Homemade Fried Chicken Ice Cream

This fun and delicious fried chicken ice cream is actually NOT fried chicken at all. It doesn’t even taste like chicken! It’s a simple ice cream bar that’s only made to look like chicken drumsticks or chicken tenders, using a coating of crushed cornflakes to resemble crispy fried chicken skin.

🍦 What Makes This Recipe So Good

• Looks can be deceiving, so don’t let the presentation fool you. Fried chicken ice cream is made with vanilla ice cream, white chocolate, and a coating of crushed cornflakes. Not fried chicken at all!
• This recipe is inspired by the super popular “Not Fried Chicken” ice cream from Life Raft Treats. Ours isn’t exactly the same, of course. We skipped the cookie “bone” and went with “boneless chicken” instead. We also opted for a simple homemade vanilla ice cream rather than the waffle cone ice cream Life Raft created for the original. Still, this is a tasty alternative if your budget’s tight or you’re throwing a themed party that warrants several buckets of fried chicken ice cream drumsticks.

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👩🏼‍🍳 Chef’s Tips

• If your kitchen is particularly warm, batches will be your best friend. Instead of cutting the entire block of ice cream and shaping the pieces in one go, put the ice cream back in the freezer as often as needed so it doesn’t soften too much. Same with “breading” the ice cream in the chocolate and cornflakes. If you can only work on half at a time, that’s ok! You can split everything between 2 baking sheets and leave one in the freezer while you work with the other. That way, nothing’s melting and refreezing multiple times.
• What’s fried chicken without a dipping sauce? Not traditional chicken dipping sauces of course. Instead of BBQ sauce, sweet and sour, or honey mustard, serve your ice cream chicken drumsticks with caramel, honey, chocolate sauce, or strawberry sauce.
• The trick to cutting the frozen ice cream super easily is really simple. You just need a long, sharp knife and hot water. The knife can be a serrated knife or a chef’s knife (with a smooth blade). Hold the knife blade under hot running water until it’s nice and warm, then dry off the water and cut into the ice cream before the blade cools. Do that after each cut and the whole process will be so much easier and faster than using a room temperature knife.

👀 Don’t Miss These Recipes!

• Crockpot Marry Me Chicken
• Mochi Brownies
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• Instant Pot Mississippi Pot Roast
• White Chocolate Matcha Brownies

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Homemade Fried Chicken Ice Cream

Prep:45 minutes minutes

Freeze:12 hours hours

Total:12 hours hours 45 minutes minutes

Looks can be deceiving! These fun and tasty homemade ice cream bars don't taste like chicken at all. Perfect for cookouts, themed birthday parties or showers, or just anytime you want a different sort of treat.

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12 ice cream bars

Ingredients

For the Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

• ▢ 2 cups cold heavy cream see Notes
• ▢ 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk chilled
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract see Notes

For the Fried Chicken "Breading"

• ▢ 1 ½ cups white chocolate chips see Notes
• ▢ 2 tablespoons refined coconut oil solid or liquid
• ▢ 3 cups cornflakes crushed

Equipment

• stand mixer bowl or large mixing bowl
• mixer whisk attachment
• 9×9 baking dish or 8×4 loaf pan
• Parchment Paper
• stand mixer or hand mixer
• large silicone spatula
• Freezer
• Cutting board
• long sharp serrated knife
• hot running water
• dish towel or paper towels
• Baking sheet
• large shallow bowl or plate
• Medium microwave-safe bowl
• small silicone spatula

Instructions 

For the Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

• 15 minutes prior to beginning recipe, pour 2 cups cold heavy cream into stand mixer bowl. Place bowl of heavy cream and mixer's whisk attachment in refrigerator until ready to begin mixing.
• Line baking dish with parchment paper. Leave enough parchment paper overhanging on two sides, to use as release handles later. Set dish aside.
• Fit mixer with chilled whisk attachment and secure chilled bowl on stand mixer base. Whisk very cold heavy cream on medium-low speed 30 to 60 seconds, then increase speed to medium-high. Continue whisking until heavy cream forms soft peaks, then reduce speed to medium and whisk until cream forms stiff peaks (see Notes). Be careful not to over-whip.
• Remove bowl from stand mixer. Use silicone spatula to gently fold in sweetened condensed milk and vanilla extract, until ingredients are fully incorporated.
• Transfer mixture to prepared baking dish. Smooth mixture into one flat layer, pushing mixture into corners of dish as needed.
• Place baking dish in freezer. Freeze, uncovered, at least 8 hours or until ice cream is solid. Note: freezing mixture overnight is fine.
  

