I discovered Popeyes’ secret trick for making the crispiest fried chicken ever

We’ve seen an influx of American fast food chains in the UK of late, but one of the first to arrive on the scene was Popeyes.

The Louisiana fried chicken joint set up shop in London’s Westfield in 2021, and has since opened 49 other restaurants nationwide – with more to come.

It’s best known for its extra crispy ‘shatter crunch’ fried chicken and the Chicken Sandwich that broke the internet when it first launched in the US in 2019.

I’ve tried many items from the Popeyes menu items during my time at Metro – from the cajun breakfast, to the hot honey sandwich and recent festive menu launch – and it’s safe to say I’m a big fan. (And so is Beyoncé, in case you needed any more convincing. So much so, that she’s even thought to have served Popeyes at her wedding…)

While I’ve eaten the food, I didn’t really know much about how it was made, so when the chain offered me the chance to go behind the scenes at their UK headquarters in Ealing Broadway, I jumped at the opportunity to uncover their secrets.

After donning an apron, hair net and cap, Dave Hoskins, head of food at Popeyes UK, gave me a tour of the restaurant’s kitchen, and even let me have a go at breading some chicken breasts, teaching me exactly how the shatter crunch is created.

I’m sorry to say I wasn’t allowed to film in the kitchen, or take photos, but I can tell you that the secret to the perfect crunch is all to do with the batter and the aeration of the flour. 

The team starts by taking a marinated chicken breast, and ‘opening it up’ a little bit, stretching it to give a larger surface area, before applying some flour to it and ‘knuckling’ the meat.

‘Knuckling is where you squash the breast and roll your knuckles across it and that evens out the chicken,’ Dave explains. 

The chicken is then tossed in seasoned flour (with black pepper and oregano) 20 times with a technique they refer to as ‘magic tossing’.

This involves placing the chicken breasts in the flour and then, with your hands in a claw shape, you scoop the chicken and flour up, lifting and dropping it as you go. This sounds pretty simple, but I challenge you to do this without getting flour absolutely everywhere. It’s trickier than it seems.

After 20 tosses, the chicken gets a double tap to knock excess flour off before it’s coated in batter, then it’s back in the flour once more for another 20 tosses – so that’s 40 in total.

And while this might seem a tad excessive, Dave claims it’s crucial not to miss a single one, as this process is what makes the chicken extra crispy when cooking.

After the final toss, the chicken is given a second double tap, and it’s at this stage when the magic happens and you finally start to see the ‘shatter crunch’ appear. 

‘If you tap it very sharply, you see all these nodules come, and that’s what the famous shatter crunch is,’ Dave says. ‘It’s the batter doing that for us, with adding the aeration in the flour. As the little nodules cook, that’s what gives you all the crispy bits.

‘The batter is the key to everything, it’s a hydrated batter so it will have been made yesterday and sits in the fridge for around 12 hours at a certain temperature. What happens over that time is the molecules in the flour and water bind together and once that hits the oil it creates a seal around the chicken. It holds the flour onto the chicken very well for breading, but also stops any moisture coming out of the chicken.’

Finally, the breaded chicken is then fried in an open back fryer, which cooks it a little bit slower to aid in creating an ‘intense crunch’. It also cooks the meat slower to allow it to retain its moisture, so it doesn’t dry out.

Fried chicken is what Popeyes is best known for, but they also serve a unique herby chicken sausage at some of their UK locations.

Instead of the traditional pork sausage patty in a breakfast wrap, roll or muffin, it’s swapped out for a chicken sausage patty, which has been well seasoned to add extra flavour.

This breakfast is available at six Popeyes restaurants, in Ealing, Ilford, Leicester, Romford, Walthamstow and Wembley. 

I gave the chicken sausage a try at the Ealing branch, and I have to say the chicken sausage blew me away. The added seasoning packs so much flavour – it’s much more interesting to eat than a regular sausage patty.

If you’ve tried the breakfast at Popeyes and loved it, and have the opportunity to visit one of the locations where chicken sausage is served, definitely give it a try. It’s an easy way to ‘hack’ your regular order, giving you something that’s new, but familiar all at the same time – and don’t forget to order an American biscuit as well, just because you can.

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