Favorite Buttermilk Skillet-Fried Chicken from 'Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking

Before last week, I had never made real fried chicken. Between the perceived mess and my worry of serving burnt-but-still-raw chicken, I knew I'd need a commanding voice to guide me through my fears and persuade me to give it a shot. The buttermilk skillet-fried chicken recipe in Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart's Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking offered just the direction I was looking for.

The Best Fried Chicken Recipe Ever?

Many, many years ago, before I even started writing about food, I went to Atlanta on a business trip. I have no idea what the business trip was about, but what I really went to Atlanta to do was taste...

Extra-Crispy Fried Chicken With Caramelized Honey and Spice

This fried chicken is coated with a layer of super light, extra crunchy craggy-ness thanks to a tight packing of fine 00 flour coupled with a low-temperature shallow fry. It's finished with a drizzle of toasted honey butter, allowing the hot and flavorful spice dust to stick to every nook and cranny.

Chicken-Fried Chicken With Cream Gravy

We use our fried chicken technique on boneless, skinless chicken thighs for an extra-crisp crust and juicy meat. So how do you make extra-crunchy, well-seasoned fried chicken even tastier? With a peppery cream gravy, of course.

Fried Chicken

This is a Fried Chicken with the most insanely crispy, thick craggy crust seasoned with a KFC copycat spice mix! Buttermilk marinated Southern style.

Batter-Fried Chicken

While you can't go wrong with the classic dry-dredge, this potato-starchy batter-fried chicken is cleaner, faster, and requires less effort to make.

Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Thomas Keller's perfect buttermilk fried chicken is a must-have at his Yountville restaurant, Ad Hoc. Make it yourself any time you're craving the very best fried chicken (ever) with this recipe.

Nashville fried chicken

Yes, yes, yes! This fried chicken is the bomb. Juicy chicken, crispy outside and a little lick of spice.

Double-Fried Chicken With Lemons and Jalapenos

The key to perfectly crisp fried chicken is to treat it like a French fry: double fry it. Crisp, double-fried, buttermilk-marinated chicken flavored with Old Bay and spices teams with fried lemon wheels and jalapenos.

Fried Chicken Skin With Hot Sauce and Honey From 'Heritage'

Most would agree, the best part of fried chicken is the skin. Evil-genius chef Sean Brock decided to skip the middle man—er, chicken—and go right for the good stuff. He serves these deep-fried strips of chicken skin as a bar snack at Husk, and was benevolent enough to share the recipe for them in his new cookbook, Heritage.