Best Fried Chicken Recipes for Korean Fried Chicken, Southern Fried Chicken and More

Our best fried chicken recipes include recipes for Korean fried chicken, Southern fried chicken, Japanese fried chicken karaage, Burmese fried chicken, and more. We’ve got recipes for fried chicken fried rice, fried chicken rice bowls, and fried chicken sandwiches and burgers. Plus links to recipes for perfect fried chicken sides such as potato salad and mashed potatoes.

Aside from the crunchy skin and juicy meat within, one of the things that we most love about fried chicken is that you can eat it year-round. Fried chicken is fantastic with creamy mashed potatoes or spicy potato wedges in the cooler autumn/fall or winter months and pairs perfectly with fresh crisp salads in spring and summer.

You can pack finger-licking spicy Southern fried chicken and potato salad into a spring picnic basket (is there better picnic food than fried chicken?), make fried chicken burgers for a weekend summer lunch, or turn leftovers into fried chicken fried rice, a dish that’s warming on a chilly autumn, fall or winter night.

Every cuisine seems to have fried chicken recipes – we’ve eaten fried chicken everywhere from Myanmar to Mexico – which isn’t surprising, seeing fried chicken dates back to Roman times. The earliest documented fried chicken recipe is in Apicius, De re culinaria or De re coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking), the 4th Century Roman cookbook.

But what I also love about fried chicken is that if you have any leftovers – okay, so let’s assume you made a huge batch for a family gathering or game day snacks – you can simply reheat the chicken in the oven and the crispy fried chicken will be even crunchier. Or you can re-purpose it in soups, sandwiches, burgers, or fried rice.

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Now let me tell you more about our best fried chicken recipes.

Best Fried Chicken Recipes for Southern Fried Chicken, Korean Fried Chicken, and More

Our best fried chicken recipes for Korean fried chicken, Southern fried chicken, Japanese fried chicken karaage, and recipes for leftover fried chicken.

Best Burmese Fried Chicken Recipe for a Spicy Street Food Snack from Myanmar at Home

This Burmese fried chicken recipe tops the list of our best fried chicken recipes. It makes gently spiced fried chicken drumsticks, which are a popular street food snack in Myanmar. The fried chicken pieces are sold at roadside stalls to take away or eat at plastic tables set up around the stall.

While Thai style fried chicken may be better known here in Southeast Asia, Myanmar’s fried chicken is easily as delicious, and this Burmese fried chicken recipe will make you the kind of fried chicken that locals love to tuck into on the streets of Yangon and other cities in Myanmar.

One thing that we love about this recipe is that the dredge is a one-step process – there are no egg or breadcrumbs. You place the flour and spices in a plastic bag, add the marinated chicken pieces, and shake the bag to coat. As the coating is thin, keep the temperature at around 175°C (350°F) checking it with a deep fry thermometer.

Locals use a huge wok for deep-frying, but Terence has a deep saucepan just for deep-frying as it’s become well-seasoned. If you deep-fry often it’s worth investing in a dedicated deep fryer. We serve this with chicken with some homemade sweet chilli sauce or homemade Thai Sriracha sauce.

Best Burmese Fried Chicken Recipe for a Spicy Street Food Snack from Myanmar at Home

 

Korean Fried Chicken Recipe for Crispy Fried Chicken in a Spicy Sauce

This Korean fried chicken recipe makes crispy fried chicken brushed in a special spicy Korean fried chicken sauce and it’s another of our best fried chicken recipes. The chicken skin soaks the sauce right up so you’ve got fried chicken with a super flavourful skin. It’s incredibly delicious and tastes even better re-heated the next day.

When you’re making this Korean fried chicken, use a candy thermometer to keep track of the oil temperature. The “drop a piece of bread in and see if it bubbles” test is silly when thermometers are so inexpensive these days.

As always with deep frying, it’s safety first. Have a fire extinguisher handy and wear closed shoes. Always use sturdy metal tongs, I’ve found the silicone tipped ones are not great for grabbing sizzling hot pieces of any meat.

