Broasted Chicken: How to Make a Home-Style Version

Broasted chicken is pressure-fried chicken associated with the Broaster brand, with a crisp coating and juicy meat, not chicken that has been broiled or roasted. Genuine Broaster Chicken uses a particular combination of equipment, marinade, and coating. Here’s how that process differs from ordinary frying, why an Instant Pot cannot reproduce it, and how to make a clearly labeled, shallow-fried alternative at home.

What Makes Broasted Chicken Different

Broasted chicken is a type of fried chicken. The important distinction is pressure frying versus open frying.

In an open skillet or deep fryer, chicken cooks in hot fat without a sealed, pressurized chamber. A commercial pressure fryer encloses the food and oil while steam pressure develops from moisture in the food. That changes the cooking conditions, allowing the chicken to cook quickly while limiting moisture loss.

Pressure frying describes a cooking method, while Genuine Broaster Chicken names a branded preparation.

A skillet or Dutch-oven recipe can make fried chicken, but it does not meet the Genuine Broaster Chicken process. The branded preparation combines Chickite marinade, Slo-Bro coating, and pressure frying in a Broaster pressure fryer, under the Genuine Broaster Chicken system.

Restaurants advertising “broasted” or “broast” chicken may serve noticeably different food.

The original equipment came from Wisconsin. Inventor L.A.M. Phelan developed his combination of a deep fryer and pressure cooker in 1953, and the Broaster Company was established in 1954. The method became closely associated with supper clubs and diners, but the equipment was designed for commercial kitchens, not as a technique to improvise with a household pressure cooker.

How to Make Broasted-Style Chicken at Home

For a home kitchen, the practical alternative is seasoned, shallow-fried chicken. It will not duplicate commercial pressure frying, but it can deliver the crisp coating and tender meat that make the restaurant dish appealing.

Choose your cookware before preparing the chicken.

Cookware	Suitable for This Home Method?	What Matters
Heavy skillet	Yes	Use a stable pan with enough room for the chicken and displaced fat; fry uncovered.
Dutch oven	Yes	Its higher sides help contain splatter, but it remains an open frying vessel.
Instant Pot or ordinary pressure cooker	No	Do not seal frying oil inside it. Household pressure cooking with water-based liquid is not pressure frying.

You will also need tongs, shallow dishes for coating, an oil thermometer suitable for shallow frying, an instant-read food thermometer, and a clean wire rack set over a baking sheet.

Step 1: Buy and Prepare the Chicken

Choose a fryer chicken weighing about 4–5 pounds, or a comparable package of bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces. That is the size range for this home recipe; when changing recipes, confirm the intended weight in the ingredient list.
Cut a whole chicken into breasts, thighs, drumsticks, and wings, or ask the butcher to cut it up. Keep the pieces reasonably uniform within each cut so that one unusually large piece does not dictate the whole batch.
Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Do not rinse raw chicken, which can spread contaminated splashes around the sink.
Wash your hands and clean the preparation area before handling seasonings, utensils, or serving dishes.

Bone-in pieces will not necessarily finish together. Plan to check and remove them individually rather than treating the entire pan as one piece of food.

Step 2: Mix the Coating and Milk Dip

In a shallow dish, combine all-purpose flour, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and salt to make the dry coating.
Pour 1/2 cup unsweetened, dairy-free milk into a separate shallow dish. This is the wet layer that helps the flour adhere, rather than a thick, spoonable batter.

The 1/2 cup milk measurement is for this home version, not a universal broasting proportion. If you change the batch size or use another recipe, confirm the quantities in its coating and batter ingredient lists rather than mixing measurements from different recipes.

Use plain, unsweetened milk, not a flavored variety. Sweetened or vanilla-flavored milk can leave an unwanted taste in the crust.

Step 3: Coat the Chicken

Dip each piece in the milk, turning it to moisten the surface. Let excess milk drip back into the dish.
Transfer the chicken to the flour mixture. Turn and press gently so the coating adheres around the skin and edges.
Shake off loose flour and place the coated chicken on a tray reserved for raw food. Refrigerate it if there will be a delay before frying.

Aim for an even coating, not a heavy shell of loose flour. Excess flour can fall into the fat and scorch.

Do not return cooked chicken to the tray reserved for raw food. Once coating is finished, discard the flour and milk that touched raw chicken.

Step 4: Add and Heat the Shortening

Add enough shortening to your skillet or Dutch oven to make a melted layer about 1/2 inch deep. This is the depth for the shallow-frying method, not an instruction to fill a pressure cooker.
Heat the shortening, using an oil thermometer to monitor its temperature rather than relying only on the burner setting.
Keep the pot uncovered and make sure the thermometer’s sensing area is in the fat, not resting against the pan.

The amount of shortening needed depends on the width of the cookware, so depth is more useful than a fixed cup measurement here.

Keep water away from the hot fat, and do not leave the pan unattended.

