Here's What You Can Do When Your Frying Oil Gets Too Hot, According To Gordon Ramsay

Is there a certain fried chicken recipe you found on Pinterest that you really want to try and get right, but it just isn't working? Maybe it's because your breading isn't quite right, or perhaps your frying technique isn't all there. We get that it can be hard to fry food up in your own home kitchen when there is so much that can go wrong between your dish being prepped and finally, gently, placing your ingredients in the hot oil. It can be a tricky task to know when the chicken is cooked all the way or if the oil is getting a little too hot to cook it evenly. As Cook's Illustrated notes, oil temperature is important.

There is that fear in all of us when it comes to frying up our favorite foods. It's easy to burn the outside of the food if your oil gets too hot, possibly leaving the inside raw in the process (via Bon Appétit). But don't worry too much because Gordon Ramsay has come to the rescue yet again with a simple two-step process to help keep your oil from burning — whatever it is you may have sizzling in your kitchen — while keeping you safe in the process.

On Gordon Ramsay's YouTube channel, he recently posted a video about those times when you want classic family recipes and how he gives them "modern tweaks." While the celebrity chef goes through his ginger beer battered fish recipe, he explains that there is a way to stop your oil from getting too hot. First, Ramsay warns to never fill your pan or pot above halfway with oil for frying. This is to avoid the oil bubbling over the pan and burning everything in its path, including you. He then instructs the two simple steps to help with oil that is too hot: turn your stove off and add some additional room temperature oil into the pan to cool all of it down.

Everyone makes mistakes when deep frying, and if cooking oil gets too hot and reaches its smoking point, a number of things can happen. Your kitchen can fill with smoke, the oil can burn and scald the pan, and the food you may already be cooking will also likely burn. It can become unhealthy for you and anyone who eats your dish if your oil gets to the smoking point (per MasterClass). So keep an eye out, and maybe keep a kitchen thermometer handy.