This is my interpretation of Popeyes Style Chicken using JFC ~ Frickin Good Chicken Breading. It’s really all about the technique to achieve Texture, Appearance, and Crunch! Everything else is in the Marinade and JFC Breading.

This recipe uses a JAH Product – JFC ~ Frickin Good Chicken Breading

Popeyes Chicken Marinade

The marinade that is used is the Popeyes Style Marinade and can be used across a bunch of other food items. Once the marinade is made up, marinate the Chicken for at least 4 hours. The longer, the better. Popeyes marinates their Chicken for 12 hours, and this really helps the final breading achieve those kernels.

Popeyes Breading

The breading used is JFC ~ Frickin Good Chicken Breading. This has all the Seasonings and Flavors in a ready to use breading for the Chicken. When making Popeyes Style, you will need a lot of the JFC Breading to ensure good and full coverage with ease.

Place the Chicken straight from the marinade into a good amount of JFC breading and toss gently 20 times. Pick it up and shake any excess flour off and go straight to the deep fryer. Don’t rest or otherwise set the Chicken down, as this will flatten out the side that is resting. You want to maximize the kernels developed on the chicken.

You can set the chicken down on a rack, this will minimize the contact area and give you time to bread up the other pieces.

Popeyes Breading Technique

The technique I believe originates with Colonel Sanders himself with his Fried Cauliflower recipe. Seasoned flour is added to the marinade. Before coating the food item with a seasoned Flour.

It is the viscosity of the marinade that, once it comes into contact with the seasoned flour, folds in on itself, creating those crevices or kernels. But before that, the chicken is left in the marinade for 12 hours.

This I believe is the other trick. Their marinade contains baking soda, which in itself is a meat tenderizer. The long marination is in effect first breaking the proteins or tenderizing the chicken and secondly saturating the chicken for optimal flavor.

How to Bread Chicken like Popeyes

When transferring the chicken from the marinade, gently toss the chicken around to get evenly coated in the flour mix, about 20 times. Then aggressively shake the Chicken to get rid of any excess flour and make the kernels pop.

For this style of chicken, you do not want to press the breading into the chicken. This will flatten out the crevices that are created by the marinade getting coated in the flour.

You can bread the Chicken and then set them aside. But I find this flattens the side that is in contact with the surface. You get better results if you bread the chicken and then immediately go to the deep fryer. You can also set the chicken down on a wired rack, which minimizes surface contact.

Popeyes cook time and temperature

Popeyes Deep Fries their Chicken at 340 F for 12 minutes. I have tested this and found while it does work for small pieces of Chicken. It will not cook through bigger pieces of chicken. This is probably because I am using a home Deep Fryer, which can not come up to temp as fast as a commercial fryer.

The Chicken is deep-fried in beef tallow or a mixture of beef tallow and soybean oil. Some state that in Louisiana they deep fry in lard or shortening.

How to Deep Fry JFC Chicken

Deep fry Chicken pieces at 325 F for 15–18 minutes. Lift the Basket up and stand the chicken to drain off any excess grease. Transfer to a plate and allow to cool.