Club Soda Fried Chicken

Crispy and light fried chicken using an unsuspecting ingredient. So delicious and crunchy!

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Don’t you just love crispy fried chicken? Yeah, me too. But it sure is hard to make it come out like the good restaurants do.

While researching my options for crispy fried chicken, I occasionally stumbled upon a recipe that called for club soda. At first, I figured it was gimmicky. But after seeing it in several places, I decided to take an old family recipe and try to work club soda into it.

The first run was a success! I tweaked a couple of things for the second try and found a great landing place for this recipe. So here you are.

Club Soda Fried Chicken

Course:
Cuisine:
Difficulty:
Servings
4
servings
Prep time
20
minutes
Cook time
20
minutes
Total time
40
minutes

Ingredients

  • 2
    lbs
    chicken thighs
    or other meat
  • 1.25
    cups
    all-purpose flour
  • 0.5
    cup
    corn starch
  • 1
    tsp
    baking powder
  • 16
    oz
    club soda
    or seltzer water
  • 1
    tsp
    sea salt
  • 1
    tbsp
    seasoning salt
  • vegetable oil
    for frying

Directions

  • In a large bowl, mix together 1 cup flour, 0.25 cup corn starch, baking powder and salt.

  • Stir in most of the club soda but be careful not to make the batter too thin. You want it to be thin enough to keep the coating light but thick enough that it sticks to the chicken. This may be a matter of preference. Mix in seasoning and set aside.

  • In another bowl, mix together the remaining flour and corn starch.

  • In a deep pot, add 2 or 3 inches of oil and heat to 375° (on my stove, that’s medium-high). I didn’t use a thermometer; I just gauge the right temperature based on how bubbly the oil is when I drop a test of batter into it. Keep in mind that it will cool slightly when you add the chicken.

  • Cut chicken to desired portions (I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs and cut them into 2 or 3 pieces each, depending on size), then pat dry with a paper towel. Dredge each piece in the dry flour mixture, then shake off excess. This is what helps the batter stick to the chicken. Note: if you made your batter thick, you may not need this step.

  • Dip each piece in the batter, then allow excess to drip off. Then carefully place in the hot oil. Do this for each piece, but don’t be in a rush; a pause in between will help keep the oil at an even temperature while also reducing the chance of the pieces sticking together. Don’t crowd the pan, allow each piece to have some space, perhaps an inch or so between them.

  • Allow to cook until lightly golden brown. Note that it won’t be quite as dark brown as you might be used to seeing —- the corn starch doesn’t allow the batter to brown as dark as just using flour alone or breadcrumbs. I cooked mine for about 20 minutes each batch since the pieces were fairly large.

  • Drain on a cooling rack over paper towels. If you have several batches to cook, you might consider putting each batch in a 160° oven to keep hot and crispy (I used my convection toaster oven).

  • Serve with your favorite sauce, if desired. The crunch will blow you away!