Coconut Fried Chicken
Our family loves chicken. The boys fight over the dark meat, we girls LOVE the skin, and Travis gets dibs on the neck.
You’ll find chicken on our table at least once a week – and the leftovers get thrown into delicious broth- based soups, tossed on fresh salads, or tucked into taco shells. We bake it, grill it, and roast it.
And if you’re familiar with my love for healthy fats, you’ll know we fry it. Because oh yes, chicken fried in coconut oil is HEALTHY! We’re not talking about canola oil, vegetable oil, or any of those unhealthy oils – we’re talking healthy saturated fat!
Saturated Fat is Healthy?
Wait. Did you just see saturated fat and healthy in the same sentence? Okay, if you’re new here, you’re probably thinking I’m a little crazy. But if I’ve piqued your interest, you can read more about my deep love for coconut oil and find out just what makes this metabolism-boosting, brain-nourishing, hunger-satisfying saturated fat so wonderful. Not to mention that it’s my secret ammunition for weight loss too. (Gotcha there, didn’t I. :))
Safe for frying
Coconut oil is one of the few fats safe to fry. Others being duck and goose fat, chicken fat, lard, and tallow. Olive oil is safe for dressings and very moderate heat – but not for frying. On the other hand, common oils like safflower, corn, sunflower, soybean, and cottonseed oils should never be heated because they’re highly reactive and heating them makes them go rancid easily. And I’m not talking about just the high heat at frying temperature – even moderate heating in baking can make them go rancid and create free radicals.
What are Free Radicals?
Think marauders. Attackers. The bad guys.
Free radicals attack cell membranes and red blood cells. They cause damage to DNA/RNA strands that can trigger mutations in blood vessels – initiating plaque build up, skin – causing premature aging and wrinkles, and tissue – setting the stage for tumors. They’ve been linked to Lou Gehrig’s disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, arthritis, and cataracts.
When it comes to making fried chicken, coconut oil is my fat of choice. 🙂
Healthy and delicious - Coconut Fried Chicken is a must for gluten-free chicken fans! Fried chicken that taste great & is good for you!
- 24 chicken drumsticks
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 1 teaspoon Himalayan salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup coconut oil (for frying)
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Heat coconut oil in a deep frying pan until it starts to bubble and snaps if you sprinkle water on it.
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Combine coconut flour, salt, and pepper in dish.
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One at a time, wet each drumstick and shake off excess water. Coat the drumstick with the flour mixture and lay in the heated oil. Repeat until pan is full.
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Let the drumsticks fry for about 5-8 min. Flip them over carefully with metal tongs and let them fry an additional 5-8 min.
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Lay the drumsticks in a 9Ă—13 pan. Continue frying until the pan(s) are full.
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Bake at 300 degrees for about 1 – 1 1/2 hrs.
Not only is coconut flour a prebiotic (which makes your gut microbiota very happy), it's one of the flours safe for many allergenic and health-related diets.Â
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So yummie looking! I love coconut oil! I really like cooking with it.
I tried in making pie crust…wow so flaky and light! (I used 1/2 lard from home grown pigs and 1/2 coconut oil)
Have a blessed meal!
mmmm! My fave thing to fry in coconut oil are eggrolls. Obviously not gluten free, but we have them sometimes, especially when guests are coming. Fried rice on the side makes for a pretty cheap meal that most people don’t think to make themselves.
I’ve never tried to make eggrolls. Sounds good though – I just might have to give it a go! Has that wee one arrived yet?
Yum! My family LOVE fried chicken… must try this!
I’ve never tried coconut flour or oil. Do I buy coconut flour at a Whole Foods? I am happy to have stumbled upon this, I’d really like to give this a try!
You can buy both at one of my favorite (and cheapest) sites, Wilderness Family Naturals.com. Sometimes I buy my flour on Amazon.com if there’s a good deal going, but Wilderness Family Naturals is the cheapest place I’ve found oil – and it’s excellent quality.
OH my word! This looks sooooo delicious, satisfying AND healthy. I use coconut oil for everything and since we just found out that my husband and son have a gluten intolerance, this will be welcomed in our kitchen. I’m checking out your other GF and DF recipes too! Thanks so much for sharing! Blessings.
Enjoy, Sabrina!
Just curious, why do you bake them right after you fried them. Wouldn’t the frying be enough?
Hi Debbie,
Good question! The reason is that frying them for that amount of time doesn’t cook them completely. I suppose you could fry them longer, but I personally have a tendency to burn things if I get distracted. To fry them right before eating them means I’m also trying to get the rest of the meal pulled together. If I fry them and then stick them in the oven I have time to clean up my mess and do last minute preparations before we eat. I guess it’s personal preference. 🙂
These sound delicious! And simple! I will definitely give these a try. I also appreciate the info on the fats and oils. Thanks!
Thank you for your submission on Nourishing Treasures’ Make Your Own! Monday link-up.
