How Canned Cream Of Soup Transforms Homemade Fried Chicken

Fried chicken may be a Southern staple, but there are various ways that you are probably screwing it up. Simple mistakes made in the dredging and brining process can cause your chicken to either have a weak coating or become dried out and overdone during the cooking process. While you should season your flour for flavoring, you can also completely transform your fried chicken with a simple can of cream of soup. 

For chicken purists, cream of chicken is the way to go. It keeps that savory chicken flavor but imparts a nice creaminess and spice to the meat. It also helps deal with one of the biggest issues with fried chicken — overcooking your bird until it's a husk. Cream of chicken soup helps create a nice crust for your chicken and imparts moisture to the meat, helping prevent it from drying out. However, why stop with a basic flavor like the cream of chicken when there's so much more at your disposal? 

Cream of mushroom has a slightly earthy taste that will go well with your chicken, especially if you combine your chicken with a creamy mushroom gravy. Cream of corn and cream of tomato soups have a sweet or tangy edge for those wanting to experiment with a new take on fried chicken. 

Whatever type of cream of soup you ultimately opt to use, the process involving fried chicken is pretty easy to execute. Most people typically brine their chickens in either salt water or buttermilk, but for this hack, you would just replace the brine with your favorite cream of soup (mixed with water or milk, according to the directions on the can). To maximize the flavor of your dish, let your chicken brine in the cream of soup marinade for between eight to 24 hours. You shouldn't let it brine for longer than this as it will affect the quality of the meat. 

Marinating the chicken ahead of time makes it moist and tender. However, if you are short on time, you can shorten the marinating process or skip it altogether. In that case, you want to combine the cream of soup with a large egg. The egg will help thicken the cream of soup and make it stick to your chicken. 

From there, you will coat it in flour and put the chicken in high-temperature oils to fry. In particular, cream of soup can elevate chicken breasts, which are prone to drying out since white meat on the bird has less fat and can be tougher as a result.