Why You Should Start Frying Your Chicken In Duck Fat

When it comes to fried chicken, everyone has their own way of doing it. In Malaysia, there's ayam goreng gilded with turmeric and dried chilies. In Korea, chicken thighs are segmented into easy-to-scoff bites and double dredged in potato or corn starch before they're fried for a famously crunchy crust. There really is no shortage of international styles of fried chicken to take inspiration from – but one cuisine you might not immediately put on that list is French cooking. Okay, yes, the French aren't exactly known for frying chicken themselves, but you could add a little touch of la grande cuisine to your next batch by frying your chicken in duck fat. While not unique to French cooking, they really do use a lot of it (especially in the south-west of France, famed for its confit de canard.)

Though it might be more common to fry chicken in vegetable oil, peanut oil, or shortening, duck fat has a surprisingly high smoke point and, as such, holds up well to the trials of deep frying. It also has the benefit of imparting a much deeper, more complex flavor to your chicken than any of those other fats could possibly muster. It has a richness to it, which will add a luxurious, subtly savory topcoat to your chicken (or just about anything else you fry in it. And it'll get more than hot enough to give you a tooth-chippingly crispy crust while also infusing a little French je ne sais quoi.

Luckily, even if you're new to cooking with duck fat, you shouldn't have any trouble here. In fact, the process of using duck fat to fry chicken is almost identical to that of any other oil. Because of its high smoke point, and the fact that it's a very stable cooking oil, duck fat can be heated quite intensely and for a long time without fear of burning. Duck fat is solid at room temperature and is sold in jars rather than bottles for this reason, so you may need several jars to be able to deep fry (you could render some at home, but it won't last long). Once you've got your fat at the ready, get it over medium heat and up to 325 degrees Fahrenheit for the perfect fry. Then, you're only 15 minutes away from some of the best fried chicken of your life.

Once that chicken comes out of the oil, don't go throwing that duck fat away! It's incredibly flavorful, and as long as you filter out any chunks of food left behind (using a fine mesh strainer, for example) you can re-jar it, where it'll keep in the fridge for up to six months. That means that you can keep recycling it, whenever you need a burst of savory, fatty goodness. Plus, it's an extremely versatile cooking fat, and once you've got it in your arsenal, you can use it for far more than just deep frying.

If you want to bring that subtle duck flavor to other parts of your dinner, there are plenty of other ways to utilize the fat once you've finished frying your chicken. For one, you could give it another instant upgrade and make a seasoning oil inspired by the iconic Nashville hot chicken! You'll need some spices — what you use it up to you, but a combination that brings heat and a little smoky sweetness works great (think paprika, cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and even some Old Bay!) Get those spices in a bowl, mix them up, then ladle some of that hot duck fat in alongside them. The hot oil will bloom the spices, which will in turn infuse the oil with their, well, spiciness, leaving you with a truly explosive, flavorsome oil that you can brush over your freshly fried chicken.

You could use some more of that fat to make your sides too — duck fat french fries are an undeniably more flavorful improvement over the original, and if you wanted to take a Tex-Mex inspired route, duck fat refried beans make for a next level side dish. Or you could truly take a trip to France and make a classic duck confit. You can even use the fat to make your dessert, whether that's by frying cannoli shells in it or infusing into a salty-and-sweet caramel ice cream.