The Ultimate Fried Chicken Sandwich Recipe

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]The ultimate crispy chicken sandwich you can easily make at home.

[00:00:07]This sandwich has three different layers of flavor. I'm gonna show you how to do that. Easy as one, two, three. You will be the talk of the town.

[00:00:17]All right, let's get into it. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs. That's what I use. That's what you should use. You get a lot of flavor. A lot of flavor. Way more than the breast. If you want to use the breast, you can, but if you want the real thing, use boneless, skinless thighs. So, these are fresh from the market. It's too big for one sandwich.

[00:00:38]So, we're just going to cut these. Trim the extra fat off. All right. Sanitize your cutting board real well.

[00:00:46]Buttermilk.

[00:00:47]Very little of pickle juice. Your favorite hot sauce. All right. I'm using Crystals today. I love Crystal Hot sauce with fried chicken. You need to put about about a/4 cup or so. Sprinkle of salt. We're going to season the chicken again. So, I'm just giving it some flavor now. Little bit of pepper. And this is ground thyme. Maybe like a half a teaspoon. Get in here and just kind of like really soak it. So, normally I have another one that's being soaked in the fridge now that I started this morning, probably about 4 hours ago. So, the longer this sits here, the more tender and the more flavor it's going to absorb. Get some saran wrap, cover it up really well, and put this in the fridge, preferably overnight, but obviously the longer this stays in the fridge, the better it's going to taste. That is the trick. That's what restaurants do. They normally make this stuff the day before.

[00:01:40]Take this, put it in the fridge. Be right back. This chicken has been soaking in the fridge for about 4 hours.

[00:01:46]You're going to get yourself a pan with a rack just like this. All right. You take this chicken out. You pull these off. You put them on a rack. You need to put this in the fridge. The longer this stays in the fridge, the crispier this chicken is going to get. So, we're going to take this, put it in the fridge, let it air dry, and bring it back out. All right. Very important. This liquid that you cho that you soak the chicken in, don't throw it away yet. We're going to be using it.

[00:02:12]All right. So, put this to the side.

[00:02:18]While the chicken's in the fridge, we're going to make the spice. So, the spice, we're going to use it two ways. So, we're going to spice up the chicken with it. Then, we're going to spice up the flour that becomes the drenching. So, this is going to be the breading for the chicken. This how you do that. 1 tbspoon of smoked paprika. Half of a teaspoon of cayenne. One teaspoon of salt. Half a teaspoon of black pepper. Half a teaspoon of garlic powder. Half a teaspoon of dried mustard. 1/4 of a teaspoon of ground thyme. Not that much because remember you put some in the chicken. Then you're putting some in the spice and in the drenching. So you have to go super light. Okay. Mix this up really well. All right. So now that the chicken is ready, the spice is ready.

[00:02:59]I'm going to pull the chicken off, spice up the chicken, then spice up this drenching, and we'll be ready to rock and roll. This has been in the fridge for about two hours. So, this is the trick of this sandwich. You spice up in layers, right? If I would take this and put it in here and just drench it, it's going to be good. But, we want it to be phenomenal. You spice up as you go in little levels at a time. We spiced up the buttermilk with the hot sauce and the pickle juice that's all soaked into the chicken. All right? Right? And it made it super tender. So now you take the spice that you just prepared, you sprinkle from above, at least, you know, like 10 in, 12 in from above, and just go like this. All the spice is right onto the chicken. So when you're eating the chicken sandwich, you're not just getting the flavor on the flour or on the drenching or on the breading. You're getting in the chicken, on the chicken, and into the breading. All right? You see what I'm saying? You flip it. Little bit more seasoning on the other side.

[00:03:55]Just like so. Perfect. All right. So, we're just going to set this to the side for a second. Time to make the drenching. This is just regular allpurpose flour. Cornstarch.

[00:04:09]Normally, it's one part flour to half part starch. So, two cups of flour, one cup of cornstarch. A good three teaspoons of this spice. And you want to go heavy because it requires you to be heavy on the spice. So, one, two, that's three. So this is the trick. About a/4 teaspoon celery seeds. All right. So now mix it up real well. Your hands are the best tools. If you want it a little bit more spicy, add a little bit more cayenne. Believe me, when you start making these sandwiches and you get the hang of it, you will never ever buy any chicken sandwich from anywhere. This is so good. When you make one, it's easy to make a dozen. Make sure they're mixed really well. You don't want to drench the chicken in here and you end up with all the spices on one and all the salt on the other one and just flour on one side. I'm just going to clean up a little bit. Then we're going to start drenching. The flour is ready to go.

[00:05:05]Your chicken is ready to go. I'm not a big fan of frying on the stove top. I like something with a thermostat. Set it to 350° and let it get warm. If you want to fry on the stove top, go for it. Just be extra careful. Leave a thermometer in there. Make sure the oil doesn't skyrocket, meaning the temperature doesn't skyrocket on you if you drop the chicken in there. One, it will spill over. Two, it will burn from the outside. You definitely don't want that.

