Forget Buttermilk And Give Fried Chicken A Sweeter Bite With This Dairy Swap

For many cooks, making fried chicken is a fun task in the kitchen, and while it's crucial to acquire a healthy, high-quality chicken for the main ingredient, how you marinate the poultry is similarly important. Buttermilk is considered to be among the most common and effective choices for a marinade's base when making fried chicken due to its acidity, which has the power to break down and tenderize the meat. However, another interesting option for the job that can warrant a subtly sweet flavor is none other than coconut milk.

While coconut milk doesn't naturally have the acidity that makes buttermilk such a great marinade ingredient — and thus may need some lemon juice or vinegar added to be an ideal buttermilk substitute – its sugar presents entirely new benefits to your chicken as it awaits being fried. We spoke to the culinary director of Velvet Taco, Venecia Willis, who explained why coconut could be a great substitute for buttermilk. "Most coconut milks on the market have additional sugars added, which can caramelize and make the chicken sweet," Willis shared before also noting, "Coconut milk can help with tenderizing the chicken and allowing ingredients within the marinade to penetrate into the protein easier." Yes, though not as acidic as buttermilk, coconut milk can still break down chicken proteins and lock in moisture with its fat content.

Now, because a coconut milk marinade gives your chicken a boost in sweetness, it can really highlight a handful of recipes and pairings better than you ever thought possible. The most notable of these is undoubtedly chicken and waffles, a combo so popular that KFC even released it as a hot new item on its 2025 spring menu. As great as any version of chicken and waffles is, the use of coconut milk for the fried chicken in question gives the two contrasting flavors a bit more in common, which can be a massive upgrade for those with a love for sweet foods. You can also amp up the sweetness even further by using a sweet barbecue sauce. This would ideally be in the form of Hawaiian barbecue sauce, which is essentially a tropical twist on mainland variations, but using an authentic Kansas City sauce can similarly be great for the job.

However, to ensure that your fried chicken can truly live up to your sweet and savory expectations, don't ruin it by overmarinating your chicken when using coconut milk. " ... You want to limit exposure to a 24-hour period," Venecia Willis warned. This is primarily because the chicken can become mushy or even overflavored in the process.