One of the key components of this Korean fried chicken recipe is the Korean fried chicken sauce. The secret to this spicy sauce is the Korean fermented hot chilli paste known as gojujang and there is no substitute. We combine the gojujang with honey, fresh garlic, ginger, and Japanese soy sauce.

Korean Fried Chicken Recipe for Crispy Fried Chicken in a Spicy Sauce

 

Japanese Fried Chicken Recipe for Super Crispy Juicy Karaage Chicken Pieces

Our Japanese fried chicken recipe for karaage chicken makes incredibly juicy chicken pieces with a crispy skin and it’s easily another of our best fried chicken recipes. Karaage is a technique that calls for marinating the chicken, before a light coating with flour, then twice-frying the chicken.

Japanese fried chicken is available everywhere in Japan, from izakayas, where you can order karaage chicken among other small plates of drinking food to soak up the booze, to convenience stores, where the chicken is sold in take-away cardboard containers.

One of karaage chicken’s biggest fans was Anthony Bourdain who confessed he was addicted to karaage chicken. Bourdain said whenever he passed through Narita airport, he’d make a beeline for a Lawson convenience store and that he “never got on the plane without loading up on these bad boys”.

I prefer home-cooked karaage chicken and I love this Japanese fried chicken recipe. Getting a crunchy exterior involves three steps – first marinating the chicken, then coating it in flour, then twice frying the chicken, and Terence has photos in the post below on what the first fry looks like.

In the colder months, this Japanese fried chicken calls for a side of korokke or deep-fried panko-coated mashed potato croquettes (recipe coming soon), while during warmer weather you’re going to want to tuck into some karaage chicken with this Japanese potato salad or Japanese style cucumber and cabbage salad.

Japanese Fried Chicken Recipe for Crispy Juicy Karaage Chicken Pieces

 

Southern Fried Chicken Recipe for Belles Hot Chicken Spicy Nashville Style Chicken

This Southern fried chicken recipe by Belles Hot Chicken’s chef Morgan McGlone is another of our best fried chicken recipes for fried chicken in the spicy Nashville-style of chicken. Australian chef Morgy McGlone learnt to make it during his time in the USA, where he immersed himself in learning how to make and perfect the South’s famous hot chicken.

As you’d expect from a chef who immersed himself in learning how to cook fried chicken in the USA, Morgy’s Southern-style fried chicken recipe is the real deal. Boneless skin-on chicken thighs are coated in seasoned flour that forms a ‘glue’ on the chicken and then the pieces are deep fried to get a crispy skin.

The fried chicken pieces are then dipped in a spicy oil mixture that the chef calls ‘Masala chicken fat’ but the real secret to why this Southern fried chicken recipe makes the best fried chicken is the final spicy seasoning that elevates this fried chicken to the next level.

This recipe makes us a big batch of succulent spicy chicken pieces that we’ll tuck into with crunchy fries or spicy potato wedges, eat in chicken burgers, and use as leftovers to make chicken fried rice.

Southern Fried Chicken Recipe for Belles Hot Chicken Spicy Nashville Style Chicken

 

Spicy Fried Chicken Sandwich Recipe with Southern Fried Chicken and Tangy Mayonnaise

This spicy fried chicken sandwich recipe makes a classic fried chicken sandwich or fried chicken burger if you prefer, made with Australian chef Morgy McGlone’s famously fiery Belles Hot Chicken, crunchy lettuce, melty American cheese, and tangy mayonnaise.

If you’re a fan of the Aussie chef’s take on Nashville-style Southern fried chicken, you’ll love this spicy fried chicken burger, or, ahem, spicy fried chicken sandwich. It’s easily another of our best fried chicken recipes.

When we have cravings for fast food, we’ll make home-cooked fast food, which is far healthier, far more affordable, and lots of fun to make, especially if you’re recreating some of your favourite fast food at home, whether’s fries and burgers or meat pies and sausage rolls.

We like to pile crispy shoestring fries on the side, but you could also serve these spicy fried chicken burgers with crunchy hand-cut fries or spicy potato wedges.

