Make Fried Chicken Better by Adding Vodka to the Marinade
For maximum freshness and flavor, stop by the home bar and grab a bottle of vodka.
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of Serious Eats shares this extraordinary tip and explains how vodka helps create the crisp crust you crave from fried chicken:
[Vodka] is much more volatile than water (which is the main ingredient in buttermilk, pickled juice, or just about any other fried chicken marinade you’ll use). Thus, it evaporates much faster and more intensely. This helps to remove moisture from the chicken rind more quickly and also creates larger vapor bubbles, increasing the surface area of the chicken rind. Both of these things mean crisper and lighter fried chicken.
Kenji notes that vodka and other spirits also suppress gluten formation. Gluten helps create plump, chewy crusts for breads and pizzas, but you don’t want too much of it in a crispy, fried chicken crust.
You only need two tablespoons of vodka for each cup of the seasoned marinade, so don’t worry. Very crispy fried chicken will leave plenty of drinks.
Follow the link below for three more tips for perfecting fried chicken.
Food Lab: Four Secrets To Improving Any Fried Chicken Recipe | Serious Food via Business Insider