Fried Chicken Gets Ultimate Crunch And Flavor When Coated In This Classic Snack Staple

Potato chips, the flavorful if not-so-healthy snack we can't stop enjoying, have multiple uses beyond opening a bag and devouring it while bingeing "Daredevil" on your couch (oh, is that just me?). One unexpected thing you can do with them is use them as breading for fried chicken. Sure, you can pick up a box of Popeyes or Jollibee's award-winning Chickenjoy, but that can get expensive. With the right technique, the vast assortment of chips available at supermarkets, convenience stores, and more specialized grocery stores can help you turn dinnertime into a fried chicken adventure.

One great thing about this method is its simplicity, and get delicious results once you find a solid fried chicken recipe to start with. When using potato chips, you might think that because the snack is salty, it will be enough to season your chicken, but that's not actually the case. Your seasoning can be as simple as salt and pepper, but I love adding garlic salt, lemon pepper, and just enough cayenne pepper to give it subtle heat. Dredge your seasoned chicken in flour, dip it in egg wash, and then coat it with the chips. To prepare the chips, you can crumble them by hand in the bag, but that will create many uneven pieces. Using a blender will turn the chips into powder, which may remove some of the crunch. You're better off putting them inside a resealable plastic bag and hitting them with a meat mallet.

Using chips when making fried chicken won't give you an exact replica of a region's signature chicken, but it will give you a sense of that experience, transporting you without the need for time-consuming marinade and batter experimentation. You can keep your usual procedure and let the crunchy fried exterior provide much of the flavor. For a more traditional fried chicken flavor, Ruffles are salty and make for a savory coating with a more neutral flavor profile. Using the sour cream and onion flavor of Ruffles will add a little more tang. Of course, the most visually striking option is to use Flamin' Hot Cheetos for a Nashville hot chicken-inspired look and taste. With a neon-red exterior and crunchy heat in each bite, you might want to make a pitcher of icy cold sweet tea to go with it.

Out in North Carolina, a regional fried chicken dish known as dipped chicken uses a thin, tangy barbecue-adjacent sauce. Barbecue-flavored Lay's paired with hot sauce can provide a rough approximation of some of those flavors. And if you're looking to be a bit more adventurous, pick up a bag of spicy shrimp chips to serve a fried chicken that tastes like a fried surf and turf combination. You can't deny that fried chicken is incredibly comforting, but if you make it often, it can get boring. Using a bag of chips for breading breaks up that monotony and turns fried chicken dinners into mini road trips without the rest stop breaks.