Flour Suitable For KFC

[Ken_Griffiths]

One of the most difficult things to get a perfect ’breading' or 'coating' on your seasoned chicken, is ensuring you have the correct type of flour. It is recommended you try to find a low gluten, very fine cake or sponge flour available in your area.

Plain all purpose flour or bread flour is too coarse and you may find that once it is deep fried, it goes too crispy and may crumble and fall away from the chicken.

You may have to experiment with several different brands of flour until you get it right. Sometimes you may have to mix flours to get the perfect texture. It's often trial and error to find the right combination to suit you.

When 'breading' your chicken firstly dip each piece in your egg/milk wash and 'lift and drain' .. You only need a thin coat of the wash. Next roll the chicken pieces in seasoned flour and ensure an even coating all over... You don't want gaps or bits missing, but neither do you want clumps of flour either. Tap the chicken to shake off any excess.

Do not coat the chicken and let it stand around too long, as it will turn an ugly grey colour and go sticky. It is recommended that you pressure fry or deep fry the coated chicken pieces within five minutes of them being 'breaded'. If for any reason there is a lengthy delay, you can always wash the coating off under water from a cold running tap and start again with fresh egg/wash etc. remember to thoroughly clean your sink afterwards.

After frying (approx 8 minutes in a pressure fryer), I have found it best if you let the chicken cool down on a rack for five minutes or so and then place it in a pre-warmed oven that has a low temperature, set to around 55°C - 60°C and which has a 'hot water bath' at the bottom of the oven to keep the circulating air moist. This recreates the same effect as the KFC display cabinets and helps the chicken rest, the juices settle and the delicious coating will soften and adhere better to the finished chicken.

The chicken should remain in the warm oven for around 20 minutes before serving to your guests. Those 20 minutes are the best time to clean down the sink and to wash up before your wife/husband/partner sees the mess you have made in the kitchen.

After 90 minutes in the warm oven the Chicken will be past its best and I recommend you take it out at this point and let it go cold for later use. Once cold, it can be refrigerated for use cold within the next 24 hours, but then I suggest after that it should be discarded.

Some people may choose to freeze unused cooked chicken, but I find that doesn't work very well and often just clutters the freezer with bits you are 'unlikely' ever to use again... There comes a time when we just have to throw it away. You can always make some more !!

Ken

[Deleted]

I've tried all the flours and all the different resting times after breading and I'm not convinced of anything. I've not tried self-rising pastry flour, but I think I will. The breading just isn't fluffing up as I remember. All the old timers in this part of Oklahoma used self-rising flour for fried chicken. I haven't seen any proof one way or another whether it was used or not. It was around back in the day, but.... I know doughnut flour is often specially mixed before bagging for distribution to franchises. My flour sample should be on its way next week. I waived a fee to get samples of the flour and salt. That's dedication. LOL

[tony]

in that time it was recommended to use soft wheat flour (A&P Sunnyfield)

[Deleted]

That is Eastern flour, unlike the hard flour of the Plains. Was it self-rising, or like doughnut flour, or..........?

[tony]

soft wheat flour, being low in gluten content, does not contain the flinty fibers found in hard wheat flour

[Deleted]

any proof self-rising soft wheat flour not used?

[tony]

this is from one manual

and this is from another one

[Deleted]

Soft wheat flour added to baker's flour, which is pastry flour. It was specially mixed for CHS, but was it self-rising. Any flour known to man can be made self-rising.

[Deleted]

Hi everyone, Colonel Ben here. I used to be a member of the old forum during its early days about 10 years ago now. I posted some pretty crap recipes back then and still questing after that holy grail. At one stage i did manage to get my hands on some of the corporate mix.
My best results where flour texture is concerned have been to mix low gluten flour with cake flour and pressure fried of course. I have noticed lately though the KFC website ingredient statement mentions corn starch (corn flour here in Australia) in addition to wheat flour. Anyway just wanted to pop in and say hi.. you have a great forum here keep up the good work bandits

[chickenhead56]

Nov 6, 2016 16:06:26 GMT @colonelben said:

Hi everyone, Colonel Ben here. I used to be a member of the old forum during its early days about 10 years ago now. I posted some pretty crap recipes back then and still questing after that holy grail. At one stage i did manage to get my hands on some of the corporate mix.
My best results where flour texture is concerned have been to mix low gluten flour with cake flour and pressure fried of course. I have noticed lately though the KFC website ingredient statement mentions corn starch (corn flour here in Australia) in addition to wheat flour. Anyway just wanted to pop in and say hi.. you have a great forum here keep up the good work bandits

Hi colonelben!

