Can you deep fry chicken without flour?

There are many choices for chicken breading. One common breading is simply flour seasoned with salt and pepper. But you can also use corn flake cereal (crush it with a rolling pin, season it with salt, pepper, and any other spice you choose), nuts (crushed pecans or macadamia nuts are lovely as coatings), and other seasoning blends (such as paprika blended with a small amount of flour, curry blends with flour, etc.).

The goal when breading chicken is to have a coating that remains on the chicken pieces while they're frying and that enhance the flavor of the chicken. Fried chicken is a very common meal in the US and below is a basic 2-2-2 recipe for making it:

Take one cut-up chicken so that you have 2 each of legs, wings, thighs, and breasts. Clean the chicken well. Set aside.

Combine 2 cups of flour with 2 tablespoons salt and 2 tablespoons pepper. Use a fork to stir the seasoning into the flour. You may add 2 tablespoons of paprika if you want the chicken to be slightly spicy.

Blend 2 cups of milk with 2 eggs. Place all the chicken pieces into the milk/egg mixture and refrigerate for 2 hours.

When you're ready to cook the chicken, pour 2 cups of good vegetable oil into a deep pan. Heat to medium-medium high. While the oil is heating, drain the milk/egg mixture from the chicken. Place each piece of marinated chicken into the flour mixture to dredge it thoroughly. Place each piece of dredged chicken into the heated oil. Do not cover. Covering will cause the lid to sweat which will affect the crispness of your chicken.

Allow the chicken to cook slowly, browning throughout rather than only on the outer surface. After approximately 15 minutes, gently turn the chicken pieces by a 1/4 turn. Continue browning. Keep turning the chicken every 10 minutes until it is a dark golden brown with a nice crispy coating.

You may use the "chicken bits" that remain in the pan for country gravy by removing the chicken and draining off most of the oil. Add flour to make a paste and, while stirring, pour in milk while the mixture cooks on medium heat. If lumps appear, use a whisk to smooth the gravy texture. Remove from the heat before it looks like it's ready. Gravy will continue to thicken after being removed from heat.

You now have the beginnings of a typical American Sunday dinner.