In cooking, pressure frying is a variation on pressure cooking where meat and cooking oil are brought to high temperatures while pressure is held high enough to cook the food more quickly. This leaves the meat very hot and juicy. A receptacle used in pressure frying is known as a pressure fryer.
The process is most notable for its use in the preparation of fried chicken in many commercial fried chicken restaurants.
Pressure frying is mostly done in industrial kitchens. Ordinary pressure cookers are generally unsuitable for pressure frying, because they are typically designed for a maximum temperature around 121 °C (250 °F) whereas oil can reach temperatures well in excess of 160 °C (320 °F) which may damage the gasket in an ordinary pressure cooker causing it to fail. Attempting to pressure fry using a first generation pressure cooker can be very dangerous. Second generation cookers are somewhat safer, but can still be dangerous if proper precautions, like opening fill limits, are not taken.
Pressure fryers operate at a lower pressure than pressure cookers. The gasket in a pressure cooker's lid can be melted by boiling oil, which can result in burn injuries to anyone in the vicinity.
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