The best fried chicken

[politicat]

7. Maybe our highly biased opinion, but...

This is the recipe that is making us happy. It's not low fat, but it's relatively low carb and easy to make. Also, technically paleo, for people that care about that.

6 pieces of chicken. The best are boneless, skin-on thighs, but those can be hard to find and I suck at deboning chicken, so most of the time, we use boneless, skinless thighs.
3-4 TB arrowroot powder or tapioca starch
2 TB ranch seasoning of your choice. (Penzey's blend is excellent; Hidden Valley if that's what you got)
1/2-1 tsp cayenne (vary to taste)
1/4 cup fat of choice -- we tend to use butter or ghee, but this works with coconut oil, schmaltz, tallow and lard (I haven't tried vegetable oil or olive oil.) Schmaltz is best, but hard to come by; I prefer butter (everything is better with browned butter); spouse prefers ghee or lard.

Mix the powder and the seasonings in a zip top bag while letting the fat get hot in a large skillet over medium high heat. Pat the chicken dry, then drop a dried piece into the coating. Shake one piece at a time to coat, shake off extra without disturbing the base coat, then drop in the hot pan.

Wait at least 6 minutes while the bottoms get nicely brown. Yes, this will spatter. Use a spatter screen -- don't cover. That way lies gummy chicken. If it takes 10 minutes to brown, your heat is too low. Flip without disturbing the browned base if possible; repeat for the other side. Make sure interior hits 160 with a probe thermometer; usually about 15 minutes total. Enjoy.