Guy Fieri's Simple Secret For Ultra-Flavorful Fried Chicken

Fried chicken offers layers of opportunity to develop sweet, savory, and heat-inducing flavors. From the marinade to the dredge to how you finish off your pieces of succulent fried meat, this comfort food is begging for an amped-up taste. Sure, you can add all the usual seasoning suspects to your dredge — garlic, paprika, onion powder, black or cayenne pepper — but in an Instagram post, Guy Fieri revealed that a big flavor pay-off comes in the form of dill salt. Fieri uses a homemade version of this seasoning as a finisher and liberally sprinkles it onto his fried chicken right after it is done frying.

Fieri's dill salt is surprisingly simple, consisting of just three ingredients: Salt, pepper, and fresh dill. While the mayor of "Flavortown Kitchen" prefers to use fresh dill to make his salt, he notes that if dried is what's in the pantry, you should use it. Why fresh dill over dried? He explains, "The oil that's going to come out of this dill mixed in with this salt and pepper is going to be fantastic."

Guy Fieri also uses dill flavor in his buttermilk brine in the form of pickle juice and minced fresh dill, which adds some tang with notes of grass and citrus, but a fried chicken marinade without a little hot sauce wouldn't be the same, and the celebrity chef makes certain to add a little of this as well. After he bathes the chicken pieces in his liquid ingredients, Fieri dredges them in a seasoned flour-cornstarch seasoning, lets it rest, and then fries it up.  

This is the reason why that dill salt is such a crucial finisher. It underscores the subtle dill flavors and makes them pop. Fieri noted, "The key to this is right when they come out, take the dill salt that I made with the fresh dill and just sprinkle that right over the top." Before Fieri sinks his teeth into his perfectly seasoned and succulent chicken, he gives it a splash of pickle juice, bringing all the flavors together. Fieri's extra step is easy to replicate whether you are making a Southern fried chicken or a cast iron chicken.