Choosing your oil for deep frying anything can be confusing – there are so many options!

Peanut oil: If you’re new to deep frying try to use peanut oil. It’s nearly flavorless and it burns at a higher temperature than most other oils.

Vegetable shortening (Crisco): You don’t have to tell me how bad shortening is for you. I swear, I already know! But I once heard you should cook with the ingredients your grandmother used. Well, my grandma used Crisco when she did her deep frying 🙂

If you only deep fry once in a blue moon then Crisco is a great option. If you’re deep frying on a regular basis, you should probably use canola oil or grapeseed oil. Or get an air fryer.

Canola oil: This is another good choice for deep frying chicken.

Kitchen tools for making this KFC fried chicken recipe
If you’re not experienced at deep frying, make sure you have these two important kitchen tools ready to use before you even start heating up your oil:

A thermometer. I like an instant read thermometer with a probe. The probe can be used to check the temperature of your oil. It can also be inserted into meat to ensure you’re not eating raw chicken.
Heatproof tongs: Make sure your tongs have parts of the handle that aren’t metal so they don’t heat up too quickly. Also be sure that the business end of the tongs can withstand high temperatures. These tongs are heat resistant up to 600 degrees.

KFC Fried Chicken

Drumsticks made with the KFC fried chicken recipe

Saying that this is the best KFC fried chicken recipe on the internet is a bold statement, but I know what I’m talking about! The marinade, the herbs, the spices. This is the whole copycat recipe with detailed directions right here.

PREP TIME 45 minutes
COOK TIME 15 minutes
ADDITIONAL TIME 2 minutes
TOTAL TIME 1 hour 2 minutes

Ingredients