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Joule® Turbo Sous Vide

1-gallon Ziplock-style freezer bag(s)

1/2 Sheet pan(s)

Baking/Cooling rack(s)

The Control °Freak® induction cooking system

Dutch oven

Digital instant-read thermometer

Spider strainer

Breville Joule® Oven Air Fryer Pro

Chicken

Kosher salt

All-purpose flour

Cornstarch

Baking soda

Not-So-Secret 12 Herbs & Spices Fried Chicken Seasoning

Buttermilk

Neutral oil

Our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/fried-chicken-spice-blend">Not-So-Secret 12 Herbs &amp; Spices Fried Chicken Seasoning</a> is a sure bet for leveling up the flavor on fried chicken, but you can use your own spice blend for seasoning the flour dredge. If you liked the simplicity of the seasoned flour dredge from the original recipe, we&#39;ve included that formula in the Tip below Step 6.

Before we begin

Heat sous vide water bath to desired temperature according to our doneness guide.

[f 144]: Luscious and juicy
[f 154]: Succulent and fork-tender (our favorite)
[f 185]: Rich and braise-y

Heat sous vide bath

If starting with a whole chicken, you’ll need to break it down into pieces. Using a sharp knife, divide chicken into drumsticks, bone-in thighs, and boneless skin-on breasts.

Break down chicken (optional)

Weigh chicken pieces and scale salt to 1% of total chicken weight (if you started with a 1.8 kg whole chicken then you need to account for yield after butchering). Season chicken pieces on all sides with salt. Divide chicken pieces between two 1-gallon ziplock-style freezer bags or vacuum-seal bags, placing dark meat pieces (drumsticks and thighs) in one bag and white meat pieces (breasts) in the other. Arrange pieces in an even single layer in each bag, making sure they don’t overlap.

Seal bags using water displacement method or vacuum sealer. Transfer bag with white meat pieces to the refrigerator (they will cook for less time than dark meat pieces).

Season and bag chicken

You can substitute the 1% salt with an equal amount of our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/fried-chicken-spice-blend">Not-So-Secret 12 Herbs &amp; Spices Fried Chicken Seasoning</a> for seasoning the chicken pieces before cooking sous vide. The blend has salt in it, so the seasoning will work out just fine.

Level up the seasoning with our not-so-secret spice blend

Lower bag of dark meat pieces into sous vide bath until chicken is fully submerged, and clip to side of water bath container.

Cook for 2 hours.

Cook dark meat sous vide

Once dark meat has cooked for 2 hours, add bag of white meat pieces to sous vide bath (keep dark meat pieces in the bath), and clip to side of water bath container.

Cook for 1 hour longer.

Add white meat and finish cooking chicken

Remove chicken pieces from bags and transfer to a paper towel–lined plate or tray. Pat dry. Using a sharp knife, halve breast pieces lengthwise. Set aside.

In a large, shallow bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, remaining 10 g salt, and spice blend until well combined. Place buttermilk in a second large, shallow bowl. 

Set up a dredging station with containers of flour, buttermilk, and a wire rack set inside a 1/2 sheet pan to the side.

Set up dredging station

If you don&#39;t want to go to the trouble of making our Not-So-Secret 12 Herbs &amp; Spices Fried Chicken Seasoning, and prefer a simple seasoned flour dredge, here&#39;s the formula from the original recipe (we&#39;ve scaled it down slightly, as many readers noted that the original version made too much, resulting in a lot of waste).

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, paprika, onion powder, salt, garlic powder, and a few grindings of pepper until well combined. Proceed with dredging instructions.

Paprika

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Black pepper

Want a simpler seasoned dredge? Here's the original formula

Working in batches, dredge chicken in flour mixture, making sure pieces are fully coated on all sides. Lift from dredge, shake off excess flour, and transfer to prepared wire rack. Let sit for 5 minutes to allow flour mixture to begin hydrating.

