Oh those delicious pieces of fried chicken and those ever tasty crunch French fries. How do they get the food that crunchy and crispy? Is there more than one way to fry? Exactly how unhealthy are fried foods? There are so many questions when it comes to the many different fried foods. Let’s get going and figure out what to fry and what not to fry.

A crispy piece of chicken contains a whole lot of fatting ingredients. Mainly it’s the grease and oil they are cooked in that leads to these foods being unhealthy. There are different ways to fry foods so that the oil doesn’t saturate it but still gives you that crunchy outside. Here are some the options available when frying.

Pan Frying

When pan frying, a traditional skillet is used. One of the greatest things about pan frying is it allows you to use a very small amount of oil. This gives us that fried taste without all the fat. Using less oil means it does take a little longer to cook. It is also a lot harder to keep the oil at a steady temperature.

Shallow Frying

This is a happy medium when it comes to the amount of oil being used. Shallow frying means the food is partially submerged in the oil unlike regular frying where foods are submerged in oil. Using less oil does make the food somewhat healthier. Shallow frying is best when cooking battered foods.

Stir Frying

Stir frying requires the use of a wok or skillet. Pour your choice of oil, such as canola, olive, palm or peanut oils into the wok. Add whatever foods the recipe requires.  Toss and stir mixing all the juices and seasonings together and create a tasty meal. Remember the less oil used the healthier the dish.

Deep Frying

Ah the traditional deep frying, everybody should be familiar with this method. This is what we do when making those crispy pieces of chicken or French fries. It’s probably going to be the unhealthiest way to fry just because everything is submerged in the oil. One downfall of using too much oil is that it is flammable making it a risk. Deep frying is extremely fast. Foods can be deep fried in just a matter of minutes.

With all of these methods of frying you are bound to run into a cleanup situation. Oil sizzles, bubbles and is just generally messy so be prepared when you pull that fryer out.  Just remember that greasy clean up is well worth it when there’s a lip smacking meal awaiting those taste buds.

Frying isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. It all just depends on how much and what type of oil is used. There are so many options when frying and there are so many choices of food. Just remember when frying, less is healthier.