Fried Chicken
I love fried chicken. It's one of my weaknesses. Love those little drummies at my local Kroger. Love nice crispy KFC. What I really, really love, though, is the kind you make at home. Up until now, I've always done oven-fried chicken when I've made it, just like I learned as a girl. The chicken was rolled in seasoned flour and browned off a bit in a big cast iron skillet that was then covered and put into the oven to finish cooking.
This week, however, I was in the mood for crispy home-fried chicken. The kind that involves a copious amount of oil in the big cast iron skillet. The kind of thing I rarely do because as a single woman I rarely have that much oil on hand. Seriously, the stuff tends to go rancid on me because I just don't use that much vegetable oil. But this week I had a relatively full bottle of canola oil on hand and my Kroger had big old split fryers on sale for a measly ninety-seven cents a pound. I bought a 4 lb. package and some buttermilk so I could try a recipe I'd seen on "Boy Meets Grill" with Bobby Flay. The episode had him making this friend chicken for his missus, who doesn't LOOK like a girl that eats much fried chicken, being about as big around as a number two pencil. But the recipe looked simple enough and it sounded good and looked good.
I cut the fryers into pieces, splitting the gigantic breast portions in two so that I wound up with two legs, two thighs and four pieces of chicken breast. Now, when I say that I used a recipe, I mean I used it as a general guideline. I mixed kosher salt, Louisiana hot sauce, cayenne pepper and kosher salt into about two cups of buttermilk. LOTS of hot sauce and cayenne, too. Then I put the chicken pieces into it for about four hours, turning it occasionally. After four hours, I let the chicken parts drain in a colander while I heated the oil in my big cast iron skillet over medium heat and mixed two cups of regular all-purpose flour with salt (regular table salt this time, for the sake of more even distribution than you get with kosher salt), freshly ground black pepper, and a teaspoon and a half each of sweet paprika, onion powder and garlic powder. I divided the flour evenly between two gallon ziploc bags. I mixed the remnants of my quart of low-fat buttermilk with some additional hot sauce in a pie plate.
Half the chicken went into one ziploc bag and I shook it around to coat it. Each piece was then swirled through the buttermilk in the pie pan and dropped into the second bag of flour, and I shook it around some more to coat it. I tested the oil for temperature by sticking the end of a chopstick in it. When the bubbles came up around the chopstick a certain way, I knew the oil was hot enough and I put the chicken in. While it was cooking, I did the remaining chicken in the flour, buttermilk and flour and set it on a plate to await its turn in the skillet. After about 10 minutes, I turned the chicken in the skillet. It was looking gorgeously brown and crisp. I let it cook another ten minutes or so. I tested it by sticking a little paring knife into a piece to be sure the juices were running clear. When it was done, I put the pieces on a cooling rack set over a cookie sheet I'd lined with paper towels to drain, and then I cooked the rest of the chicken.
After it was all cooked, it was time for lunch. I tested one of the breast pieces. The coating was deliciously crisp, and, in spite of the rather copious amounts of hot sauce, cayenne and black pepper, it wasn't ferociously hot. It wasn't even as spicy as KFC original recipe, truth to tell. But it had good flavor. Definitely not bland. And juicy. Really, really juicy, which is an accomplishment for most white meat no matter how you cook it. I've got lots of leftover chicken for the week, too. It will be good cold and it reheats quite nicely in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Which was just enough time to heat some Glory Foods Sensibly Seasoned collard greens and bake some biscuits. And I use those jumbo flaky ones that come in a can in the refrigerated section. When it comes to making biscuits, my north of the Mason-Dixon roots show themselves, and, besides, I've got plenty of SOUTHERN born and bred friends that swear by those things. And if they are good enough for them, they're more than good enough for me.
At any rate, I'll definitely make my fried chicken this way again. Not often, but it's on my list of things I'd make for company. Or when I get that deep-seated craving that only the real deal will serve.
This week, however, I was in the mood for crispy home-fried chicken. The kind that involves a copious amount of oil in the big cast iron skillet. The kind of thing I rarely do because as a single woman I rarely have that much oil on hand. Seriously, the stuff tends to go rancid on me because I just don't use that much vegetable oil. But this week I had a relatively full bottle of canola oil on hand and my Kroger had big old split fryers on sale for a measly ninety-seven cents a pound. I bought a 4 lb. package and some buttermilk so I could try a recipe I'd seen on "Boy Meets Grill" with Bobby Flay. The episode had him making this friend chicken for his missus, who doesn't LOOK like a girl that eats much fried chicken, being about as big around as a number two pencil. But the recipe looked simple enough and it sounded good and looked good.
I cut the fryers into pieces, splitting the gigantic breast portions in two so that I wound up with two legs, two thighs and four pieces of chicken breast. Now, when I say that I used a recipe, I mean I used it as a general guideline. I mixed kosher salt, Louisiana hot sauce, cayenne pepper and kosher salt into about two cups of buttermilk. LOTS of hot sauce and cayenne, too. Then I put the chicken pieces into it for about four hours, turning it occasionally. After four hours, I let the chicken parts drain in a colander while I heated the oil in my big cast iron skillet over medium heat and mixed two cups of regular all-purpose flour with salt (regular table salt this time, for the sake of more even distribution than you get with kosher salt), freshly ground black pepper, and a teaspoon and a half each of sweet paprika, onion powder and garlic powder. I divided the flour evenly between two gallon ziploc bags. I mixed the remnants of my quart of low-fat buttermilk with some additional hot sauce in a pie plate.
Half the chicken went into one ziploc bag and I shook it around to coat it. Each piece was then swirled through the buttermilk in the pie pan and dropped into the second bag of flour, and I shook it around some more to coat it. I tested the oil for temperature by sticking the end of a chopstick in it. When the bubbles came up around the chopstick a certain way, I knew the oil was hot enough and I put the chicken in. While it was cooking, I did the remaining chicken in the flour, buttermilk and flour and set it on a plate to await its turn in the skillet. After about 10 minutes, I turned the chicken in the skillet. It was looking gorgeously brown and crisp. I let it cook another ten minutes or so. I tested it by sticking a little paring knife into a piece to be sure the juices were running clear. When it was done, I put the pieces on a cooling rack set over a cookie sheet I'd lined with paper towels to drain, and then I cooked the rest of the chicken.
After it was all cooked, it was time for lunch. I tested one of the breast pieces. The coating was deliciously crisp, and, in spite of the rather copious amounts of hot sauce, cayenne and black pepper, it wasn't ferociously hot. It wasn't even as spicy as KFC original recipe, truth to tell. But it had good flavor. Definitely not bland. And juicy. Really, really juicy, which is an accomplishment for most white meat no matter how you cook it. I've got lots of leftover chicken for the week, too. It will be good cold and it reheats quite nicely in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Which was just enough time to heat some Glory Foods Sensibly Seasoned collard greens and bake some biscuits. And I use those jumbo flaky ones that come in a can in the refrigerated section. When it comes to making biscuits, my north of the Mason-Dixon roots show themselves, and, besides, I've got plenty of SOUTHERN born and bred friends that swear by those things. And if they are good enough for them, they're more than good enough for me.
At any rate, I'll definitely make my fried chicken this way again. Not often, but it's on my list of things I'd make for company. Or when I get that deep-seated craving that only the real deal will serve.
posted by Mel @ 2:08 AM
0 comments
