I have no pictures of this amazing recipe to prove what I say. I only have the praise of my family after making it, but if you consider that my husband was born and raised in Kentucky (the official home of the most famous fried chicken in the world) and has made it his mission in life to seek out and eat as much good fried chicken as possible, well, then maybe you will believe me. This fried chicken was amazing! And if you have a weekend with some time on your hands and a craving then I encourage you to prove me wrong and make a better recipe. This one does take at least two days to make, but it's worth it, sooooo worth it. The crust is flavorful and has that combination of crispy and flaky that you need on good Fried Chicken. The meat, oh the meat! It's juicy, tender, dripping with flavor. Actually it's so moist you'd think the crust would get soggy, but somehow it doesn't. It stays crisp from the first to the last bite, and if you are lucky enough to have leftovers, it's still crispy the next day too. I actually made this recipe up by combining two recipes from food magazines and inventing a few things along the way. Hope you enjoy it!
Real Southern Fried Chicken
Chicken (haha) we like white meat around here so I got four large breasts, bone in, skin on
Day before you want to eat the chicken
Brine:
1 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
two bay leaves
1 tsp dill
3/4 cup Kosher salt
1 tsp thyme or a few fresh sprigs
1 tblsp chopped garlic
a few peppercorns
~6 cups water
Put everything together in a pot big enough for all your chicken to fit in later. Mix, put on the stove on high heat until it boils. Take it off the heat. Cool in the refrigerator, I did this the night before and let it sit overnight.
Day you want to eat chicken
Early in the morning, but no more than 14 hours before you want to cook the chicken, place all of your chicken in the brine, return to the fridge and let it all marinate. You cannot have the chicken in the brine for more than 12 hours or it will be too salty! Two hours before you want to serve the chicken, take it out of the brine, wash it off to get all the brine off, and pat dry.
Coating:
Wet ingredients:
extra large zip lock bag
1 quart buttermilk
2 tsp tabasco
bay leaf
1 tsp thyme
1 tblsp chopped garlic
Dry ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 tblsp baking powder
1 tblsp paprika
3/4 tbslp cayenne
1 tblsp onion powder
1 tblsp nutmeg
1 tbslp sea salt
Half Vegetable shortening and half vegetable or peanut oil for frying, large cast iron skillet.
Take the brined, washed, dried chicken and put in a large ziplock bag with the buttermilk mixture. Seal and put it in the fridge for one-two hours. Meanwhile combine all the dry ingredients and set up your frying station. Get three shallow bowls and a cooling rack with wax paper beneath to catch stuff (like what you'd put cookies on to cool). Put half the flour mixture in the first bowl and the other half in the third bowl. When enough time has passed take the chicken out of the buttermilk bag, but keep the buttermilk mixture and put it in the second bowl, between the two flour bowls. Here's the fun part! Take the chicken piece, already coated in buttermilk, dredge it in the first bowl of flour, briefly dip it in the bowl of buttermilk and then dredge it again in the third bowl of flour, making sure to get everything coated. Transfer the chicken to the rack and continue to coat your chicken pieces until you run out of chicken. Let the chicken rest on the rack for about twenty minutes to set the crust and bring the chicken up to room temperature. Meanwhile start heating your oil mixture. It must reach 350 degrees. When the oil is ready start putting the chicken in the oil, working from the first piece you coated to the last. I did two big breasts at a time in my skillet. Let the chicken sit in the oil without touching it for 3 minutes to set the crust, I also kind of used a spatula to splash a little of the oil up and over the chicken to set the side the oil wasn't touching, but be careful. Continue to fry, turning when needed, until the chicken comes up to 160 degrees in the breast, which, if you keep your oil at 350 should be 12-15 minutes. I couldn't get my oil to stay at that temperature so I fried my pieces for about fifteen minutes and if they still weren't all the way cooked I took them out so that the crust wouldn't burn, and then put them in a 400 degree oven for ten minutes. Either way, remember when you take them out of the oil to place them skin side up so that the juices run through the chicken and not out to make the top crust soggy. We had this with fresh corn on the cob we did on the grill. I also like my fried chicken with a slice of lemon and a little sea salt. Everyone loved this, everyone. This is amazingly rare in my family. Actually it may be the first time we all had the same thing for dinner. Make it, it's good. Sorry again for the lack of pictures, and I'll do a cookie recipe next time, promise.
No comments:
Post a Comment