7 Best Oils For Frying Chicken

Here are 7 best oils for frying chicken. Fried chicken is a delicious treat! Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and packed with flavor, it’s a favorite at dinner tables all over the world. To get the best texture and flavor for your fried chicken, you’ll want to use the right oil.

To fry chicken, use an oil with a high smoke point, such as vegetable or peanut oil. We’ve put together a list of the best oils for frying chicken.

Choosing the Best Oil for Frying Chicken

Different oils are suited to different needs. Oils that are perfect as salad dressing can be terrible for frying. Here’s what to look for when you need oil to fry some chicken.

Smoke Point

This is the temperature at which the oil starts to smoke. Because you’ll be frying your chicken around 350 degrees Fahrenheit, you need a high smoke point.

If your oil’s smoke point is too low, it will burn before reaching the temperature required to cook your chicken. This will make your chicken taste burnt instead of cooked. Not exactly what you had in mind when you wanted fried chicken for dinner!

Flavor

Some oils have a neutral flavor, while others are strongly flavored. This varies from one type of oil to the next, and some are even infused with extra ingredients like citrus or chili.

For the most part, you want a neutral flavored oil to fry chicken. However, if you want a little nutty flavor, that’s OK too!

The Best Oil for Frying Chicken

Oil	Smoke Point
BetterBody Foods Pure Avocado Oil	500°F\|260°C
Happy Belly Vegetable Oil	450°F\| 232°C
Planters Peanut Oil	450°F\| 232°C
Native Harvest Sunflower Oil	475 - 520°F\|246- 271°C
Chosen Foods Organic Blended Oil	490°F\| 254°C
Oléico – High Oleic Safflower Oil	450°F\| 232°C
Mazola Pure Corn Oil	450°F\| 232°C

1.BetterBody Foods Pure Avocado Oil

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This is anything but neutral flavored, but its nutty character is delicious! The inherent taste of your avocado oil will transfer to the chicken when you cook with it.

The high smoke point of this oil, 500°F, makes it great for deep frying or pan frying. It’s also naturally refined, meaning that it is refined without the use of any harsh chemicals. The process of refinement is purely mechanical.

Thanks to this refinement, this oil will last for a long time in your cupboard.

This oil is gluten free, GMO free, and has a smooth flavor. It works not only for frying but for salad dressings and sauteeing as well!

This is a relatively healthy choice for making fried chicken thanks to its high smoke point. Avocado oil has more than 50% monounsaturated fats, too! This is what makes avocado oil so suitable for frying as it is more stable. Monosaturated fats do not react with oxygen under heat, hence their “stability”.

2. Happy Belly Vegetable Oil

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This vegetable oil is widely used by people who prefer deep-fried chicken. The temperature of a deep fryer is probably going to be about 375 Fahrenheit. This is a massive 75 degrees below this oil’s smoke point of 450 F!

This Happy Belly oil is made using soybeans, and it has a neutral flavor. It won’t impart any unwanted tastes or notes into your fried chicken.

Maintaining a nice high temperature when cooking with this oil will ensure that your chicken is crispy, not greasy. In fact, under extreme temperatures, the chicken won’t absorb much of the oil at all!

This soybean-based oil has a light flavor, it’s great for deep frying, and is low on grease.

It isn’t incredibly healthy, but then again neither is fried chicken. Vegetable oil is also very affordable compared to other oils.

3. Planters Peanut Oil

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This brand uses nothing but pure 100% peanut oil. Peanut oil has a high enough smoke point to fry your chicken without burning it, and it will impart its subtly nutty flavor into anything you like.

If you or someone you’re cooking for has a peanut allergy, DO NOT cook using peanut oil. Even this highly refined version of the peanut can cause a serious allergic reaction.

This peanut oil has zero trans fats, no additives, and a 450 F smoke point so you can fry chicken to perfection.

Peanut oil isn’t too pricey, and despite its nutty flavor when pan frying, the flavor transfer from one ingredient to the next in deep frying will be minimal.

4. Native Harvest Sunflower Oil

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This oil is neutral flavored and all natural!

No chemicals are used to express the oil from sunflowers, which have their oil extracted physically. That means there are no nasty surprises waiting for you in the list of ingredients.

Thanks to this natural production, this sunflower oil is good for you compared to chemically assisted oils. It has lower levels of trans fats, making it even healthier, relatively speaking.

With zero GMOs and its natural production process, high monosaturated fats and delicate flavor, this sunflower oil is great for frying chicken. You won’t be tasting sunflower seeds all through your fried chicken, that’s for sure.

Sunflower oil also has a high smoke point of 475 – 520°F! You can fry your chicken to your heart’s content without worrying about burning.

If you have a particular rub or spice mix you like to use for fried chicken, this neutral flavored oil is perfect.

5. Chosen Foods Organic Blended Oil

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This oil blend comes from a mixture of safflower oil, organic avocado oil, and organic coconut oil. All three have high smoke points, making this ideal for frying chicken.

The addition of avocado oil and safflower oil counteracts the stronger coconut taste of coconut oil, giving this blend a milder flavor. It has zero GMO ingredients or artificial preservatives, and what it lacks in hidden nasties it makes up for in its abundance of healthy fats.

This oil is great for cooking at high temperatures. Because safflower oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil have smoke points of 510°F, 520°F, and 450°F, respectively, you can really turn up the burner if you’re using this blended oil.

Coconut oil, like avocado oil, is high in monosaturated fats, further improving the health properties of this blend.

Safflower oil, with its neutral taste, is also great for frying chicken, as you’ll see below.

6. Oléico – High Oleic Safflower Oil

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This is quite possibly the most neutral oil on our list!

It’s expeller pressed, healthier than chemically-enhanced oils. It is high in healthy fats and low on flavor. Perfect for frying chicken!

This safflower oil is GMO free, flavor free, odor free, and high in Vitamin E. You can even use it for other cooking adventures, like baking or in a vinaigrette.

This oil has zero grams of trans fat and a very long shelf life. If you aren’t frying food that often, this might be a great option for you. It will stay fresh in between cooking sessions without any worries at all.

7. Mazola Pure Corn Oil

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This corn oil is great for stir fries as well as deep frying!

Its broad availability, high smoke point, and affordability make this a very popular choice indeed.

You’ll be whipping up crispy fried chicken in no time!

This oil is free of cholesterol, with zero grams of fat per serve. It’s also devoid of any additives beyond simple corn oil.

Corn oil does not have a neutral flavor. Its mild taste reminds some people of a slightly sweet butter, which can be great for fried chicken.

It’s worth noting that corn oil isn’t exactly a healthy oil, but fried chicken isn’t a stereotypically healthy meal either. If you’re only having it as an occasional treat, that should not be a problem.

This corn oil is versatile enough for salad dressings, vinaigrettes, and even baking, too!