Popeyes fried chicken crust

You will need some lard

Have to pull up and wait.

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How do I make it just like them?

First things first: Have a really shitty attitude

True Dat -

I cloned their recipe years ago after raging over years of horrible customer service. It took several months of experimenting and I even went through the trouble of rendering my own beef tallow, trying different types of cayenne pepper, etc. I nailed it after a while but in the end, it’s easier to just take the abuse buy their chicken.

1. They use part beef tallow frying oil. Most stores have a cheap shortening that is part beef fat and is about as good as you can find outside of food service suppliers. Look on the label and it will say “part beef fat” or “animal fats”

2. Use a thin batter, think thin pancake batter, with seasoning added to it so it’s a little salty. Popeyes adds a coloring to make it yellow. I use a commercial binder but it works quite well with just flour/water/seasoning and a bit of baking powder.

3. Dip in batter, let it drip for a second, place chicken in tub of AP flour and toss it around 20 times.

4. Fry immediately! If you let it set out too long, gluten forms and screws up the crust. Starting temp is 340, let it drop to 300 after dropping the chicken and stay there for most of the cooking time. At about the 10 minute mark, turn the heat up so the temp increases back to 340. Frying time varies based on the size of the pieces and starting temp of chicken....use a meat thermometer to double check.

5. Sift the flour out between batches with a deep frying skimmer and toss out the skimming. This leaves the smaller bits of flour/batter that gives Popeyes its signature craggy crust and takes out the large globs.

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When it is ready to fry, they coat it in flour and then bang 2 pieces together to remove excess flour. After that it goes right into a very yellow batter, as sleepytime said above.

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Backwards

Batter then flour

Ya want the batter thin but you still want it thick enough to coat so it doesn’t run off. Wet batter meets dry flour and creates the little crunchy boogers. Popeyes transfer multiple pieces from the wet batter into the dry flour via wire basket. So you get some excess wet batter into the flour to create more texture.

Chicken and wet batter need to be 35 degrees or so

I’m pretty sure they use a pressure fryer too which most don’t have at home.

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The tenders come pre-marinated.

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Some Popeyes had pre battered and frozen tenders. The places that didn't, those came frozen in a box with 8-5lb bags of tenders in it. They weren't pre seasoned. That may have changed. It's been nearly 20 years since I delivered to them.

Chicken into Batter, dump battered chicken into flour, tumble in flour, tap, fry. Been the same ‘76

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First things first: Have a really shitty attitude

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Lol!

This is why I love Tigerdroppings!