This Sweet tea fried chicken recipe is crunchy, incredibly flavorful and irresistible! Southern sweet tea becomes the perfect brine for a twist on classic fried chicken! If you love this chicken, check out this Keto Air Fried Chicken, Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Fried Chicken Gizzards, and Oven Fried Chicken Tenders.
Well the week started with classic sweet tea but now it’s ending with fried chicken. It seems like a natural progression to me. Sweet tea and fried chicken go together in more ways than one. I have found that if homemade fried chicken is on the supper table in my family, sweet tea isn’t too far behind. In fact, Sunday Suppers more times than not included fried chicken and sweet tea. Nothing makes you feel warmer in your bones or spirit than this comforting combo.
Now, I have shared quite a bit about my Southern inspired upbringing, and a ton about our skill in frying chicken. The thing is I never get tired of sharing my love of it. It just never gets old in my opinion. It is the classic that keeps on giving without the shadow of a doubt. The only thing I can do is switch it up from time to time. That’s where this Sweet Tea Fried Chicken recipe comes in.
How to Make Sweet Tea Fried Chicken
I hardly ever have left over sweet tea but this time I doubled my tea recipe, adding half to a pitcher in the fridge and adding the other half to a bowl to brine some chicken. I used my favorite seasoned flour mixture from my traditional recipe to make this recipe.
I brined the chicken for 48 hours because I wanted the sweet tea to totally seep into the fiber of the meat. The sweetness was unbelievable in contrast to the salty flavor of my seasoned flour. Sweet and salty is an amazing combo, and in this recipe it takes on a life of its own.
I loved playing with new flavors with my good ole’ fried chicken. In fact, I am frying up another batch right now to put on my family dinner table, along with my easy homemade garlic bread recipe and a heaping tablespoon of love.
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Find more Fried Chicken recipes like this recipe, click HERE
Sweet Tea Fried Chicken
Ingredients
For the Tea:
- 5 cups water
- 5-6 teabags
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
For the Chicken:
- 8-10 chicken pieces
- 3 large eggs
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons seasoned salt
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
Instructions
For the Tea:
- Heat water in a medium sized pot until boiling.
- Turn off heat and add tea bags. Let tea steep for 20-30 minutes then remove bags.
- Stir in sugar and lemon juice until completely dissolved then let tea come to room temperatue.
- Add tea to large bowl then submerge chicken pieces in tea. Refrigerate for 24-48 hours depending on level of sweetness you want your chicken to have.
For the Chicken:
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together eggs and set aside.
- Add flour, seasoned salt, cornstarch, paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper, garlic powder and onion powder to a paper bag and shake to mix well.
- Dip each piece of chicken into egg wash coating both sides then dip into seasoned flour thoroughly coating each piece. Then add piece to baking sheet to rest.
- Finish coating all chicken and let sit for 10-15 minutes until coating has set.
- While coating sets, add 1-1/2 inches of oil to a cast iron skillet or heavy bottom skillet and heat over medium high heat. Also turn on oven to 275 degrees.
- This is my test for knowing when the oil is ready: Big Mama always tossed a tiny bit of flour in the oil and if it began to fry and sizzle, the oil was ready.
- Fry four pieces at a time on each side starting with dark meat since it takes longer. Make sure you don’t overcrowd the pan.
- After each side has turned slightly golden, put the top on the skillet to steam the inside of the chicken ensuring doneness. After a couple of minutes, remove the top and continue to fry until the crust is crispy again and completely golden brown.
- Remove chicken from oil and place on paper towels or rack to drain. Place chicken on a baking sheet covered with parchment and add to warmed oven while finishing the other chicken pieces.
- Fry the remaining chicken pieces and drain and add to oven. Add the remaining chicken to the oven.
- Serve when ready.
Nutrition
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You are a mad genius! I read this recipe and thought ya’ll must have gone crazy. Nevertheless, my curiosity was piqued and I gave it a try. Oh my goodness they tasted amazing. I will never question your ingenuity again. Absolutely incredible! Thank you so much for this and all your recipes.
I think you are wonderful and such a Blessing, I bought your cookbook on holiday recipes and can’t wait to get your chicken I know it will be wonderful, all the ingredients are my favorite and thanks for you time to answer questions for everyone that’s says what a wonderful person you are. Look forward to making your recipes will let you know how great they are. Have a Blessed day in the Lord!!!☺
Oh thank you so so much for your support! I appreciate this beautiful message.
I officially luvz you! : ) All these recipes really made my day, reminds me so much of my Mum!
Do you have a recipe for BBQ pig tail and ears? I haven’t had it in so long and never with an authentic recipe just my Mum cooking it until it was tender and baking it with store bought BBQ sauce : )
Love from Western Canada : D
Thanks so much for the love however I don’t have the pig tail and ears recipe unfortunately.
I made this chicken for my husband for Father’s Day. He said it was the best and most flavorful chicken he had ever had! I normally bake chicken and was a little intimidated to fry it, but I’m glad I did. My 11 y.o. twins loved it as well. Definitely going to be my go to recipe!
Thank you for sharing such a magnificent recipe!
My husband wants to try to smoke the tea infused wings. Minus the flour of course. 😉
Oh that sounds amazing. Let me know how that turns out!
Oh my goodness! My husband grew up eating fried chicken on Sundays and I was so scared to make some but stumbled across this recipe. It is SO GOOD. I used your oven fried chicken recipe but used this brine for the seasoning. Thank you so much for posting! I will definitely be making this again 🙂
Fantastic! What a great idea. I hope you enjoyed it all!!!
This looks absolutely AMAZING! And easy too. I’m also one of those people who are afraid to fry anything LOL. I’m always afraid I’m going to mess it up. But you really explain each step very well, and I think I can do this! I’m going to give it a try for the next potluck this summer. I figure if I’m going to heat up a bunch of oil, I might as well fry for a crowd.
Hooray I hope you enjoy it!
I cannot have fried foods at this time, but this recipe sounds amazing!!!! Would it work baked in the oven and if so, how would I need to adjust the recipe? It just looks so good that I want to start a jug of tea tomorrow just to see how it would taste!!!
Hi Kim, absolutely! Try this recipe for my oven fried chicken but marinate it in the sweet tea. The best of both worlds. Let me know how it turns out. https://grandbaby-cakes.com/2014/09/oven-fried-chicken-tenders/
My second batch of chicken never looks great like the first one. It seems like the outside layer cooks quicker than the inside resulting in a burnt crust. Any suggestions? What skillets or pots would you recommend frying chicken in?
Also check your oil after you take out the first batch of chicken. You sometimes need to adjust the oil because it changes after the chicken is removed. I love a cast iron skillet for frying.