The Cooking Oil That Can Make Fried Chicken Taste Bitter

Few things in life are as satisfying as sinking your teeth into a piece of perfectly fried chicken with a shatteringly crisp, golden-brown crust. Sure, picking up a bucket of KFC works when you're in a hurry, but nothing can beat homemade fried chicken if it's maximum flavor that you're after — where else would you get to choose exactly how spicy, salty, or seasoned you want your chicken to be than in your own kitchen? Before you get to frying, here's a crucial tip for success: Steer clear of the olive oil.

Extra virgin olive oil adds a lot of flavor to many of the home-cook favorites like a classic lasagna bolognese. But here's the catch – olive oil has a relatively low smoke point of around 375 degrees Fahrenheit, which happens to be the same temperature needed for deep frying chicken. When olive oil reaches this temperature, it starts to break down, filling your kitchen with smoke and developing bitter, acrid flavors that'll leak into your chicken and ruin the entire batch.

Save the premium EVOO for your salad dressings and the light olive oil for frying eggs or sauteing vegetables. When it comes to deep frying, it's best to choose another kind, and fortunately, there's plenty to choose from.

As a rule, you'll want something with a smoke point over 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Canola oil, for instance, is a very popular option. How popular? Well, enough that McDonald's uses it in their fryers. You see, aside from having a high smoke point of over 400 degrees Fahrenheit, canola oil is affordable and neutral-tasting, ensuring chickens cooked in it will come out crisp and clean-tasting. Plus, it's gentler on your wallet than genuine EVOO.

Coconut oil is another worthy alternative. Its 400-degree Fahrenheit smoke point and high saturated fat content make it remarkably stable, allowing it to maintain its quality even after hours of frying. You'll want to use the refined version, which is neutral-tasting and has the high smoke point that we're looking for. Unrefined coconut oil isn't recommended, since it'll smoke at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Finally, we'll have to talk about the classic, but oft-overlooked animal fats like lard or duck fat. These old-school cooking fats, while rarely seen in kitchens these days, have really high smoke points and are the unexpected secret to extremely flavorful fried chicken. Melt them down in a well-seasoned cast iron pan and sizzle the chickens within, and you're guaranteed to be in for a Southern-esque fried treat.