Paula Patton mocked over ‘horrible’ fried chicken recipe: ‘Please tell me this is a joke’

Paula Patton has sparked confusion online after sharing a tutorial for her fried chicken, which included seasoning the wings and legs while they were already frying in oil.

The 2 Guns star, 46, shared the recipe on her Instagram in March, however, the video has since gone viral on TikTok and Twitter, where it has both amused and confounded viewers.

The video started out simply enough, with Patton explaining that she would be using flour, organic chicken that she had washed in cold water, as well as Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, pepper, avocado oil, paprika, and then later, Frank’s Red Hot sauce, in the recipe.

“I’m going to make my mom’s famous fried chicken,” she explained as she washed the chicken parts.

After rinsing the chicken in cold water, Patton then proceeded to pour the unseasoned chicken into large ziplock bags of unseasoned organic flour to coat the wings.

Once she’d finished coating the chicken in the flour, Patton told viewers that they were going to take a moment to “bless these chickens”.

“Thank you for your life, I’m sorry we had to take it, you’re so yummy, thank you,” the actor could be heard telling the bag of flour-coated raw chicken in her hands.

To the horror of viewers, Patton, after pouring the avocado oil in the pan and testing the heat by throwing flecks of flour into the pan, then placed her unseasoned chicken wings into the frying oil.

“And then we’re going to begin the seasoning,” Patton said, before adding that “step five is the seasoning”.

According to Patton, she uses just three ingredients to season the fried chicken, with the actor pointing to the seasoned salt, pepper and paprika from earlier in the video. “My mother’s recipe,” she reiterated.

In the video, the Hitch actor then “dusted” the frying chicken with ample amounts of the seasoning, adding that “each chicken gets enough, maybe a little too much, because I like it salty”.

After covering each wing in seasoning, Patton proceeded to turn the wings over in the oil, explaining that she’lll probably “flip it again” because she wanted the side in the oil to “get all of the spices the other side got”.

She then proceeded to season the other side of the chicken - while it was still frying in the oil - before declaring the chicken done. “They are ready to go, they look pretty, they are brown, they got a little crispiness on them,” she said, before transferring the chicken wings to paper towels to “soak up the grease”.

While Patton, the ex-wife of Robin Thicke, has since turned off the comments under her Instagram video, the cooking tutorial has circulated on Twitter and TikTok, where viewers have found amusement in the actor’s “traumatising” technique.

“The lesson from that Paula Patton vid is y’all really gotta stop making tutorials of sh*t y’all not even good at,” one person tweeted.

Another said: “I just took a break to watch Paula Patton fry chicken and now I need to apologise. To southerners, to chicken, grease, salt and seasonings, thoughts and prayers.”

“Somebody please go teach Paula Patton to make fried chicken. She seems so nice, I just want better for her,” someone else said.

The majority of horror over the video stemmed from Patton’s choice to season the chicken only once it was placed in the frying oil, with one person writing: “I saw Paula Patton season grease this afternoon. Stop the world, I wanna get off.”

“I refuse to believe that Paula Patton vid was anything but an April Fools’ Day gag because ain’t no way. I’d believe she was a comedy mastermind before I believe somebody is out here seasoning their fried chicken grease,” someone else wrote, while another said: “I won’t lie, watching Paulla Patton season that hot grease gave me a solid belly laugh. Thanks Paula, I need it.”

However, others also noted that it is not recommended that you wash raw chicken, as it increases the risk of spreading germs from the chicken to other food or utensils in the kitchen.

The Independent has contacted a representative for Patton for comment.