chickenfrying
I use a simple fried chicken recipe: wash chicken (I use thighs), dredge in seasoned flour, dip in egg with a bit of milk, re-dredge in flour, shake and fry. The dish comes out great on the day I cook it, but loses its crunch the next day when I want to take it as part of a picnic lunch.
Is there a way to avoid the limp-crusted fried chicken on day 2?
P.S. I remove skin and all visible fat, and I drain on paper towels both top and bottom sides.
Deep frying is certainly an easier way to get things crispy, but there are things you can do to get crispy batter without it.
First off is the bread crumbs. Ideally the bread should be relatively stale and therefore dry. If you blitz your own breadcrumbs, leave them out for a few hours to thoroughly dry out before you pane. You can also try using panko, which are pre-packed Japanese breadcrumbs that are very crispy. You can usually find them in supermarkets these days.
The other thing you can do is double-crumb the chicken, so flour, egg, breadcrumbs, egg, breadcrumbs. This double layer of crumb should make for a really crunchy crust.
Finally, you can pseudo-deep fry using a wok. Rather than a full pan of hot oil, just put an inch of oil in a wok and fry in that: safer and less waste. A good way of knowing when the oil is hot enough is to use a wooden chopstick. Simply put the tip into the oil and if bubbles immediately gather around it, the oil's hot enough.
Set your oven to about 120 degrees F/50 degrees C, pop a plate with some kitchen paper on it in there, and fry in batches, placing the chicken on the plate while do you the rest.
If you use this method, you could try a tempura style batter. Take 100ml of chilled soda water and mix with 140g of self-raising flour and mix well. Dust your chicken with cornflour (cornstarch), then into the batter and straight into the oil. Turn a few times to ensure even cooking - when the batter is a nice golden brown it should be done, about 5-6 minutes.
In the case of the breading recipe that you have mentioned, I believe that you can continue to use soy milk (or almond milk, or even water) mixed with the egg in your breading. Instead, a small change to technique should give you a thicker and crunchier coating.
You may need to increase the amount of egg/soy milk mixture you create.
Try adapting the breading method as follows:
This should provide a crunchier, more satisfying crust than a simple single dredge in pristine flour due to the lumps and clumps which will fry up and be crunchy and toothsome.
This advise is based on a the method described by Cooks Illustrated and Kenji Alt of Serious Eats Food lab among others. This picture is from the Food Lab article on replicating Chic-Fil-A chicken sandwiches at home:
Best Answer
Once fried chicken or any fried food for that matter is refrigerated it is going to lose it's crispiness. This is due to the cruncy exterior coating absorbing moisture from inside the food combined with moisture being trapped inside the wrapping/storange container which then is absorbed by the food as well. It happens even shortly after frying if the food item is placed on a flat surface where the inner steam can't escape and is trapped between the food and the surface under it. This is why when frying large batches or holding fried food for any extended time, it's best to drain on a cooling rack that's upside down on a brown paper bag or paper towels. Upside down so that it's close to the paper to absorb excess grease but still allows a small bit of airspace so that steam can escape and if keeping it in a warm oven, hot air can circulate.
You can re-crisp your chicken by placing it on a roasting/cooling rack on a baking tray and place in the oven to re-crisp the skin. Be careful not to dry it out.