A hamburger with pickles and mustard on it.

Crispy Chicken Sandwich

26/10/2022 | By Cowboy Kent Rollins

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Howdy folks, and thanks for stopping by the website! You've come to the right place if you are looking for the tips and tricks to make the crispiest chicken sandwich you'll ever eat. Sometimes, the little crispy bits left on the plate after you eat the sandwich are the best part of the meal, right? Watch the video or scroll down to learn my tried and true method at making the crispiest sandwich you've ever tasted.


Start with the Marinade

There are two secrets to tender chicken breasts. First, grab yourself a husband trainer (a rolling pin) and flatten the chicken breasts to about 1/2" thick. This does two things: it makes the chicken cook evenly and it breaks down the membrane and allows the marinade to get in all the good nooks and crannies and do its magic.

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Slice the flattened chicken breasts in half. There will be enough meat in each chicken breast for two sandwiches.

Tip: If you like your sandwich to bite back, use spicy pickle juice.

The marinate magic is Pickle juice. Dill pickle juice, to be exact. The vinegar in the pickle juice will combine with the buttermilk to break down the meat and infuse the chicken breasts with flavor.

Marinate the chicken breasts for at least three hours. Make sure each breast is submerged and well covered all over with the buttermilk mixture. When you're ready to heat the oil up, take the chicken breasts out of the fridge.

Tip: Cold ingredients behave better in the fryer. Marinate chicken in the fridge until time to dredge and fry.

Special Sauce

For a crispy chicken sandwich, a tangy honey mustard type sauce is the perfect compliment. For my tastes, I like to mix yellow mustard, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, Duke's mayonnaise, ketchup, honey, and just a drop or two of liquid smoke. Mix well and set in the fridge for a while to let the flavors mix all together for a while.

For Best Flavor, use Original Seasoning in the Place of Salt & Pepper

Batter Up!

The batter is how we make this sandwich insanely crispy. Like most fried chicken, I like to dredge the meat in both wet and dry ingredients. The wet and the dry ingredients will kind of layer up on one another and combine and, when fried, become crispy.

The trick to it is to mix up all of the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another. Before you dredge the meat, take a cup or so of the wet ingredients and mix them in with the dry. This will create some gooey bits of flavor that will increase the volume of the batter that sticks to the chicken breast, and it will result in the crispiest chicken you have ever had.

The recipe below gives the exact ingredients for the batter, and there is a whole lot of flavor in there that will be the second thing you notice after you take a bite of the finished product and the neighbors come over and knock on the door to ask what in the world that loud crunching noise they just heard was.

If you don't have any of my Original Seasoning on hand, you can get some here. Most of the ingredients in the dry part of the batter you'd expect - flour, garlic powder, ground mustard, onion powder, baking powder, and paprika. There are two you might not expect. The first is cornstarch. This will help the batter stick together and stick to the meat. The second is powdered sugar. This will offset some of the tanginess that is in the marinade and the special sauce. You don't need much, just a tablespoon - but it will make all the difference.

Tip: Using cornstarch in the batter will help the batter stick to the chicken.

Double Baptism

Grab yourself some tongs or a fork and get the first chicken breast right out of the marinade, shake it off a little bit, and lay it in the dry ingredients. Flip it around in there so it gets good and covered, and then dip it in the wet ingredients. One more time in the dry ingredients, and by now you should have a thick, shaggy kind of batter coating the entire chicken breast. Let sit on a wire rack for five minutes or so before you put in the fryer to let everything get all adhered together.

Fry the chicken for about five minutes on each side, making sure not to crowd it in the Dutch oven. Do one at a time if you need to. It'll be worth it!

What's better than the crispiest chicken sandwich you ever had? The crispiest chicken sandwich you ever had topped with pickles and on a buttered, toasted bun, that's what. Top the chicken with pickles, and toast the buttered bun in a hot cast iron skillet. Spread some special sauce on the top and bottom half of the bun.

Make sure to drain the extra oil off the chicken to keep the bun from getting soggy. Top with sauce and pickles, and dig in.

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Crispy Chicken Sandwich - Cowboy Kent Rollins

Servings 4 sandwiches
Prep Time 15 Minutes
Cook Time 15 Minutes
Marinade Time 3 Hours
Total Time 3 Hours 30 Minutes
Author Cowboy Kent Rollins

Ingredients

  • 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts

    • Marinade

  • 2 cups buttermilk

  • 1 cups dill pickle juice

  • 4 teaspoons garlic powder

    • Batter

    Wet Ingredients

  • 3 eggs

  • 1 cup buttermilk

  • 2 teaspoons baking powder

    • Dry Ingredients

  • 2 ½ cups flour

  • ½ cup cornstarch

  • 2 teaspoon baking powder

  • 2 tablespoon Kent Rollins’ Original Seasoning

    or lemon pepper, garlic, salt, pepper
  • 3 teaspoons ground mustard powder

  • ½ tablespoon coarse ground black pepper

  • 2 teaspoons smoked paprika

  • 2 teaspoon onion powder

  • 2 teaspoon garlic powder

  • 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

  • Fry oil

    • Sauce

  • ¼ cup honey dijon mustard

  • ¼ cup yellow mustard

  • 2 tablespoons ketchup

  • 2 tablespoons Duke’s mayonnaise

  • 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

  • 1 tablespoon honey

  • 1 teaspoon liquid smoke

Instructions

  1. Place one chicken breast in a baggie and flatten to around ½” thick with a rolling pin. Remove the chicken breast from the bag and cut it in half.
  2. In a mixing bowl, add the buttermilk, pickle juice, and garlic powder. Mix well.
  3. Place chicken breasts in buttermilk mixture and make sure each one is coated well. Cover and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
  4. In a separate mixing bowl, add the 3 eggs, buttermilk, and baking powder. Mix well and set aside.
  5. For the dry ingredients, mix in a large mixing bowl. Add the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, Kent Rollins’ Original Seasoning, mustard powder, black pepper, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and powdered sugar. Mix well.
  6. Fill a deep Dutch oven with fry oil with a high smoking point at least 2 ½” to 3” inches up the sides and preheat to 350 degrees F.
  7. Pour ⅓ cup of the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well.

  8. Remove the chicken from the marinade and dredge in the flour mixture, coating well, then dip in the buttermilk, egg mixture then back in the flour mixture. Place on a wire rack to let the seasoning bond for at least 15 minutes.

  9. Gently place one chicken breast at a time in deep fryer or Dutch oven and cook for about 5 minutes each side or until internal temp is 170 degrees F, Remove and place on a wire rack to cool.
  10. Spread some butter on each slice of the bun and toast in a cast iron skillet until golden brown on both sides.
  11. Spread the mustard mixture on both the top and bottom bun, then top with chicken and pickles and serve.
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