The Key To Transporting Crispy Fried Chicken Is Already In Your Kitchen

It's the stuff of chicken-frying nightmares. You pack up your homemade fried chicken to transport it to a potluck, and after arriving at your event, you open your container to find that the beautiful batch of chicken that you carefully fried to golden-brown perfection has now become a seriously soggy mess. The good news is there's an infallible method for keeping your chicken crispy during transport, and it's way easier than you might think. All you need is an everyday kitchen item that you almost definitely have stocked right now: paper towels.

Not only does the high absorbency of paper towels make them the ideal choice for helping soak up that excess oil and moisture lingering on your fried chicken (which is what makes it soggy), but their thickness also ensures that the sheets stay intact while doing so. Simply adding a layer of the kitchen item across the bottom of your container before adding your chicken. This hack can work wonders to preserve the crispness of your chicken pieces — and since the paper towels are disposable, you'll save yourself the hassle of the oily clean-up afterward. So keep those paper towels handy — turns out, they're the key to your next perfect batch of fried chicken.

Keeping your fried chicken crispy during transport starts with choosing the right container. While it might be tempting to pack your fried quarters into a styrofoam container, it's important to note that these containers typically trap steam, which contributes to the sogginess (on top of the fact that they aren't exactly environmentally-friendly). Thus, using a container with some sort of ventilation or airflow (e.g. one with holes) is your best bet. You may want to consider a cardboard container, which won't seal in moisture the way many other containers — such as the airtight variety — do.

But before packing your container, you'll want to allow your chicken to cool a bit on a cooling rack so that excess oil can drip off beforehand. This will ensure that your fried chicken contains minimal oil when you pack it — otherwise, the process can be counterproductive if too much oil accumulates on the paper towels that your chicken is sitting on. As for what type of paper towels to use, you'll definitely want to stick with the regular ones, as paper towels made out of recycled materials have weaker fibers and are not as absorbent. When you're ready to pack your chicken, be careful not to stack the pieces on top of each other. Instead, pack your pieces in a single layer to prevent the heat from creating steam around each other as they're being transported.

There are a few other ways you can preserve your fried chicken's crispness that are simple and intentional. For example, you'll want to avoid the common fried chicken mistake of wrapping your container tightly in foil to transport it. While yes, this will keep your chicken warm until you reach your destination, the foil will also prevent steam from escaping, which, you guessed it, will in turn make your chicken's coating soggy. Instead, if you'd like to use foil to wrap up your chicken, wrap it more loosely to create exit spaces for that steam. 

And for extra security, consider double-frying your chicken — fry it to a mild crisp once, let it rest for a few minutes, then fry it again. This will deliver ultra-crispy skin that will keep longer and survive the transport, not to mention get some seriously rave reviews.