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Yes I use a coated pan, and again the coating on the top always seems to disappear as the other side is cooking which is still puzzling . I do press the coating on firmly and do not crowd the pan so I'm left to believe the heat of the oil is the main culprit.
I tried frying potatoes the other day, watched a YouTube video of a woman frying potatoes, and did exactly what she did. I boiled the peeled and cubed potatoes slightly, made sure they were dry, made sure the oil was hot, and still I could not get the potatoes to brown or get crispy. At all. Ended up with mushy potato cubes.
Brand new, clean oil used for the first time will not give you a brown color. If you do several batches you can eventually get some color. Or if you par-fry, do a second batch, then put them each back a second time, you can get some color. The two-fry method works fine with raw potatoes to save yourself trouble. But the best oil is used oil. Don't salt the potatoes first (salt ruins the oil), fry them on their own, save the oil for re-use (mixing with some new is OK), and like everyone says make sure it's the right temperature when they go in, raw or boiled. If the oil isn't hot enough to quick-cook the surface, then the potatoes will absorb oil. The right temperature will seal the surface and cook the inside in a few more minutes.
Dave - you don't have to use that three-step breading process at first if you're learning. Try the seasoned and dredged stuff first, make sure the oil is hot enough, read above about browning, and make sure that A) the pan is not overcrowded and B) there is enough oil, halfway up the food, but not too much. Something like a pork chop you don't want oil on top of them, so be careful how much you put in. They should cook on one side while the top side remains oil-free, then turn them ONCE and cook the other side. If oil is on top it won't be hot enough to cook the top and the coating will absorb the oil and come off the food. You can only do both sides in a pot of oil deep enough that everything you put in it floats freely.
It should all, potatoes or meat or fish or chicken, be dry when you dredge it. Sitting for a bit, like a lot of people told you, will help.
Get a frying or candy thermometer so you can test the oil temperature. When you put food in, the temperature will drop, so you can raise the heat a speck, but then you'll have to lower it again when the temperature rises so nothing burns.
Many good tips here. I use cast iron only for frying as I think it gives me the best results.
Chef Daughter and I have talked before of cooking with all your senses. The size of the bubbles in the oil will tell you something about the degree of doneness of the meat. And so will the sound it makes when it's nearly done inside. It's a subtle difference for some perhaps but I can tell when my batter-dipped pieces of meat are done by the change of the sound in the frying pan.
She uses a touch of her magic heat-proof index finger to determine the doneness of a steak. Doubt it's heat-proof enough to test fried food but like me she uses appearance and sound as well as time.
Y'all have to come over sometime and bring your ears and I'll whip up a batch of sweet and sour pork or some tempura so y'all can hear it.
ALTON BROWN'S "GOOD EATS" SEASON 4 EPISODE 3
"FRY HARD II: THE CHICKEN"
. . . . . . . .
Broiler / Fryer Chicken, cut up, cooked at 325-350F
12" cast iron chicken fryer pan
Overnight soak in buttermilk, drain
Dust with seasonings (encapsulating seasonings prevents burning them)
Dredge in AP flour, shake off excess
Rest on a rack for a few minutes to "set" the coating
Heat 1/3" oil in a 12" frypan [after chicken in place, oil should be half way up the side of the chicken pieces]
Place coated chicken into 350F pan, cook around 12 minutes per side (165-175F internal temperature), turn only once [*vital to leave upper half exposed so that steam can escape and not delaminate the crust*]
Drain on a rack
Keep OIL below 360F, if too hot, oil will begin to break down, make nasty smells, ruin the chicken, etc.
Keep cooked chicken away from moisture / steam, which causes the crust to break down.
Adding this: the thick crunchy coating on fried chicken that you get at the fast food places is not fried. it is pressure fried and there is absolutely no way to do that at home. That is specialized cooking equipment that home cooks do not have.
Um, I don’t think so. KFC uses a pressure fryer, at least for their Original recipe, and the coating is pretty soft. Popeyes, on the other hand, uses regular deep fryers (not pressure) and their coating is the crunchiest (at least of the the mainstream chicken places). Getting excellent crunchy coating at home, either with a deep fryer or pan frying, isn’t that tough to do.
If one wanted to pressure fry, you can do it in a regular pressure cooker. I’ve done it, but no longer as the timing can be really difficult to get right when you can’t see the food to monitor its progress.
If one wanted to pressure fry, you can do it in a regular pressure cooker. I’ve done it, but no longer as the timing can be really difficult to get right when you can’t see the food to monitor its progress.
Please remember, you CANNOT pressure fry in an Instant Pot! Be safe
I don't do a lot of fried foods for obvious reasons. But whenever I tried to fry chicken or pork chops the coating always comes off and I'm left with bare meat in oil. I tried pulling the chicken out, getting it to room temps as someone suggested to me. The other night I followed the recipe for fried pork chops to the letter, which was to simply dredge or shake on the flour and spices, and it was still meat in oil. I had read once where it was steam from the meat so I made sure the chops were dry.
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