I love fried chicken, but it can be a time consuming naughty nosh. So, I took it upon myself to deconstruct my favorite fried chicken recipe, making it simpler, healthier, and more delicious.
First, I decided to use boneless skinless chicken thighs because they are tasty and cook evenly. Then I swapped out traditional flour for gluten-free 1 to 1 baking flour and added pickle brine to buttermilk as a marinade. For frying, I choose olive oil as a stable high heat cooking oil high in antioxidants and fatty acids.
A few hacks and voila Pickle Chicken and Stone Fruit Slaw is a new summer classic.
Pickle Fried Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 2 cups whole buttermilk
- 1/2 cup dill or kosher pickle brine
- 3 1/2 cups 1 to 1 baking flour
- 1 Tbsp. kosher salt plus more for sprinkling over fried chicken thighs
- 1 tsp. Fresh ground pepper
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- Olive oil for frying
Instructions
- Combine the buttermilk and pickle brine in a gallon Ziploc bag. Add boneless skinless chicken thighs and marinate for 5 to 8 hours. Bring chicken thighs to room temperature for 1-2 hours before step 3.
- Combine flour, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, and cayenne pepper in a shallow bowl and mix well.
- Remove chicken from the buttermilk marinade and discard buttermilk. In batches, place marinated chicken thighs in flour mixture. Covering chicken pieces with flour mixture and pressing to adhere. Place coated thighs on a wire rack over aluminum foil. Continue until all thighs are evenly coated with the flour mixture.
- Pour oil to a depth of 2 inches in a deep skillet or Dutch oven and heat to 350 degrees.
- Working in batches fry chicken until golden and crispy, approximately 8to 8 minutes per batch. Be sure to turn chicken pieces and cook evenly on both sides.
- Remove chicken from cooking oil and place on a wire rack over a sheet of aluminum foil.
- Chicken may be kept warm in a 200-degree oven.
Serve Pickle Fried Chicken with a side of Stone Fruit and Fennel Slaw.
Kristen Coffield
I am a passionate advocate for food as medicine, life navigator and culinary coach. This is my space for sharing what excites, inspires and motivates me to live my best life. It began as a recipe blog for nourishing, simple, weekday meals and has become something much bigger… a guide to resilient wellness. I am excited to share my knowledge of how daily habits can cumulatively help you to live like you mean it and age like you want to.
Hi Kristen,
I came upon your web page, The Culinary Cure, just by browsing . Your recipe’s sound amazing, I’m a Diabetic but not on insulin , and doing very well on just watching what I eat, and you healthy recipes will help look forward to try out something new. I want to try the Pickle Fried Chicken recipe, but not understanding what you mean by 3 1/2 cups 1 to 1 baking flour, please explain, also is baking flour another term for all purpose flour? Or is there such a thing as Baking flour? I can’t wait for your response. Thank you for web page.
Bobs Red Mill, King Arthur And Trader Joe’s all make 1 to 1 gluten free flour. Meaning you use the same amount of gluten free flour as you would regular flour.
Basically it’s a gluten-free recipe