“vegetable” oil (usually a mix of soybean and corn oil),
grapeseed oil, and bacon fat.
I immediately noticed a direct correlation between the
level of saturated fat in a given cooking medium and how
crisp the chicken got. Chicken cooked in highly saturated
lard (40 percent saturated fat), shortening (31 percent),
bacon fat (40 percent), or palm oil (81 percent) was by far
the crunchiest. This seems like a good thing—until you
actually let it cool a bit and eat it. Because those fats are all
close to solid at body temperature, they leave your mouth
with an unappetizing waxy coating. With lighter foods like
tempura-style vegetables or fish, this coating is especially
noticeable.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, chicken fried in
highly unsaturated fats like grapeseed (10–12 percent
saturated fat), olive (13 percent), corn (13 percent),
sunflower (10 percent), avocado (12 percent), or vegetable
(around 13 percent) oil suffered from the opposite problem:
the chicken simply didn’t crisp up as well. The winner?
Peanut oil, with its moderately high level of saturated fat (17
percent) and clean, neutral flavor. The chicken fried up
clean and crisp, without any of the mouth-coating waxiness
of the highly saturated fats. It’s my fat of choice for almost
all frying projects, not just chicken.
SATURATED VERSUS
UNSATURATED FAT