too quickly [which aids in falloff]. The order of the pieces fried is important too. The larger pieces take longer. I love to start stovetop, and finish in the oven. My grandmother dredged in flour, and then evaporated milk, and then again a seasoned flour mix. Let sit a few minutes before beginnin frying. Fry both sides, flipping once. Finish in the oven.

I also like to fix chicken legs in the IP. When thru the IP cycle, I let it sit on parchment to dry out a bit [set the juices], and then dress it with my favorite wing sauce and finish in the oven. Drums are meatier, less expensive than wings, and feed more people, or just extend the experience.

When I make fried chicken, I soak the chicken in buttermilk overnight first, then dredge in seasoned flour and let rest a while before frying.

This takes quite a bit of oil, and so I seldom do it. I generally only make it when I have company for dinner, and that has not happened for quite some time.

I grew up frying chicken in an electric skillet, all very simple, an inch of oil, seasoned dredged chicken pieces I shook in a brown paper bag and that's it. The lid went on for a while and the whole cooking time took about 20 minutes.Fabulous chicken. Decades later, Cooks Illustrated did a fried chicken highlight and came to the conclusion an 1" or so shallow oil, a lid and flour dredging ( and buttermilk but we skipped that, too $$) made the best chicken.

I like a tempura battered chicken these days but i love the simple flour fry too.

My mother did an egg soak then shook in seasoned flour in a paper bad, and usually used an electric skillet to fry it in. Technically, her fried chicken was flawless, but I like a thicker and crisper coating better. What I remember most is having a drumstick in my camp lunch and the inevitable yellowjackets. My father gave me egg salad sandwiches--no yellowjackets! Maybe they were anti-mayonnaise. ;) If I find some proper frying sized chickens, I want to give it a go.

Thanks to Linda and Dave for identifying the lack of flour first as a likely reason for the coating to fall off, as well as the potential temperature issues. That's what the electric skillet is good for, after all. I have a little square one that was a barely used hand-me-down from someone. I've gotten pretty good at judging the oil temperature by looks for fritters, but that's a whole different subject, so thank-you for reminding me. I think I know where it is... Thanks too, to everyone, for all the tips and comments. Very helpful!

The weather man in Palm Springs announced that today is National Fried Chicken Day (July 6). I had not heard of this before.

I have two places near me that do the best fried chicke m, both pressure fried, and mime is not as good , so i buy it

Lars, that kind of thing is usually because an industry advocacy group got a declaration passed through congress. They're harmless, only cost the paper, ink and staff to produce the document, for which there might even be a fee, pleases people and is politically innert. It might tweak an animal rights organization or extreme dieticians, but otherwise is something easy to agree on with little if any backlash,