After 5 minutes, transfer chicken pieces to buttermilk and turn to fully coat on all sides. Let sit in buttermilk for 5 minutes to fully hydrate flour mixture.

Dip your fingertips into buttermilk and then let drip into flour mixture. Repeat process twice. Using wet fingers, mix up flour, squeezing mixture together to create bits of dough. This helps create a super craggy fried chicken crust.

After 5 minutes, lift chicken pieces from buttermilk and transfer back to flour mixture (don’t shake off excess flour mixture). Dredge once more, making sure pieces are well coated on all sides.

Lift from dredge and transfer back to wire rack. Let rest for at least 5 minutes and up to 20 minutes before frying.

Dredge chicken

Do you prefer your fried chicken with a thin and crispy coating or a more substantial crunchy crust? If you’re in what we call “the camp that loves to feel the crunchiness in the back of your head,” go with the double-dredge instructions above. For crispier chicken, skip the first flour dredge. Dunk the chicken pieces in the buttermilk, dredge them in the flour mixture, and transfer them to the wire rack and let rest for 5 minutes to allow dredge to hydrate. Proceed to frying, for perfectly crispy chicken.

Skip the double dredge for a thin and crispy coating

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to lowest temperature setting ([f 200] for most ovens), with low fan if using a convection oven.

In a large Dutch oven, heat 3 inches of oil to [f 400] over high heat. Set a second wire rack inside a 1/2 sheet pan and place it next to stovetop.

Working in batches of 4 to 6 pieces, add chicken to hot oil and fry until golden brown on all sides, 2 to 4 minutes. Using a spider strainer, transfer to prepared wire rack. Season with salt and transfer to oven to keep warm.

Using spider, skim and discard any stray bits of breading left in fryer oil. Allow oil to return to [f 400], then repeat frying process with remaining chicken.

Fry chicken

Once all chicken pieces are fried, transfer to a platter, and serve.

Dig in!

Chicken can be cooked sous vide, cooled in the bags at room temperature for 10 minutes, then transferred to an ice bath until fully chilled, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Refrigerate in the sealed bags for up to 5 days. 

Reheat chicken in a [f 154] sous vide bath for 30 minutes before proceeding with dredging and frying.

Make-ahead and storage

Fried chicken: Everybody loves it, but no one loves making it—until now. This fried chicken is delicious, and it’s nearly impossible to f* up. This technique is almost foolproof thanks to sous vide: We cook the chicken in a temperature-controlled water bath so it’s well-seasoned and perfectly cooked and juicy—both the dark meat and the white meat. Coated with buttermilk, flour, and our blend of <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/fried-chicken-spice-blend">not-so-secret herbs and spices</a> and briefly fried in hot oil, just to crisp the breading, and the chicken is ready to go. It only takes a couple of minutes!EDITORS’ NOTE: We’ve updated this recipe with an improved flour dredge formula and breading process that we developed for our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/extra-crispy-fried-turkey">Extra Crispy KFC-Style Fried Turkey</a> recipe. We’re always looking for ways to level up our work!

Foolproof Sous Vide Fried Chicken

A closely guarded seasoning is one of the pillars of really good fried chicken. We’re pulling back the curtain and sharing our own variation of the iconic 11 herbs and spices. (Okay, technically, our ingredient count comes to 12. But we’re betting the Colonel’s not counting sea salt as one of his 11, either.) As we embarked on a journey of epic fried poultry proportions—from uncovering all things fried chicken, to creating the ultimate <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/air-fried-chicken">air-fried chicken</a> and an epic KFC-inspired fried turkey Thanksgiving dinner (stay tuned, friends, it’s on the way!)—we knew we’d be judged not just on the crispiness of our breading but also the flavors in our seasoning blend. Only one man was up for the job: Chef Kyl. He has excellent fried chicken experience, straight from the source of those herbs and spices. In fact, he still has his name tag. Kyl dove deep into his flavor bank to develop this mix that we think is spot on. And we’re not keeping it a secret.