Spicy Fried Chicken Sandwich Recipe with Southern Fried Chicken and Tangy Mayonnaise

 

Karaage Chicken Donburi Recipe for a Japanese Fried Chicken Rice Bowl with Cucumber Salad

One for the lovers of Japanese comfort food, this karaage chicken donburi recipe makes a Japanese fried chicken rice bowl. Steamed rice is topped with chicken karaage and a Japanese cucumber and cabbage salad, sprinkled with sesame seeds, roasted seaweed and bonito flakes, and generously squirted with creamy Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise.

The recipe was created to use up leftover karaage chicken and cabbage cucumber salad, and if you made those dishes and have leftovers, this dish will come together in fifteen minutes – the time it takes to cook some steamed Japanese rice in a rice cooker, re-heat the fried chicken, and assemble the bowls.

If you’re starting from scratch, it’s going to become a bit of a cooking project, so buy a bottle of sake and make double the fried chicken, so you’re creating leftovers to repurpose. Make the karaage and cucumber cabbage salad the first night, and perhaps this Japanese potato salad, then the next day make this karaage donburi, and the day after the karaage, fried rice and eggs, below.

If you don’t have any traditional Japanese donburi bowls, I highly recommending buying some, especially if you’re planning on making more donburi or rice bowl dishes, such as oyakodon, the Japanese ‘chicken and egg’ rice bowl, and katsudon, a pork cutlet and egg rice bowl.

Karaage Chicken Donburi Recipe for a Japanese Fried Chicken Rice Bowl with Cucumber Salad

 

Best Chicken Fried Rice Recipe Made With Spicy Southern Fried Chicken Leftovers

Our chicken fried rice recipe combines our favourite Nashville-style fried chicken by chef Morgan McGlone of Belles Hot Chicken (above) with a classic fried rice. This is a great dish to make to use up your fried chicken leftovers and leftover rice if you’re like us and always seem to steamed rice in the fridge.

We use curry powder in this dish, but a warning: not all curry powders are created equal. A Jamaican style curry powder is very different to a Japanese curry powder, which is different to a Vietnamese curry powder. We used the Thai Nguan Soon curry powder brand but you could use your favourite curry powder – or even make your own blend.

If you make fried rice frequently but you don’t yet have a carbon steel wok, we highly recommend writing a letter to Santa. After it’s been seasoned, a carbon steal wok heat up quickly and has great heat distribution, so when it’s on really high heat you’ll get those wonderful smoky aromas in your dishes.

If you like this chicken fried rice recipe, also see our recipes for our Chinese special fried rice, a classic Cambodian fried rice (bai cha) and Cambodian shrimp fried rice with shrimp paste (bai cha kapi).

Our Best Chicken Fried Rice Recipe Is Made With Spicy Southern Fried Chicken Leftovers

Japanese Fried Rice Bowl Recipe with Soft Jammy Eggs and Karaage Chicken

This Japanese fried rice bowl recipe makes a Japanese donburi of yakimeshi Japanese fried rice with bacon, egg and cabbage, topped with Japanese fried chicken and jammy soft boiled eggs, garnished with sliced spring onions and sesame seeds. It’s another of our best fried chicken recipes.

If you’re new to making jammy soft boiled eggs, follow Terence’s excellent instructions for making perfect boiled eggs.

We like to do our fried rice in this round flat bottomed wok, which is non-stick and light-weight. If you don’t have a wok, you really should get one. Otherwise, use your favourite frying pan or skillet.

As with the karaage chicken recipes, above, you’ll need some Japanese products in the pantry. If you can’t source them locally, they’re available online, such as this Japanese soy sauce, sesame oil, and shichimi togarashi, the Japanese 7 spice blend. Our recipe calls for a mix of white sesame seeds and black sesame seeds, but you could always use the Japanese seasoning furikake.

Japanese Fried Rice Bowl Recipe with Soft Jammy Eggs and Karaage Chicken

Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of our best fried chicken recipes as we’d love to hear how they turned out for you.