---
title: 'I’ve Been Making Fried Chicken Wrong My Whole Life'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=euYDBs5qvdY'
video_id: 'euYDBs5qvdY'
date: 2026-07-28
---

# I’ve Been Making Fried Chicken Wrong My Whole Life

> Source: [I’ve Been Making Fried Chicken Wrong My Whole Life](https://youtube.com/watch?v=euYDBs5qvdY)

## Summary

This video is a reaction and cooking attempt of a KFC-style fried chicken recipe from the channel Hell's Chef. The host tries a unique water-dip breading technique that creates an exceptionally crunchy, craggly exterior. After tasting, the recipe earns a high score of 8.7/10, making it one of the best in the series.

### Key Points

- **Recipe Introduction** [00:13] — The recipe is from Hell's Chef, titled 'Secret KFC Fried Chicken'. The host notes that most online recipes are clickbait, but this one looks promising.
- **Chicken Preparation** [00:55] — The recipe starts with deskinning chicken legs, scoring them, and then washing the chicken with a mixture of baking soda, salt, and vinegar.
- **Wet Marinade** [01:23] — After washing, the chicken is marinated in a wet mixture of hot sauce, sriracha, pickle juice, and a blend of spices. It sits for at least 3 hours.
- **Breading Technique** [02:04] — The key technique involves dredging the chicken in seasoned flour, then submerging it in water for 20-30 seconds, then back into the flour. This creates a craggly, cornflake-like texture.
- **Initial Impressions** [03:26] — The host is impressed by the visual results from the original video, describing it as 'fire' and noting the unique texture.
- **Sponsor Segment** [04:06] — The video includes a sponsored segment for Wildgrain, a subscription service for bake-from-frozen artisanal breads and pastries.
- **Seasoned Flour and Sauce** [06:01] — The seasoned flour includes a mix of spices (listed in description), and the sauce is made with mayo, sriracha, chipotle, pickle juice, garlic, and vinegar.
- **Frying** [07:58] — The chicken is fried in peanut oil at 350°F for 9-10 minutes for drumsticks, and about 5 minutes for tenders.
- **Final Result and Tasting** [08:27] — The chicken has a very crunchy, craggly exterior. The host and Marcus taste it, noting complex seasoning and excellent crunch. The drumstick is especially praised.
- **Final Score** [09:26] — The recipe is scored 8.7 out of 10, a very high score for the series. The host recommends it highly.

### Conclusion

The water-dip breading technique is a game-changer for home-fried chicken, producing an exceptionally crunchy texture. This recipe from Hell's Chef delivers on its promise and is highly recommended.

