What’s better than crispy chicken? duh, a crispy chicken thigh burger, Imagine yourself sinking your teeth into super crunchy, yet succulent meat, sandwiched between a soft brioche bun. I have been craving for a perfect crispy chicken burger for so long and I tried a few variations, but now I am finally happy to provide tips and tricks on how to nail this amazing recipe.
I work full time in recipe development/Product development for the retail market here in Australia, and in one of my previous work, I used to develop the recipe for crispy chicken for the top fast-food restaurants. A little bit of an inside story about fast-food restaurants.
Many of the fast-food restaurants, would come up with the initial recipe and outsource large scale manufacturing to big companies, so that’s why the crispy chicken you eat anywhere from one particular fast-food chain will always taste the same in the same country because its mass-produced and all that the individual stores have to do is just dip the chicken in the crumb that is already produced with the secret seasoning. So I have great insights and secret tricks on how to perfect crispy chicken just like the ones you get in KFC. but I will be simplifying this recipe so it’s easy to replicate.
How to make the chicken crispy? Why does the chicken turn soggy?
1.The temperature of the oil :
Now the biggest secret is the temperature of the oil and the frying time. if you fry it at a very high temperature, it will quickly burn the coating and will not taste good. the secret is medium fire and longer. Because you need the chicken to be fully cooked as well.
2. Drain it on a wire rack:
Now not like all fried food, you normally would drain it on a paper towel, but not this one, it needs to be drained on a wire rack. The reason being that this crumb is a breader ( flour+ cornflour mix) not like bread crumb this can get soggy very quickly, so if you drain onto a paper towel then the oil will just be sitting on top of the chicken which in turn will make your chicken soggy.
What cut of chicken to use for crispy chicken thigh burger?
For the burger definitely use chicken thigh fillet skin off, because you need it to be boneless and easy to cook. don’t use chicken breast as this will dry out very easily when frying, you want it to be succulent.
Do you have to use buttermilk for chicken thigh burger?
Now every fried chicken recipe I developed for fast food will always be brined or brined in buttermilk. What buttermilk does is, it will absorb it inside the meat, which in turn will make the chicken ultra juicy. so yes if you want juicy juicy chicken, definitely use buttermilk.
How to make a crispy chicken thigh burger?
Lettuce or salad
Tomatoes
Crispy chicken
Soft brioche rolls ( definitely use my brioche roll recipe as it will make a huge difference)
Mayonnaise
Cheese
Pickles
What kind of cheese to use on a chicken thigh burger?
The best cheese to use is cheddar or gouda, but I have used a normal tasty slice cheese, as I had plenty of them lying in my fridge and its equally delicious.
How to make crispy chicken thigh burger?
First, it needs to be flattened, because chicken thigh does not have the same thickness all over, then it needs to be soaked in the buttermilk mixture, then the secret coating needs to be made ( well it’s no secret any more because it’s all out there now) then it needs to be deep-fried and finally assemble the burger.
KFC Copycat recipe
There is a recipe called KFC copy cat recipe circulating, I decided to give it a try as well, and of course did a few adjustments, to make it less complicated and definitely use fewer ingredients. with my expertise in recipe development, what I have gotten good at when time passed by is that there are so many ingredients that can be cut down and make it super simple, if an ingredient, doesn’t contribute to the final taste profile of the product, then it surely shouldn’t be there and not worth buying as well.
Can I crumb the chicken and leave it in the fridge to fry later?
Yes, you can but, you will still need to crumb it again just before frying, the reason being that when you crumb and leave it because the chicken is soaked in a liquid, it will release the liquid out the more you leave it and make the crumb soggy, so although you do the initial crumbing and would fry it later, keep the crumb so you can just dip it lightly to coat it just before frying.
Do you feel like having a beef burger just like the big mac? then try my juicy beef burger recipe and also check out my dinner recipes.
Watch how to make homemade deep Fried crispy chicken thigh burger
Step by step recipe on how to make homemade deep-fried crispy chicken thigh burger
Homemade Deep Fried Crispy Chicken Thigh Burger
Equipment
- Pots and Pans
Ingredients
Buttermilk Mixture
- 1 cup Milk Fresh milk
- 3 tbsp Lemon Juice Squeezed
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp salt Table salt
Secret Seasoning
- 1.5 tsp Sweet Paprika Powder
- 1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper Powder
- 1 tsp Mustard Powder
- 3 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1.5 tsp Onion Powder
- 3 tsp Dried herbs Powder
- 2 tsp Salt Powder
- 1/4 tsp Black pepper Powder
Breader
- 100 g All-purpose flour
- 60 g Corn flour
- Secret seasoning ( All of it)
Meat
- 4 pieces Chicken Thigh skin off boneless
To assemble the burger
- 1 Tomato Sliced
- 1 Gherkin Sliced
- 4 slices Cheese
- Handful Lettuce ( finely shredded) or mixed Salad
- 4 Brioche buns Store-bought or homemade ( check my homemade brioche recipe)
Instructions
Buttermilk
- Place milk and lemon juice in a bowl, mix well and leave aside for 10 minutes until it curdles slightly (This is the process of making buttermilk)
- Once the buttermilk is ready, add the egg, salt and mix well ( This mix will resemble a thick batter)
- Place the chicken thigh on a cling wrap and flatten it using a meat flattener or in my case a rolling pin 🙂
- Place the flattened chicken in the buttermilk mixture and soak. Leave for 2 hours in the fridge
Secret seasoning
- Combine all ingredients together and mix well
- Place the flour, cornflour and the secret seasoning ( all of it ) in a bowl and mix well with a spoon to combine well
Preparing the chicken
- Take the chicken out and directly plunge it into the crumb (breader) mixture that was prepared ( it is alright if the buttermilk mixture falls onto the crumb mixture as this will give that crumbly effect for the chicken)
- Heat a large pot of oil on medium fire, once the oil is hot fry the chicken for 3 -4 minutes until fully cooked
- Drain it on a wire rack
To assemble the burger
- First, cut the brioche buns in half and toast the brioche buns on a pan ( heat a pan on medium heat and add the buns on the pan to lightly toast. Place a slice of cheese on top of the crispy chicken, slightly reheat in the in the microwave so that the cheese melts, ( 30 seconds max)Then add mayonnaise on both pieces, place tomato, gherkins, crispy chicken topped with melted cheese, Finally, top up with salad and the top part of the brioche bun and Enjoy
2 thoughts on “Homemade Deep Fried Crispy Chicken Thigh Burger”
I made this today, very nice crispy chicken and easy to make!
Will definitely make again, thank you for sharing the recipe!
Thank you