Baked chicken wings with sesame seeds and sweet chili sauce on white wooden board.

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A practiced piece of fried chicken is perfect "company food." It'southward good enough in its own right to appeal to the most demanding of your foodie friends, but it'southward comforting and downwardly-domicile enough for everyone else too. You can fifty-fifty go on information technology tantalizingly hot and crispy – as long as you know what to do and what not to do.

Understand the Problem Clearly

Y'all've probably heard the saying "No adept act goes unpunished." That's exactly what you're up against when you effort to keep fried craven hot and crispy. If you've done your job properly, the chicken will be beautifully moist on the within, and that's why keeping it crispy is so hard. Juices volition attempt to ooze from the chicken as it rests, making the bottom soggy, and hot steam trapped inside the chicken pieces will do the aforementioned everywhere else. That'due south peculiarly true if the chicken is covered. Your goal, and so, is not but to proceed the chicken hot but likewise to let it drain while allowing steam to dissipate.

Use a Low Oven

A depression oven, ready to about 200 F, is an ideal surroundings for keeping your craven at a proficient serving temperature. There'southward enough space for steam to evaporate without making your chicken soggy and enough heat to keep it crisp without overcooking information technology.

Your best bet is to line a canvass pan with foil or parchment – to make cleanup easier – and then set up a wire rack on the pan. Arrange your chicken pieces on the rack with a bit of space between them then air tin broadcast and then slide the rack into your oven. Keep adding pieces as you lot have them out of the hot fat, until you've filled the pan. Employ a 2d canvas for a really big batch rather than stacking the chicken in a 2nd layer. If your oven has a convection way, the fan will also assist to keep the surface of the chicken crisp and dry.

Utilize a Toaster Oven

You tin use the same basic technique if you have a toaster oven or small countertop oven. Most of these appliances volition only concur iv to eight pieces of chicken comfortably, merely that's plenty for a small group.

Note that there are a couple of potential problems with this approach: One is that the elements in toaster ovens are low, then you may need to slide a minor square of foil over the chicken to keep it from scorching. As long every bit you lot don't fold the foil down over the chicken, though, it shouldn't trap too much steam. The other problem is finding a wire rack the correct size to fit into the small-scale roasting pan of the toaster oven. You might demand to scour thrift stores and online vendors for a while to observe one. Alternatively, some toaster ovens are designed then the pan slides right under the oven's own rack. That works simply fine.

Employ a Roaster or Wearisome Cooker

A countertop roaster oven or slow cooker tin also piece of work well, though they're not as skillful at circulating air around the chicken pieces. Withal, every bit long as you keep your chicken pieces in a single layer, they tin can do the job. Heat the roaster to 200 F or the slow cooker to its high setting and discover a wire rack that fits. In an oval slow cooker, you might demand to use a square or rectangular rack in the middle and round ones at the ends.

Tin't find a rack to fit? Effort scrunching foil into balls well-nigh the size of a golf ball and using them to make full the bottom of the roaster or slow cooker. They'll work similar a rack, allowing the craven to drain and air to broadcast. This isn't as good as a rack, but it's a useful hack. Don't put the chapeau on the roaster or slow cooker, because that would trap steam. Instead, cover it with a make clean kitchen towel.

Apply a Chafing Dish

If yous're going to be serving in the backyard and you lot don't want to run an extension cord out there, consider buying or renting a chafing dish. These come in various sizes and shapes, but the most useful are the big rectangular types that restaurants use. They burn gel fuel, and they'll definitely create enough rut to keep your craven hot.

Once again, place a rack at the bottom to keep the underside of your chicken from getting soggy and don't use the hat that comes with the dish. A clean kitchen towel is your friend here besides. Be sure to use a towel that's just big enough to comprehend the craven, because if it's long enough to hang over the edge, it'll probably notice its style to the gel flame sooner or later. And yous desire your guests to think the chicken, non any unnecessary "excitement."

References

Writer Bio

Fred Decker is a trained chef, quondam restaurateur and prolific freelance writer, with a special interest in all things related to food and diet. His piece of work has appeared online on major sites including Livestrong.com, WorkingMother.com and the websites of the Houston Chronicle and San Francisco Relate; and offline in Canada's Foodservice & Hospitality mag and his local daily newspaper. He was educated at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.

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