Fried chicken is the best. Period. Full stop. Fried chicken reminds us of childhood. It fills our souls with happiness. It tastes like pure, unadulterated heaven. Fried chicken.
The only problem with fried chicken: it’s fried. That means it’s unhealthy. Bigly unhealthy. How do we get that comfort? How do we get that crunch? How do we get that flavor? How do we get all that but without the artery clogging consequences?
Fried chicken is hard to replicate because of frying’s secret magic. The blazing hot oil seals the juices inside while forming a crispy shell. People offer baking as an alternative. We’ve had plenty of baked imitations of fried chicken. While an oven can deliver the crunchy exterior, too often it dries out the meat.
We cook a lot with an Instant Pot. It does great work making tender and juicy chicken. The skin, however, comes out limp. Recently, we wrote an article about pressure cooking chicken and finishing it in a broiler to crisp the skin. Hint: it works swimmingly. “Could we go further?” we asked. Crispy is one thing. Could we achieve that fried-like texture? Answer: you betcha!
Now, listen, this chicken ain’t fried. You know it. I know it. Heck, the chicken knows it. But, the sensory experience gets close, and it’s a heckuva lot easier on the old ticker, i.e., our heart.
Ingredients
- One cup of chicken stock (or water)
- Four chicken thighs
- 1/3 cup of flour
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 3/4 cup of panko
- One tablespoon of paprika
- One teaspoon of salt
- One teaspoon of pepper
- One teaspoon of garlic powder
- One teaspoon of onion powder
- One teaspoon of pepper
Directions
Pour chicken stock into pressure cooker. Insert steam rack. Place chicken on steam rack. Cook on “High Pressure” for 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450°F. Prepare three bowls: one with flour; one with beaten egg; one with panko, paprika, salt and pepper mixed.
When pressure cooker finishes, remove chicken and pat dry. Roll chicken in flour, then dunk in egg, then coat with panko.
Use a roasting pan with a rack. Arrange thighs skin-side down on the rack. Spritz tops and sides with olive oil. (We use this Ideal Olive Oil Mister from The Fine Life.) Place pan in oven for a couple of minutes until tops turn golden brown. Remove pan. Flip thighs skin-side up. Spritz tops and sides with olive oil. Return to oven. Again, cook until tops become golden brown. Remember: the chicken is already cooked. This exercise is all about developing the crispy, crunchy crust.
*If you’re fortunate enough to own an air fryer, that works even better. Set to 400°F, and cook until the crust is formed.
6 Responses
Salt/peppered the chicken when placing on steam rack in instant pot. Used only garlic powder, salt in flour. Drizzled olive oil, put in oven 10 minutes. Used olive oil again other side, another 5 minutes. Results were closer to fried chicken.
Good input, Tom. Thanks!
I fry mine and coconut oil, which is healthy, in my stove top pressure cooker. Get the oil hot put a few pieces of chicken in seal it up Let it cook for about 10 minutes turn it off depressurize, unseal turn it over cook with the lid open for about 5 minutes and pull it out and start on the next batch.
I don’t use the unhealthy oils: canola, corn, soybean, safflower , polyunsaturated oils. The healthy oils to cook with are coconut, especially for high heat because it has a high smoke point, olive oil only for low heat or no heat, butter, lard, ghee, tallow.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/coconut-oil-butter-worse-beef-dripping-experts-health-diet-wellness-cooking-ingredient-a7793961.html
Can I use regular bread crumbs, I don’t have any panko