Flour question for The Dough Doctor...

[La Sera]

Sorry, not pizza related!

I'm going to add fried chicken to my menu and all the internet recipes call for "all purpose" flour. The term "all purpose" flour is American and the rest of us have no clue what that means. What kind of flour or what additives are in "all purpose" flour?

We can buy soft, medium and strong flours (cake medium and bread). Which would be best for a fried chicken coating in your opinion?

Thank you in advance for any insight...

[TXCraig1]

All purpose in the US is a malted medium flour. Ideal for fried chicken.

[La Sera]

Malted? Hmm. Do yo know if it's a barley malt and what percent is malt?

So it's about 10%-12% protein? and not strong bread flour?

Thanks.

[The Dough Doctor]

La Sera;
All purpose flour can run from a low of 9% protein to a high of about 10.5/11.0% protein content. While all purpose flour works well, research that we have done here at AIB International has shown that the higher the protein content, the crispier the fried coating becomes. Without knowing what your customers are looking for in regard to crispiness of the fried coating, I would suggest that you fry up several chicken pieces coated with each of your different flours and choose the one that you like most. Do keep in mind though that there is a limit to the crispiness that can be imparted by the flour. If you go too much above 12.5% protein content in the flour you might run into what we refer to as a "flinty" fried coating. This is where the fried coating becomes so hard that it must be chewed/ground on ones molars, akin to trying to eat a china plate.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

[La Sera]

Thanks for your reply. I had a hunch it was not very high protein content flour. I get asked the "all purpose" question a lot, so your answer is very valuable to many people.

I've been testing, as you said. The right flour for the right outcome is certainly important. Studying type and temperature of cooking oil has been a learning experience, in addition to a workflow process and prep in a commercial environment. I hope to get started soon and expect delivery of home-made style chicken to expand our business substantially, but I'm an eternal optimist. "Normal" side orders drain time and money for us, so I'm going to double down on this gamble and eliminate almost all side orders and focus on growing the chicken menu in parallel with pizzas. I'll find out soon if it I'm right or wrong.

Thanks again.