## Transcript

find online are just clickbait. They look good, they get views, but they don't actually deliver. Every once in a while though, you will find one that is actually amazing, and I think this might be one of them. But as the name of this
series suggests, we'll see about that. Now, let's go. Today's recipe is coming from the channel Hell's Chef. He makes some incredibly tasty-looking food, and we're cooking one of his most popular recipes titled "Secret KFC Fried Chicken
It's like a catch >> us. It's like a cat Try to look more >> No. >> All right, here we go. I'll be honest, any KFC experience I've had in the last 10 years has been
In Japan, apparently, KFC is still really good. That does look awesome on his opening shots. Like just the uh that like wispy, wavy-looking edging looks >> If your fried chicken looks like cornflakes, you're doing good. Look at
>> They're naked. [music] >> Okay, so he's got deskin legs. He's scoring them up. You can easily just buy uh you know, the legs with the skin on right, we're going on, we're washing the chicken. Baking soda, salt, uh vinegar.
Should you wash your chicken? I don't know. All I know is in French cooking, like they will a lot of times like purge chicken stocks, like boil it once, something with it. Just removing impurities, and there's definitely
right, now we're going on with like a bunch of hot sauce and a whole bunch of spices. And this is like the sort of wet [music] marinade after the washing. Let it sit, let it marinate for several hours. Got it. Got it. Got it. 3 hours
minimum. Here's the sauce. So, we got chipotle, mayo, sriracha, and a whole >> Chicken spices. >> Pickle juice [music] in there. Looks good. Ah, this is that blinding exposure. If you guys don't know, when
>> [snorts] >> You to drop the ISO. Drop the ISO. >> That is a healthy amount of spices. I'm liking it. But like I feel like that is like what good like fried chicken is
like so many things going on where you don't actually know what the hell's happening. >> KFC 11 herbs and spices. >> What he said, okay. Oil goes to 340. Now this is interesting here. We got a bowl
of water. We got the chicken. We have the seasoned flour. What's he going to do? Okay. First the seasoned flour. Nice. Little toss toss toss. So he gets Nice. Little toss toss toss. So he gets that on there real good. Whoa. Okay,
things are getting interesting now. We're submerging. Take a little dip in the water. Is this how he got the end result? Because this is something I >> This looks crazy. >> And then back into the flour again. Is
this it, man? Is this the secret to like crazy fried chicken batter edge? And >> Yeah, like >> You're mashing it. He's mashing it. >> He's mashing it. >> Yeah, like look at all those edges,
dude. I hope ours looks like that cuz that looks fire. And it's not even cooked. Wow, that's it. I like this guy, man. Bringing that oil right to the edge That's my style. >> That's terrifying to me.
bring a little zest to life. Burn yourself. been caught on fire. >> You could dip your hand right into that >> And will do that. >> Dang, that looks crazy. Serve it up with
the sauce. Black slate plate. That honestly looks amazing. Is it worth the views and all the hype? I I bet it is, but we're going to make it right now and we'll give it a proper a proper score. Now for starters, I already removed the
going to be doing some chicken tenders in here as well because I just love fried chicken tenders, so why not? First thing we need to do as per instructions is take this over to the sink and wash it, which is a huge [music] debate I'm
going to follow the recipe. I see no fault in it. And so all I needed to do was add my baking soda, my salt, my vinegar, and my water to the chicken and let it sit for 30 minutes before removing all that weird scummy stuff.
something to do, you can simply just watch me twiddle my thumbs for the next >> You could just edit that. >> Edit it out? >> Now for the marinade here, I'm going in with my sriracha, light soy sauce, hot
sauce, a little bit of white vinegar, pickle juice, and a whole bunch of spices which I will have listed down in the description, as well as a link to to check it out. And there we have it, my friends. Now time to give it a little
bit of love here, and there we are after a good mix. I'm just going to pop a lid on it and stick it in the fridge for a couple hours. Now before moving on, let video, Wildgrain. They're the first subscription service that delivers
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link down in the description and use code thatdudecancook at checkout to get $30 off your first Wildgrain box plus free croissants [music] for life. Thank you Wildgrain, now back to the recipe. And for our season flour here, I've got
my all-purpose flour and again, we've got a massive list of spices will be just get in here with a whisk and combine everything nicely before setting aside. Now for the sauce here, we're starting with mayo, some sriracha,
little pickle juice, little bit of chipotle paste, some fresh garlic. I'm just microplaning it in, little white vinegar, chicken seasoning, and salt and that's your sauce done. All right, there we are my friends, our marination time
dredging these up. Start with some of these drumsticks here. Toss them up good. Shake off a bunch of that excess flour. And here we go into the water. This is crazy. Never done this. 20-30
seconds. Now, going to carefully remove. Back into the flour. Strip off excess water, wash my hands, and we'll carefully coat these up. And I'm going technique. I'm just kind of pushing the flour on with these as I mix them
around. Squeezing them good. You want to squeeze and also kind of fluff, too. And I noticed in the video as I shake it down like this, you can see all those little grooves that get created, right? Like that looks pretty good. Get this on
a little rack and we'll move on to the next one here. Shaky, shake. Dang, this next one looks pretty darn good. This could be the water technique for the ages. Oh yeah, dude, look at that. Those little grooves it creates. [music]
That's pretty amazing. Next, let's try some tendies. See how these behave, huh? Wow. Shake the excess into the water. Feels wrong to be dumping this chicken in the water, but it just [music] looks so good. Now we go. Back into the flour.
so good. Now we go. Back into the flour. Come here, tendies. Again, toss, fluff, and smash. I've even seen a technique where you dribble water into the flour to create more little grooves, but looks like with this, you really don't need to
do it. Okay, let's have a look here. I mean, look at that tender pre-fry, insane. And I'll just repeat this process with all my chicken. What a mess. And there you have it, my friends, it's time to fry. So, with this recipe,
I was able to do five big drumsticks and about nine chicken tenders, just for go, I'm going to drop them into some hot peanut oil. It's 350° F, and I'm let them cook for about 9 to 10 minutes. I
I missed it, but like they should be good between 9 and 12 minutes, depending I'll just do for about 5 minutes. They should be totally done in that short friends, the results are actually kind of insane. Like, look at all the
crunchy, craggly bits on [music] this. It's unbelievable. Drumsticks as well, plate it up with the sauce and give it a taste with Marcus.
>> Chicken. >> I'm going to try it no sauce.
tender. Oh, wow. The spices go hard here. That's good, right? >> Lot of crunch on the outside. The seasoning is complex, but like really >> I mean, if I were to order that at a restaurant, I'd be
of flavor, seasoned great. >> Something about the drumstick is even better. Hello Chefman, damn good recipe. >> And honestly, the sauce isn't bad. It's a pretty darn solid sauce, except the
feel the need to dip it in the sauce. And if it was me, I would make some don't know, that would just be so good. So, we've talked off camera, and we we we declare this an 8.7 out of 10, which is extremely high score for the series.
shot. Like, you're certainly not going to be disappointed.