Zatarain's New Orleans Style Hot & Spicy Chicken Fry Mix, 9 oz

I bought this Dec. 1, 2023. I always make a mess, so it takes me a while to get cooking. My health is in issue, so I waited. Yup. This is worth the effort. It is hot, but not too hot. So many times, something is hot without flavor. This has both heat and flavor. I am trying not to eat more. Love it! Makes me feel like I am a good cook.

Let me say I'm not a hot & spicy person. I bought it for my "hot & spicy fried chicken"-loving mom. She LOVES Popeye's hot & spicy fried chicken. And I've always loved Zatarain's rice mixes - hot but not painful hot. So, I decided to try a box since there were so many boxes. I like heat but only if it's medium heat.This fry mix is hot and spicy, but just like zatarain's other products like the jumbalaya, the heat is not painful and it disappears after a while. Good thing I had a large cup of iced thai tea ready to drink with. I was going to wait to prepare a full meal with my fried chicken, but after tasting just 1 drumstick (I deep fried 5 drumsticks), I had eaten them all up it was that good!! It's just as good as Popeye's!! I got a feeling my large number of boxes of the mix will be finished soon, so I for sure will be buying more soon!!Totally, I was able to deepfry 9 drumsticks with 1 box. I rushed thru the first time making it so i'm now describing the 2nd time I deepfried the remaining 4 drumsticks. Both times, I used the same Amazon's chicken drumsticks pack. I heated the electric skillet first before adding oil( you want to decrease grease splattering). You have to wait quite a while until large gas clouds start coming from the pan. THEN you add your oil. To deepfry them to make them faster to cook and to penetrate the inside of the chicken easier, I must have added 24 oz of oil into the skillet.(Yeah, I'll be thinking about acquiring an air fryer soon!! All that trans oil's not good for one's health.) [no, i did not add any buttermilk beforehand. It doesn't seem to make any difference as far as my cooking goes with making them moist and just wastes refrigerator space.]I like thick crispy batter on my chicken so I put an egg, half of the remaining fry mix and 1/4 cup milk in a bowl. I rolled my drumsticks in it, then (for less messy mixing) had a bag ready with the rest of the fry mix and one at a time, shook each in the bag, and then rested them for about 5-10 minutes so that they would come to room temp without dropping the oil's hot temperature. Then, I loaded each drumstick onto the electric skillet. I only put on 2 at a time. If you put in too much, they don't cook well. I find I pay less attention too if too many are cooking. Have a clock nearby to check the timing!!I did cheat a bit and put the drumsticks on only one side of the skillet and tilted the skillet to the side for faster cooking so that the drumsticks would be covered as much as possible with the hot oil. (Be careful doing this at home.) I waited 5 to 6 minutes on each side until they were golden brown before taking them out. I waited about 5 minutes longer to avoid being burned by them. If they were raw in any way, I could put them in the toaster oven for a while longer.They turned out great, no rawness, lots of outer thick crispy spicy and inner moist, well-done chicken drumsticks!! They paired great with my thai iced tea and potato salad. Who needs Popeyes or KFC when you've got Zatarains??!!

Makes frying easy, and taste is really good. Not to much spice for picky eaters. Kid friendly

Taste great

It's mildly spicy and adds flavor to whatever you use it on, not only chicken. It's easy to use and tastes better when it's baked. I will definitely buy it again.

So, I made a batch of chicken thighs with this breading. I did liberally sprinkle granulated garlic powder on the chicken before breading because I love garlic on fried chicken... Otherwise, I cooked it as it was in the box and thought it came out amazing! It is very spicy, and for some, it could be too salty, but it was about perfect for me! Crispy and very flavorful. The breading is a bit dark so you have to cook it carefully and make sure you don't have any undercooked pieces because you might think its dark enough to be done... I kept turning the pieces once I got a crispy going on each side until I was sure... Very good flavor! Maybe not for the faint of heart if you are not into spice! It is on the hot side, tho no worse than A good Mexican or Indian dinner might be... Try it!

It's ok, needs more garlic flavor..

Delicious, makes your chicken crispy with a little spice, quite tasty