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While many people enjoy their chicken unbattered, a great many more love to dip their chicken in a batter of some sort. It does not matter if the chicken is in whole pieces, wings only or cut up breast slices for chicken strips or nuggets, chicken batter is popular around the world. There are almost as many recipes for chicken batter as there are chickens!

Batters From Around the World

Different batters can be made using different flours. Try corn meal, rice flour, wheat flour, or graham flour. Ethnic recipes for chicken often use different flours in the mix. Each area has their own special mixture of herbs and spices that give the chicken a distinctive flavor.

Indian chicken may be coated with a batter made of graham flour, cinnamon, cumin, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, curds, and red chili powder. The batter is used on boiled chicken meat, and then fried until the surface is crisp. A wonderful Asian recipe uses a rice flour batter on marinated chicken. Marinate the pieces in soy sauce; five spice powder, sesame oil, garlic, and onion overnight. The next day, dip the chicken in a batter made of water, baking powder, salt and rice flour. The light colored batter is almost translucent.

Beer batter is the one preferred by many Americans. The yeasty taste of the beer adds a tang and makes the batter light. Buttermilk also adds a tangy flavor. Just soak your raw chicken in a bowl of buttermilk before dusting with seasoned flour. This mixture will turn to a moist batter on the chicken before cooking.

There are many ways to get that crunch on your chicken. Crushed cornflakes, breadcrumbs, or crushed crackers are used by many home cooks. Others prefer wet batters that turn crisp in the hot oil. Japanese Panko breadcrumbs make a light, crispy surface. For those cooks who like a light batter, tempura is a good choice.

For those who prefer southern batter fried chicken, there are many different recipes to be found. Some are as simple as flour, salt, pepper mixed with milk or eggs. Others have a long list of herbs and spices to add as well.

Cooking Your Chicken

There is an ongoing debate on whether it is best to deep fry battered chicken, cook it in a cast iron skillet or use a pressure cooker. There are cooks who are devoted to their own preferences, each sure that their method is the very best. The deep-frying camp will try to convince you with the quick cooking time and lack of spatter. The cast iron camp will wax eloquent about even heating and the perfect crisp to the skin. The pressure cooker camp are not truly frying their chicken… they must brown it first, then cook it in the pressure cooker for about 15 minutes to get juicy chicken. You must be cautious with a pressure cooker… do not open it until all the pressure has been removed.

With all these battering options, you are sure to keep busy trying new recipes for several years. Enjoy your battered chicken; there are so many ways to prepare it!