Fried chicken can feel like a mundane meal, but cooks throughout history have used different brines and batter to get the crispiest fried chicken possible. Yet by adding one simple ingredient, you can drastically improve the crunchiness and quality of your fried chicken.

A trick for getting the perfect crisp on your fried chicken is to first soak the chicken in a vodka marinade. When frying, the food’s retained water rapidly evaporates, and since ethanol's forceful vaporization creates larger bubbles as the vodka cooks out, it increases the surface area, resulting in a better crunch. 

You can also add vodka to the batter to reduce the strength of the gluten bonds, keeping the crust flaky and crispy. The batter benefits from vodka's quick evaporation because the batter itself is more effectively dehydrated, and this creates a crispier crust.