Skip Buttermilk: Grab This Pantry Staple For Juicier Fried Chicken

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Few things make us happier than digging around the pantry (and the internet) for different ways to do things. For example, instead of a pickle juice steak marinade, we'd grab kimchi brine for a tender cut. It's the same when it comes to turning out juicy pieces of fried chicken. Our curiosity is like our appetite: insatiable! Our latest switcheroo focuses on getting the juiciest fried chicken and subs in unsweetened evaporated milk for the more traditional buttermilk. Both have roots in Southern cooking and work in much the same way, with lactic acid from the milk tenderizing the meat for super-juicy fried chicken.

What makes evaporated milk stand out from the buttermilk crowd is its flavor, which is a result of how it is made. The process takes ordinary milk and removes around 60% of the water before the remaining liquid is sealed in a can and heated to kill off any bacteria. While buttermilk is tangy and can taste somewhat sour, there's a richness and even a hint of sweetness to evaporated milk that pairs deliciously with mild chicken meat. You might be surprised to know it's not completely catastrophic if you confuse evaporated milk with its heavily sweet condensed cousin. It can also make a tasty marinade if you're down for giving your fried chicken a swavory twist.

Frenchman Nicholas Appert was the first to put a form of condensed milk in a can in the 19th century, but the unsweetened evaporated kind was initially patented in the United States by John B. Meyenberg. The process of homogenization, which prevented the water and fat from separating, emerged in 1899. Since then, evaporated milk has been a regular go-to for millions of home cooks making fried chicken, particularly in the South.

Untouched, a can of evaporated milk will keep for months. Crack it open to get an excellent carrier for herbs, spices, and any other flavors you want to infuse into meat, while a squeeze of citrus will give you a darn-close substitute for buttermilk. But making juicy fried chicken isn't the only good use for this canned good. It's often used in Asian recipes, such as Japanese-style milk bread and Hong Kong milk tea, and it's long been a pantry staple in the U.S., too.

Evaporated milk works in practically any recipe that requires ordinary milk, from ice cream to mac 'n' cheese, but it will also bring its richness to other dishes like soups. If you run out of mayo for your scrambled eggs, evaporated milk will lend richness and a hint of caramelly sweetness to them instead. If you need a dairy-free alternative, Nestlé's lactose-free Carnation will do the job, or you can opt for evaporated coconut milk instead.