[00:05:33]All right, so just a simple electric fryer will do the job just right. The soak and liquid that we used and we set to save onto the side. This is the time for it. And this is the trick how you end up with extra extra crispy fried chicken. This is the trick. This is what restaurants do. All right. So, you take some of this liquid and you pour it right over the flour mixture that you just spiced up. So, I put about four tablespoons in here. You need to get in here with your hands and make sure that you do this number. Clump it up. And the reason I'm saying that because these are the bits are going to get that extra extra extra crunch when you're frying them. You take the chicken, you put it in here, and press down. So, this is what we're looking for. All right, press it in there. Don't be afraid. Let me put this to the side. And we're going to be frying up. All right, so our oil is ready. It's exactly at 350°. We're going to fry these in batches, two at a time.

[00:06:32]I don't want the oil to drop in temperature. That's how you end up with extremely oily food. All right? So, if you fry right, believe me, the food will not be greasy. So, we're going to take these pieces and just drop them into here. So, when you drop it, just kind of do this number. Make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the basket. We're going to do two pieces at a time. We don't want the temperature to drop a lot. If I put all four pieces in here, it can handle it, but the food is going to be not crispy. One, two, it's going to soak up a lot of the oil. Imagine putting a sponge into a water or oil.

[00:07:06]It's just going to suck it all up. But if you put it in there at the right temperature, it will cook it from the outside. The heat will penetrate through, but it will not stay put. Cool.

[00:07:16]So, get yourself another cooling rack to drain all the excess oil off. Or you can put like kitchen paper or towel paper here. You put the fried chicken on here.

[00:07:26]What happens to the oil? It's going to get sucked right back in. Do not do that. All right. All this hard work that you did, you're going to ruin it in 1 second. Just get yourself a cooling rack, get it ready thermometer. I use it. It doesn't mean that I don't know what I'm doing. I want the right temperature. I don't want to overcook it. I definitely don't want to undercook it. for $10. Skip the Trust me. We're going to be cooking to 160°.

[00:07:51]All right. So, our 163. So, we're good.

[00:07:54]All right. Get yourself a new clean one.

[00:07:58]Take them out. Just let them sit here.

[00:08:00]Then, when we assemble the sandwich, we drop them in the hot oil and just get them extra extra crispy. That is the trick. And that's how you get extra crispy fried chicken.

[00:08:11]Now, look at this Colonel ain't got on this. 100%. Now that these are ready, time to make this delicious lemony sauce that goes with this beautiful fried chicken. 1 and 1/2 cups of mayo here. Salt, pepper, few dashes of crystal, the brine from the pickles, a dash of smoked paprika, a dash of cayenne, a small sprinkle of dried mustard. All right. When I say sprinkle, I mean a sprinkle. Something with cooking, there isn't exact recipes are boring. All right? Whenever you make a recipe, make it your own. If you like it spicy, add more cayenne. You don't like it, don't put it in there. I'm definitely not the first person that makes a fried chicken sandwich. Okay?

[00:08:57]So, I'm just making this my way and you make it your way. Celery seeds, about a quarter of a teaspoon. Poppy seeds, about a teaspoon. I just like that crunch and that flavor that gives you.

[00:09:10]And a zest of one whole lemon. It makes the sauce so freaking delicious, man. It might seem like a lot, but it's not.

[00:09:21]Then the juice of a half a lemon. Make sure to get all the juice out of it. Mix it up. And you want it to be a little bit on the thicker side. Like so. Now it's time to make the klela. Green cabbage.

[00:09:35]Red cabbage. Just cut it like this.

[00:09:38]Carrot. So, use a peeler. Just kind of go like this. Probably about a half a carrot. Quarter of an onion. Sliced thinly. These are dill pickles that we make here in house. Okay. A little bit of this pickle juice. Just a little bit.

[00:09:53]Just like that. I take some of the dill pickles and I chop some up and I mix them with the kleslaw. So, whenever you mix klelaw, you need to use your hands.

[00:10:02]All right? Wash your hands real good or wear some gloves. You can buy these on Amazon. Cheap as All right. And they're a lifesaver. You take your sauce little at a time. All right. I don't want to take this whole dressing and put it in here. If I need more, I will add more. So, you start mixing like so. Just keep mixing, fluffing it up. That's it.

[00:10:23]Now, put it to the side. Time to toast up your buns. Butter. You take it like so. Do not open it up. I want the inside to stay soft. So, we're just toasting from the outside. All right. That's what we're looking for. The buns are toasted, ready to go. So now the oil is hot. It's still at 350°. So now we're just going to drop them in there. Crisp them up for 1 minute. All right, 1 minute. No more.

[00:10:48]I did not use too much salt in this recipe. As soon as this comes out hot, little bit of kosher salt from above, it's time to assemble. Little of the sauce on the bottom. Little bit of this delicious cola that you just prepared.

[00:11:02]Now let's give it a try.

[00:11:10]fire. You can definitely taste all three layers of flavor. We spiced up the sauce, we spiced up the flour, we spiced up the chicken and it's just like a perfect balance. Not just the chicken is spiced up and everything else is dull. It's all just comes together.

[00:11:27]Absolutely delicious. Please make it. I love to see what you guys do. Tag me with it. I love seeing that chat.