How to make healthy fried chicken

Fried chicken. Image via pixabay.

Fried chicken can be made more healthy! So therefore it is possible to make healthy fried chicken. This is necessary if your someone who eats fried chicken quite often.
So in order to achieve this healthier version, this really comes down to the ingredients and the method that you use to make it. The way in which you eat it also plays a role.

The first thing that you can do is to replace whatever ingredients that you're using to make it with the healthier version of it as possible.

So:

Chicken
You can use real chicken or fake chicken.

Real chicken

With real chicken make sure that it's:
- skinless
The skin of the chicken contains fat and thus calories. Now we all know that fried foods contains a lot of calories and so if you remove the skin on the chicken you are reducing the calories that you will be consuming.
Note: Chicken skin has advantages as well so you don't have to remove it every time.


- white meat such as the breast or a mixture of white meat and dark meat (e.g. leg)
White meat chicken contains less fat as opposed to dark meat chicken. It is interesting to know that dark meat is more nutritious than white meat so if you want more nutrition then you can opt for the skinless dark meat instead.

Skinless chicken breast. Image via pixabay.

- organic
This is much healthier because organic chicken is not grown with antibiotics or fed with GM feed, etc.


- a smaller portion like chicken strips
A smaller portion is always better that a lot calorie wise. With a smaller portion, you can satisfy your craving and not consume a whole lot of fried chicken.

Chicken strips. Image via pixabay.

Fake chicken
- a vegetable of your choice to be used as the meat
- tofu
With "fake chicken" you are not eating the unhealthy option and you can still get a feel of fried- chicken.

Fried tofu. Image via pixabay.

Fried tofu. Image via pixabay.

Breading
Flour
- use whole wheat/whole grain flour instead of white flour. Whole wheat/grain flour has more nutrients.
- you can also use a gluten-free flour if you like

 Related posts for further reading on gluten:
What is gluten in food?
Health effects of gluten
How to remove gluten from your diet


Oil
Use a healthier oil to fry your chicken such as coconut oil, olive oil, peanut oil, ghee, etc.

Use beneficial seasonings
- use beneficial seasonings to season your chicken such as ginger, rosemary, cayenne pepper (if you like it spicy), garlic, etc.

Garlic. Image via pixabay.

Don't deep fry them always instead:
- pan sear them and then finish them off in the oven.
- cook them in the oven - oven fried chicken



Eat less of it. Which means that you shouldn't eat it as an entire meal, so instead:
- Use healthy foods like a salad to fill you up.
Basically have other foods on the plate as well or bottom line make it a side in your meal.