While a basic and foolproof whole roasted chicken is a delicious and reliable meal, nothing beats a warm platter of crispy fried chicken. Besides following some helpful tips to make the perfect fried chicken at home, such as tenderizing your meat and seasoning your flour with enough spices, there is one type of conventional cooking oil that’s ideal for the job. For TikTok creator and chef Tini Younger, the best fried chicken is made with vegetable oil.
Even though she’s been busy collaborating with Nestlé to bring consumers Carnation Kickin’ Jalapeño-Flavored Evaporated Milk, which is sold exclusively at Walmart, Younger was kind enough to share her opinions with Chowhound on the best way to cook fried chicken. Younger states, “I like vegetable oil because it’s cheaper and it’s a neutral oil.”
Vegetable oil contains no distinct odors or flavors. Therefore, when it comes to fried chicken, you can really focus on amping up the flavor of this American dish with your own unique blend of herbs and spices. Furthermore, because vegetable oil is quite affordable, you don’t have to be stingy about how much you’re using.
That being said, even though vegetable oil is primarily made from soybeans, many varieties are a composite of different plant-based oils. If you have any food allergies related to corn, sunflower, or peanut oil, read the included nutrition label on each bottle carefully.
More reasons why you should use vegetable oil to fry your next batch of chicken
Next to its versatility, there’s another more significant reason why you should use vegetable oil to make fried chicken. Sure enough, Tini Younger prefers vegetable oil because of its high smoke point.
Especially when roasting food in a high-degree oven or, in this case, frying chicken over your stove, using an oil with a higher smoke point means you can cook your food without potentially burning the oil itself. In referencing alternative oils, Younger states, “Olive oil has a lower smoke point, so it’s easier to burn your chicken.”
In truth, olive oil has a smoke point range of 325 to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas vegetable oil begins to smoke anywhere between 400 and 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Since the ideal cooking temperature for fried chicken is right around 350, you’re better off using an oil that can withstand higher temps.
Smoke points aside, medium-heat oils like olive and coconut have inherently rich flavors which may be too overpowering for a simple batch of fried chicken. When describing why she prefers vegetable oil for frying chicken, Younger says, “The neutral flavor of the oil isn’t really adding much flavor to your chicken, the chicken is really doing the work, not the oil.” So, with the use of vegetable oil, you have a better chance of tasting certain ingredient swaps for fried chicken such as coconut milk instead of buttermilk and crushed pretzels instead of flour.
