The Crispy Topping That's Key For The Ultimate Fried Chicken Crunch

Part of what makes fried chicken so good is the satisfying crunch when you bite into it, married with the juicy chicken inside. You can find all kinds of tips for producing that prized exterior, from cooking techniques, to different types of breading (like a bag of Fritos), to double-dredging. But one unexpected crispy topping provides not only exceptional crunch but delicious flavor too: French fried onions.

The crispy onions make us think of Thanksgiving green bean casserole, but they can be used in lots of other ways, like topping a burger, sprinkled on a salad, changing your fried rice forever — or as an oniony, crackly coating for chicken. The basics of the recipe are simple: Dip the chicken in beaten egg, dredge it in crispy onions that have been crushed in a plastic bag with a rolling pin, and cook it in the oven or an air fryer. Chicken breast or tenders are ideal, since bone-in legs or thighs take longer to cook. That could make the onions more likely to burn before the chicken reaches a safe 165 degrees Fahrenheit internal temperature. Trying to fry the chicken also risks the direct intense heat burning the onions.

Give the chicken even more flavor by adding seasonings you like to the crushed fried onions, such as pungent garlic powder, woodsy rosemary, spicy cayenne pepper, or smoky chili powder. Coating the chicken with something like honey mustard or melted butter mixed with mustard and Worcestershire sauce instead of beaten eggs before covering it with the crispy onions is another flavorful option.

Store-bought French fried onions are made from actual onions, so if you had any suspicions otherwise, they are the real deal. But you can still make the crispy onions fresh at home for your chicken. Standard yellow onions will work fine, or for a little sweeter taste, look for white onions, Vidalia, or even shallots. Slice them thin and soak them in milk for 15 minutes or so to reduce some of their bite, and then lightly coat with seasoned flour, and fry.

French fried onion chicken is delectably good on its own, but you can level it up with a dipping sauce. Honey mustard is a classic, as are barbecue sauce and ketchup. Sweet and sour sauce pairs well with the sweetness in the onions, or you can double up on onion flavor with French onion dip. Mimic chicken wings with as-hot-as-you-like-it Buffalo sauce, go Southern with Alabama white barbecue sauce, or blend the simple ingredients Chick-fil-A sauce is made from to whip up a batch.

There are other alternative coatings with flavor and crunch you could experiment with besides french fried onions. Some include potato chips, crackers, pork rinds, corn chips, white cheddar popcorn, and flavored bagel chips, or any others you can dream up to try. Crush them, coat the chicken, and cook the same way as with the fried onions.