Cornstarch Basics

• Cornstarch is pure starch. It's used mostly to thicken sauces and gravies. Starches cook and caramelize fast, so fried chicken breading that contains cornstarch becomes crisp faster than breading with a lower starch content. Cornstarch is milled more than most flours, so it has a finer texture. Because of extra-fine size of the particles, cornstarch creates a thin, smooth crust, almost like an eggshell.

Blending Cornstarch with Flour

• Wheat contains gluten, which plays a role in making flour clump, build into a thick crust and absorb excess oil when you use flour alone to bread chicken. If you mix cornstarch and all-purpose flour together to bread chicken, the crust is less prone to clumping. It also absorbs less oil, reducing the fat content of the fried chicken overall, compared to an all-flour crust, making it lighter. Chicken coated in a flour-cornstarch blend cooks faster than chicken coated only in flour. You may need to lower the cooking temperature slightly to prevent the crust from burning before the chicken cooks all the way through.

Pure Cornstarch Coating

• You can omit flour and bread chicken in pure cornstarch. A single coat of cornstarch yields a semi-opaque, smooth crust. It’s still possible to create a thicker coating on the meat. But to build a thicken crust, you must dredge the chicken in alternating layers of cornstarch and a liquid, such as milk or an egg wash. Pure starch cooks so quickly that it is best to use it only on small pieces of chicken, such as wings or slices of breast meat. An all-cornstarch breading on a large piece of chicken, such as a thigh, will likely burn before the meat cooks all the way through.

Consider Baking Powder

• Cornstarch isn’t the only ingredient that yields a lighter coating on fried chicken. Baking powder -- a leavening agent primarily used to make baked goods rise -- also lightens flour-based breading. When you expose the leavener to heat, a chemical reaction occurs, generating carbon dioxide bubbles that make batters and doughs rise. In fried chicken breading, that chemical reaction similarly causes the crust to rise. The result is a textured, crispy crust that is less dense than all-flour breading. Like cornstarch, baking powder also inhibits oil absorption. So, you'll have a lighter crust on your chicken. Baking powder typically contains some cornstarch to prevent the other ingredients from reacting too soon.