Pressure frying is not as complicated as people think about it. It is just deep-frying meat items under a certain amount of pressure. The same technique is involved in pressure cooking.
What Is Pressure Frying
Pressure frying is a variation of pressure cooking. Instead of using water and food materials as we use in pressure cooking, we use oil and meat. The pressure is increased to high levels that increase the temperature of oil inside the pressure fryer.
This process leaves the chicken or meat very juicy without taking a lot of time. The container that is used for pressure frying is called a pressure fryer. They are specifically made for at home or commercial air frying. Commercial pressure fryer is widely common in restaurants and other fast food or fried chicken businesses.
How Does It Work
The technique of pressure frying has been introduced by the founder of KFC Colonel Harland Sanders. Now a lot of people are investing their money in pressure frying to make the perfect crispy fried chicken under pressure. Pressure frying is best to make at home KFC style fried chicken in no time. Before pressure frying people used to wait for 45 minutes to even an hour for their meat pieces to be ready. With pressure frying, you can make fried chicken in only 15 minutes.
This type of frying depends upon water. Here we are talking about the moisture that is concentrated in the meat. When we use an open fryer that moisture can only help cooking the piece of chicken at the boiling point of water. While in pressure frying the moisture boils at a much higher temperature.
When anything to be fried in a pressure fryer is dipped fully in oil, the temperature of the moisture on the surface of the chicken or anything that is being fried, increases quickly. The moisture converts into steam. The steam envelops the chicken piece being fried acting like a protective layer for excessive moisture loss and raising the temperature of the chicken.
This will help you get a much juicer and richer piece of fried chicken. This method also allows the chicken to be tender without absorbing a lot of fat. The quality and amount of oil are also preserved while frying high volumes of food.
Why You Cannot Use A Pressure Cooker
Pressure frying is more common in commercial or industrial kitchens. That is because ordinary pressure cookers are not suitable for pressure frying. Simply because they are not made for pressure frying. They are designed for a maximum temperature of just above 100°C or 250° in Fahrenheit. Whereas, oil can reach to a temperature of 160°C or 320°F.
This temperature can be damaging to ordinary pressure cookers. You may damage the gasket of your cooker if you try to pressure fry in it. Second generation cookers can be a little safer if proper safety precautions are taken. Still, it is recommended to use specific pressure fryers for pressure frying.