For the Fried Chicken Ice Cream

• Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
• When ready to continue, remove baking dish from freezer. If able, use parchment paper handles to lift block of ice cream out of baking dish and transfer ice cream to cutting board. If ice cream block won't come loose, proceed with ice cream still in baking dish.
• Run sharp knife under hot water to warm blade. Carefully dry blade with dish towel or paper towels, then use knife to cut ice cream into chicken nugget, strip, or drumstick shapes. Note: If using serrated knife, cut in back-and-forth sawing motion. For straight-edge knife (chef's knife), press knife straight down through ice cream without sawing.
• Transfer shaped ice cream to prepared baking sheet. Repeat process with remaining ice cream, warming knife blade frequently, until entire block has been formed into chicken shapes.
• Once entire ice cream block has been formed into chicken shapes, place filled baking sheet in freezer. Freeze shaped ice cream 2 hours.
  
• When shaped ice cream is frozen solid, add crushed cornflakes to large shallow bowl or plate. Set aside.
• Add white chocolate and coconut oil to completely dry microwave-safe bowl. Microwave chocolate at 50% power in 15-second bursts, stirring well between each burst, until chocolate is melted and fully combined with coconut oil.
  
• Carefully remove melted chocolate from microwave, then remove frozen ice cream from freezer.
• One by one, take shaped ice cream from baking sheet and dip or roll ice cream in melted white chocolate, coating ice cream completely. Note: use fork to hold ice cream in bowl, or skewer ice cream with metal skewer and spoon white chocolate over to cover.
• When ice cream bar is coated in chocolate, immediately transfer bar to crushed cornflakes. Flip and press lightly to coat all sides of ice cream bar in cornflakes, then return ice cream bar to baking sheet.
• Repeat until all chicken-shaped ice cream bars have been fully coated in white chocolate and cornflakes. Reheat white chocolate when needed, adding small amounts of coconut oil if chocolate seizes.
• When all chicken bars have been "breaded", return filled baking sheet to freezer. Freeze ice cream bars at least 1 hour.
  
• After "breading" has set up, serve chicken bars, or transfer bars to airtight container and keep frozen until ready to serve. Fried chicken ice cream can be enjoyed straight from freezer. If desired, serve with caramel, honey, chocolate, or strawberry "dipping sauces".

Notes

Actual number of ice cream bars made will depend on size, shape, and number of chicken shapes cut from block of frozen ice cream.

• Heavy Cream: To whip up properly, the heavy cream needs to be extremely cold – but not frozen. Leave the cream in the refrigerator until you’re ready to start mixing it.
• Vanilla Extract: Pure vanilla extract is brown and may give the ice cream a slight off-white tint. To keep the ice cream a bright white, use a clear vanilla extract (note that clear vanilla extracts are typically artificial or imitation extracts). 
• White Chocolate Chips: I recommend using a really quality white chocolate here. Ghirardelli and Godiva chips both work well, or you can use a Lindt (or other brand) white chocolate bar roughly chopped.

 

Stages of Whipping Heavy Cream

To determine which stage your whipped cream is in, remove the whisk attachment from the mixer and hold the whisk upright, with the whipped cream end pointed straight up.

1. Soft Peaks: Heavy cream forms a peak or point on top of the whisk, but it quickly folds over or collapses entirely.
2. Medium Peaks: The whipped cream is sturdy enough that the point or peak doesn’t fold over or collapse, but not sturdy enough that it points straight up.
3. Stiff Peaks: The point or peak stands straight up without folding over or collapsing.
4. Over-Whipped: One step past stiff peaks. The whipped cream loses its fluffy, pillowy texture, becoming grainy and hard to work with. You may be able to salvage over-whipped cream by gently folding in more cold heavy cream until the mixture is smooth.

Nutrition Information

Serving Size: 1ice cream bar, Calories: 498kcal, Protein: 6g, Fat: 27g, Saturated Fat: 18g, Cholesterol: 72mg, Sodium: 223mg, Potassium: 297mg, Total Carbs: 57g, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 38g, Net Carbs: 56g, Vitamin A: 83IU, Calcium: 170mg, Iron: 6mg

Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.

 

Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.

 

To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.

© Author: Sam Guarnieri