Canned soup is a Swiss army knife of a pantry staple. Endlessly versatile, you can jazz up your canned soup so that it tastes homemade, use it as a base for casseroles, or even use it to make truly excellent pasta sauce. Here’s another unexpected one — use condensed cream of chicken soup to make extra crispy fried chicken. To find out how, Food Republic spoke to Dennis Littley, chef and recipe expert at Ask Chef Dennis.
“Using condensed cream of chicken soup in fried chicken might sound unconventional, but it actually enhances both flavor and texture in surprising ways,” he said. Littley explained that the thick, starchy nature of the soup — which typically contains a mix of chicken stock, flour, cream, chicken fat, and vegetable oil — “helps bind the coating to the chicken, ensuring a crunchier, more even crust. The soup’s fat content adds richness and moisture while the natural starches help create a crispier finish when fried at the right temperature. Since it’s already packed with seasoning, it also boosts the umami depth of the coating, making for an extra flavorful bite,” he explained.
To ensure your crust isn’t heavy or soggy, Littley recommended using canned cream of chicken soup as part of a double dredge. Double dredging, which involves dipping your chicken twice in batter before frying, is an effective technique for getting crispy fried chicken. Whereas a single layer of batter may fall off as soon as you take the first bite, a double layer is more likely to retain crunch and flavor.
How to make the perfect fried chicken batter with canned soup
To start, Dennis Littley recommends thinning the soup slightly with buttermilk or water to create “a thick marinade or dipping mixture.” Also, it may be wise to strain the mixture to remove small chicken pieces from the soup. Littley noted that “this [dipping mixture] not only locks moisture into the chicken but also helps the breading adhere better.”
Littley suggested dunking the chicken in seasoned flour and then into the soup before dipping the chicken in a second layer of seasoned flour or a flour-cornstarch blend. He said, “The double coating creates layers of texture, while the soup’s starch content helps the exterior crisp up beautifully.”
To prevent the exterior of your chicken from becoming soggy, Littley recommended letting your battered chicken rest for 10-15 before frying. “This allows the breading to set and stick properly,” he explained.
For a crispy exterior with a juicy, moist interior, Littley recommended frying the chicken at 350 to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Littley shared, “If done right, the condensed soup acts as a binder full of flavor that gives the fried chicken an ultra-crispy crust, with a deeper, more savory flavor that sets it apart from traditional batters.”
Lastly, remember that you can also use this recipe to make fried chicken in your air fryer. Follow the steps above to create the batter using the canned cream of chicken soup. Then, follow the steps for making chicken katsu in the air fryer. Spray your chicken with cooking oil and air-fry it at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 10 minutes on each side. Adding more cooking spray when you flip it will ensure your chicken remains crispy and doesn’t stick to the basket.
