Broasting is a trademark applied to a method of cooking chicken and other foods using a pressure fryer and condiments. The technique was invented by L.A.M. Phelan in the early 1950s and is marketed by the Broaster Company of Beloit, Wisconsin, which Phelan founded.
Broasting equipment and ingredients are marketed only to food service and institutional customers, including supermarkets and fast food restaurants. They are not available to the general public. The method essentially combines pressure cooking with deep frying chicken that has been marinated and breaded. The resulting chicken is said to be crisp on the outside and moist on the inside, i.e., like traditional fried chicken but less greasy. Another advantage of broasting over deep-frying is that large quantities of chicken can be prepared more quickly, 12–13 minutes instead of 20.
The company licenses the "broasted" trademark to more than 5,000 purchasers of its equipment who follow its specifications and recipes and undertake a periodic certification process. The arrangement is not a traditional franchise in that the licensee does not owe ongoing royalty payments.
Many modern fried chicken chains such as KFC use a comparable method but use different recipes or equipment from one of several alternate suppliers. These may be colloquially called "broasted" but the term is technically incorrect when applied to chicken that is not made under license. Other companies use more conventional deep fryers.