It may be easier to cook fried chicken than you thought with this special ingredient you could have sitting in your cupboard. Fried chicken is a favourite food for many, especially as a go-to fast food order, but one that’s often avoided when it comes to cooking at home. Deep frying at home can be a challenge, and if you are going to the trouble to do it just for your chicken to turn out soggy or too tough to eat, it can be quite defeating.
Well, cooking enthusiasts have suggested just the thing to stop you from ordering yet another takeaway. Turns out, there’s one ingredient you might already have on hand that could take your friend’s chicken to the next level, and that is vodka. Using vodka when deep frying your chicken gives it a real boost, thanks to the way it interacts with both the flour and the hot oil. It provides the perfect crispy and crunchy fried chicken, thought to stay crispy for even longer than your usual fast food order.
Traditional fried chicken recipes sometimes call for a splash of water to be added to your batter, but vodka is much more volatile, according to Duke University.
When volatile liquids are exposed to enough energy, just like the high heat of the cooking oil, the molecules expand and turn into gas, causing them to escape the liquid.
When you choose to add vodka to your fried chicken batter, it tends to evaporate a lot faster in the hot oil than water. Meaning the batter is dehydrated quicker, therefore allowing it to crisp up and brown better. Not only this, but its dehydrating qualities helps to prevent the batter from being too greasy.
Another way in which ist produces the crispiest of chicken is because of the rapid bubbles of gas escaping the batter, in turn expanding the batter’s surface area. But it doesn’t stop there, vodka also works well when inetracting with gluten.
Scientific American suggest that due to Vodka only being 60% water, it doesn’t allow for the gluten to develop as much as water would and so it can be more thoroughly mixed, without turning too tough. It can also be used for a longer amount of time without getting doughy and thick.
There are two key methods for cooking with vodka for a crispy result. If you’re using dry-fried chicken, you’re best to add an ounce or two of the alcohol to the marinade before being coated in the dry ingredients.
The second method requires you to add vodka to an already wet fried chicken batter. Thanks to the valcohol, you’ll get a thin, not-gloppy batter that is deliciously crisp after frying.
A popular Korean-style recipe over at Mr Make It Happen is in agreement that vodka is the way to go. Chef Matt Price shared:” The use of alcohol in batter and frying techniques is not exclusive to Korean cuisine.
“Many cultures use beer or spirits to achieve similar results. In Korea, this method has become popular and is often associated with the trendy and flavourful Korean fried chicken that features a crisp coating and tender meat.”
He also explained that vodka has a neutral flavour, and so it doesn’t tend to alter the taste of the fried chicken. This allows the chicken to maintain all of the original flavours and still benefit from the textural enhancements of the vodka.
