Deep Fryer Recipes

Fried chicken and ice cream are the two essential food groups

In the American South, it's been said, they'll deep fry anything. During a recent TV appearance to promote his book Quit Digging Your Grave With A Knife and Fork, Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee joked with Stephen Colbert about going to the fair and finding deep fried Twinkies and even deep fried doorknobs. The reason is that deep fried food tastes great, almost no matter what it is. These deep fryer recipes in particular should make you a believer.

Fried chicken

What else could we possibly start with? Recipes for deep fried chicken will vary, and some of them are even a secret (aside from Kentucky Fried Chicken). But we think this fried chicken recipe is simple and easy to follow.

What you need:

Chicken (preferably a whole one cut into various pieces)

1 cup of flour

1 teaspoon of paprika

1 teaspoon of black pepper

1 teaspoon of poultry seasoning (though you can substitute a favorite spice if you like)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

What you do:

Get a paper or plastic bag (we didn't include that in our "what you need" list because you won't be eating it). Mix all of the seasonings with the flour in the bag. Wash two pieces of chicken and drop them into the bag. Shake the bag to coat the pieces with the flour and seasoning mix. Remove them. Repeat until all chicken pieces have been coated. If you play some music that will help you shake the chicken, you might enjoy that part more.

Now heat the oil in your deep fryer to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Once that's done, put a layer of chicken into the deep fryer basket and lower it into the oil. Fry the chicken until the breading is golden brown, or if you have a kitchen thermometer, until the chicken's internal temperature is 180 degrees. If you're too lazy to check either of those things, just fry the chicken for 20 minutes and call it done.

We also recommend eating with your fingers.

Fried ice cream

And now for dessert.

What you need:

Ice cream (we recommend vanilla, but that's optional)

4 ounces of sugar

4 ounces of cinnamon

6 ounces of crushed cornflakes

1/2 ounce of honey

Whippedcream

What you do:

You're going to need a series of bowls for this. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in one bowl and put the cornflakes in another. Take one scoop of ice cream and roll it in the sugar and cinnamon bowl, and then roll it in the cornflakes bowl.

Now put the ice cream scoop in a bowl in the freezer and give it enough time to harden. Meanwhile, heat the oil in your deep fryer to 375 degrees. Once the ice cream scoop is hard enough, dip it into the deep fryer very quickly, say about 5 seconds. No, we're not sure who first thought to do this either.

Once the oil has drained off the ice cream, pour honey over it and then spray it with whipped cream. Then dare someone else to eat it.

More information on small kitchen appliances