Step 5: Fry and Check Every Piece

Lower the chicken carefully into the hot shortening with tongs, placing skin-on pieces skin-side down first. Work in batches if necessary; pieces should not be wedged tightly together.
Turn the chicken as the underside becomes golden and the coating sets. Adjust the heat to keep the shortening at a steady frying temperature rather than letting it smoke or cool excessively.
Plan on about 25 minutes of frying as the recipe’s cook-time estimate. Larger pieces and additional batches can take longer, so use the chicken’s internal temperature—not elapsed time—to judge doneness.
Before removing each piece, check its thickest part with an instant-read thermometer, avoiding bone. Chicken must reach 165°F before serving.
Remove pieces individually as they finish. If a piece is below the required temperature, continue cooking it and check again.

A browned crust can develop before the center is ready, especially on a large breast. Do not assume that every piece is cooked because the wings look finished.

Let the shortening return to frying temperature before adding another batch. Adding more cold chicken immediately can leave the coating pale and oily.

Step 6: Drain, Hold, and Serve

Transfer fully cooked chicken to a clean wire rack over a baking sheet. The rack keeps the underside out of the drained fat.
If you are cooking in batches, keep finished pieces uncovered in a 200°F oven. This is a holding setting, not a substitute for cooking an underdone piece.
Serve when the final batch is fully cooked. Use clean tongs and a clean serving platter.

Avoid stacking the chicken or covering it tightly while it waits. Trapped steam softens the crust you just worked to create.

For a straightforward dinner, add coleslaw, a green salad, roasted vegetables, or potatoes. Keep sauces alongside the chicken rather than pouring them over the coating if you want it to stay crisp.

Why Restaurants Use Commercial Pressure Fryers

A restaurant pressure fryer is not simply a larger household pressure cooker. It is purpose-built to fry food in hot oil under pressure, with controls and safety systems designed for that job.

The commercial workflow includes marinating the chicken, applying the coating, pressure frying with an approved program, and releasing pressure through the equipment’s prescribed procedure before opening. Loading, temperature, pressure, and release instructions belong to the particular fryer and food program; a home recipe’s timing cannot be transferred to that equipment.

Capacity also varies by model and manufacturer. When planning restaurant production, Broaster’s stated capacity for its 2400 model is 22 pounds of chicken in about 10 minutes. Broaster’s stated figure applies only to its 2400 model; it is not a general range for pressure fryers.

It also is not a promise that an order will be ready that quickly. Preparation, loading, unloading, and the restaurant’s order queue affect service time.

If you want the actual commercial preparation rather than the home-style approximation, ordering from a restaurant using the branded system is the simplest route.

How to Check Your Home-Fried Chicken

Use the thermometer to judge doneness and the coating to judge technique. A golden exterior is useful feedback about browning, but it cannot confirm that the meat is cooked.

Dark Coating With Undercooked Meat

The shortening may be too hot, or the pieces may be unusually large. Reduce the heat enough to slow the browning and continue cooking, turning as needed, until the thickest part reaches 165°F.

For the next batch, check the oil temperature before adding chicken. Turning the burner higher does not reliably solve slow cooking; it can simply darken the outside faster.

Coating That Pulls Away

Handling the chicken before the crust sets can tear the coating. Turn it gently with tongs instead of repeatedly lifting, scraping, or dragging it across the pan.

If a patch comes off during frying, leave it alone. Trying to add wet coating to a piece already in hot fat creates splatter and an uneven crust.

Loose, Burned Flour in the Pan

Loose coating can accumulate in the shortening and darken between batches. Carefully remove floating crumbs with a heat-safe skimmer before they burn.

If the fat is smoking, take the pan off the heat and let it cool before continuing. Do not add water to hot shortening.

Once the final pieces have passed the temperature check, serve them promptly with the sides ready. Fried chicken is easiest to enjoy crisp when it is the last part of dinner to leave the stove.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is KFC Broasted or Fried Chicken?

KFC’s Original Recipe chicken is pressure-fried, but that does not make it Genuine Broaster Chicken. Pressure frying is a cooking technique, while Broaster is a separate branded equipment and preparation system.

Is Broasting Healthier Than Frying?

The word “broasted” alone does not establish that a dish is healthier. Broasting still cooks chicken in oil, and a less-greasy feel is not a reliable measurement of how much oil the food contains. The recipe and preparation matter more than the menu label, so there is no blanket comparison to make from the cooking method alone.

On some South Asian menus, “chicken broast” is a name for seasoned fried chicken rather than a guarantee of Broaster equipment. It may be pressure-fried or cooked in an open fryer, with seasonings and sauces that differ from the branded preparation. If you want a particular style, ask how the restaurant cooks it before ordering.

Can you make broasted chicken in a household pressure cooker like restaurants do?

No. Genuine Broaster Chicken relies on equipment made for commercial kitchens, and the company says its hood, power, and oil requirements exceed a home cook’s budget. For a home-style alternative, use a skillet or Dutch oven with a shortening layer about 1/2 inch deep.

How does broasted chicken work?

Broasted chicken cooks in hot oil inside a sealed commercial pressure fryer, where moisture from the chicken creates steam pressure. This method cooks the chicken more quickly at a lower temperature, helping it stay moist while the coating becomes crisp. Genuine Broaster Chicken also follows the brand’s specified equipment, marinade, coating, and recipe requirements.