I am still looking for the perfect breading. What is your usual low gluten flour/cake flour ratio?

Keith

[oldpunk45]

Re KFC flour - Found this in an article about Greenfield Mills in northeast Indiana (USA) :

"For many years, the “New Mill” produced flour used to bread Kentucky Fried Chicken. But after Colonel Sanders’ death in the late 1980s, KFC changed its recipe and no longer used the soft winter wheat flour."

spydersden.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/greenfield-mills/

Hope this helps a little

OldPunk - (aka Jon in Ohio)

[Ken_Griffiths]

Nov 7, 2016 1:17:08 GMT oldpunk45 said:

Re KFC flour - Found this in an article about Greenfield Mills in northeast Indiana (USA) :

"For many years, the “New Mill” produced flour used to bread Kentucky Fried Chicken. But after Colonel Sanders’ death in the late 1980s, KFC changed its recipe and no longer used the soft winter wheat flour."

spydersden.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/greenfield-mills/

Hope this helps a little

OldPunk - (aka Jon in Ohio)

Hi Jon,

A warm welcome to the kfc11 forum.

A nice article about the Greenfield Mills. Like Keith (chickenhead56) has mentioned above, I too am still looking for the best breading flour to use. I live in the UK and have tried many different brands of fine cake flours, including my own mixes with corn flour (aka corn starch) and I've still not yet found the perfect texture.

Post frying, I know that the KFC outlets colour-code their chicken as it passes through a series of holding cabinets some, or one, of which are steam-filled which softens the coating and helps make it sticky etc.

So post frying, I place my chicken on the top shelf of a preheated 65-75°C (150°F) steam filled oven ...with a tray of boiling water at base of oven ... and I let my chicken rest for approx. 30 minutes before serving and that seems to help the texture, but I still keep experimenting with different flours.

I'm pretty convinced it's a mixture of common flours, including self raising flour, cake flour and corn starch and possibly some sweet dextrose. I also think the flour has changed and now uses maltidextrin and potato starch, but that's guesswork on my part.

The Colonels flour mix is perhaps the one area of research that we all seem to know very little about, other than it originally used a soft 'winter wheat' flour... and I am sure he worked on the flour mix for quite some time to achieve the texture he was after for his original recipe chicken.

I wish we knew more about the flour mix and how best to replicate it at home for our own recipes.

Ken

[Deleted]

Hi Keith, i usually just go 1 part low gluten flour and 1 part cake flour. Last time i made chicken though i used only this italian flour that i use to make pizza dough its very fine and high quality and worked quite well

[ThePieMan]

The basic flour that we have here, in Hamburg is type 405. In Vietnam we had a 8-9% protein cake flour up to a 13% bread flour. With all these flours I had problems with the breading staying on, soft and soggy? No problem if left in a steam filled oven

Today, I had great luck* with a wash made with the white from a 55g egg beaten into 200 ml of 3.7% fat Milk (full cream) AND a flour mix of 150g type 405 plain white flour and 50g Arrowroot Tapioca Starch. I bag the flour in ziplock and the shake and press the flour onto the chicken.

*I mean, the breading actually stayed on.

[Ken_Griffiths]

This post is aimed at any members and passing guests from the UK.

Over the years of personal research, I have tried many different flours, trying to replicate the KFC texture and I have finally settled on this local supermarket brand:

Attachment Deleted
Click to enlarge image.

It has the following nutritional facts per 100g

Energy 337kCal
Energy 1,429kJ
Protein 9.0g
Carbohydrate 72.0g
Fat 1.0g
Fibre 2.1g
Sodium N/A
Salt 1.6g

It is certainly the best brand of flour to use that I have found so far.

After frying approx. 4oz sized portions of chicken, I recommend that they are placed on a rack in a steam filled oven pre-heated to 80°C with a boiling 'water-bath' tray (water from kettle) placed in the bottom of the oven to maintain the steamy environment. Leave the chicken rest in the oven for at least 20 minutes, turning the pieces over every 10 minutes or so. This will cause the coating to soften, become a little sticky and adhere better to the surface of the chicken.

Allow the chicken to cool slightly on its removal from the oven, so that it is at the perfect eating temperature, around 60-70°C.

Hope that helps anyone who can get access to the Sainsbury's supermarket here in the U.K. If not, then perhaps look for a similar very-fine sponge/cake Flour, with a similar protein level.