Check back later tonight when the new link-up is running to see if you were one of the top 3 featured posts! 🙂
Good morning, Paula! I love the simplicity and homecooking feel of this recipe. I’ve featured it at this week’s Allergy-Free Wednesdays on my site. As a part of the feature, I also mention it on my Facebook page and pin it on pinterest. You can find the feature here: http://willingcook.com/allergy-free-wednesdays-july-11-2012/
We hope to see you back again this week!
Michelle
Thanks so much Michelle! I’ll most definitely be back – I love Allergy-Free Wednesdays!
I cannot wait to try this recipe. My kids love chicken legs and I bet the coconut flour and oil give it a wonderful flavor. I may try rice flour as I don’t have any coconut four on hand. (I do really need to get some.)
I use coconut oil in my stir fry meals. I cook the meat (chicken or fish) in the oil and then toss in the veggies. So good!
Hi there! Thanks for this great recipe. Have you tried frying something like this in bacon grease before? I save mine, and would love to find a great use for larger amounts of it. Do you think it would work?
I use bacon grease for frying a lot of things – I use it on my cast iron skillet before I make pancakes, I fry eggs in it, ect. I don’t see why you couldn’t fry chicken legs in it.
The only draw back with ‘normal’ bacon grease is the nitrates in it. You’d want to find nitrate-free bacon or make your own. If you can’t, I’d recommend using coconut oil as it’s purely healthy from head to toe. 🙂
Hi, Just strolled across your blog from Sarah’s Monday Mania and was wondering if you could fry chicken thighs along with drumsticks the same way?
thanks so much!
Hi Loriel,
Absolutely – I had chicken legs when I took pics, but thighs would work the same way – you’d just have to bake them longer as their a little meatier. 🙂
Do we cover the chicken in the oven?
No, not unless you wanted soggier crust. The steam would end up making the crust mushy. It’s still not the super crispy crust uncovered, but covered would be mushy.
Great article, solid science and food health awareness. One word of advice: change “peaked your interest” to “piqued your interest.”
Ha! I’m notorious for picking out spelling errors on signs and fliers – didn’t even catch my own! Thanks for correcting me. 🙂
Glad to help, I love it when people point out typos we miss on our site and figured I’d pay it forward.
will the fried chicken taste like coconut ?
It depends on the coconut oil you use. We use organic expeller pressed – it’s still healthy and doesn’t taste like coconuts. The coconut flour doesn’t have a strong coconut taste with the chicken.
So glad I stumbled upon your site! I am a huge lover and frier of coconut oil. I cook with it all the time. Try adding it to waffles instead of another kind of oil – you will be SHOCKED at how moist and delicious they are. Of course those aren’t gluten free but they sure are tasty. I’m sure you could make them with coconut flour too. As someone who is 100% paleo 90% of the time, I save the coconut oil waffles for a “cheat” day. I also use coconut oil as a facewash – sounds crazy, but if you try it you will be absolutely hooked (especially if you live in a dry climate like I do). Thanks again!
Wow! Made this last night for my family. It was DELISH!! I love, love, love coconut oil. I never make fried chicken because I thought it was too high fat. Yummo is all I got to say. My family was pleasantly pleased. I used drumsticks, thighs and skinless breasts.
So glad you liked it Sheila! Thanks for coming back and sharing!
This looks so good!.
I did this and fried them about 12 min per side and heated the oil at medium heat. Turned out perfectly cooked. =) My fiance tries to eat paleo mostly and this is my favorite thing we’ve made so far!
Did you bake them afterward, or were they done after the total 24 minutes of frying?
Hi! This recipe looks delicious. I would like to make a baked version of it so I don’t have to use as much oil. Do you think it would work? Could you give me any pointers on how to do that (I’m not that kitchen savvy yet!)? Thanks!
Hi Cristi,
Hmmm. I would coat them as the recipe states, then maybe roll them in a shallow dish of oil and then bake them in the oven for about 1 hour at 350 if you’re using drumsticks. Let me know how it goes!
Hi there,
For step 6 – instead of baking, can the drumsticks be steamed?
If so, for how long?
I don’t have a usable oven.
Hi Alice,
I’ve never steamed meat before so I really don’t know whether that would work or not. Maybe someone else has experience that can chime in . . . 🙂
I steam my chicken breast. I think having them coated in flour would not turn out well. It would make it mushy. Hope that helps.
We started our candida cleanse a few days ago and this is what I made on our fist night of it. It was a huge hit!! As I’m in a relationship with someone who owns an extensive spice shop, I added a Poulet Roti spice mix (candida diet OK) to the coconut flour with some salt and pepper. The only road bump I hit was with the coconut oil. In your recipe you don’t specify at what temperature I should have the stove set at for the oil to bubble so I cranked it on up to high. This was obviously hot enough for the oil to bubble and for it to crackle when water was sprinkled in it, however I think it was too high for the frying. The legs would be in there for 2 min. tops and they’d be burnt. After my 3rd burnt leg I became hypervigilant to it and was able to fry the remaining parts with little to no burn but they were definitely not sitting in there for 5-8 minutes on each side. Alls well than ends well, and it was a delicious end!! Will for sure be making again.