COOKING WITH POWERS – FRIED CHICKEN

I started making my own fried chicken when I was living in East London and feeling very homesick. I was far far away from anything resembling collard greens, and no one in England kept jars of bacon drippings by their stove. But to be honest I didnt eat all that much fried chicken growing up in Georgia anyways. My folks are both yankees (in the states that means a northerner) but my mother did every once and a while pour a few cups of oil into her large skillet and dunk some floured morsels of poultry into the bubbly heat.

The southern classic was somewhat of a mystery to me  and was unlike most of everything else I knew about cooking which my mother had taught me. Fried chicken did not fit into my mother’s culinary repertoire which was mostly Italian-American fare. She did however learn from her southern neighbors and friends.

After some book reading and some asking and talking to some southern folk, I seemed to narrow down on two favored fried chicken techniques/recipes/methods. The general template for making fried chicken first involves a soaking period that intends to tenderize the bird. There were some who favored (or only knew of) the BRINING method, and the rest were followers of the BUTTERMILK ways. Then the chicken pieces are removed from their soaking liquid (yes, either a BRINE or BUTTERMILK) dredged and then fried. Most all fried chicken peeps seem to agree that fried chicken should be kept simple and that their should be no eggs involved, OR at least thats what I gathered. Again Im not a came-from-the-grass southerner and Im not selling fried chicken so my life doesnt depend on it either. I do however have a serious addiction to tasty recipes and I am really good at hunting them down.

Allow me to compare what I found to be the two most effective ways to fry up a bird. 

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PREPARING THE BIRD

Run to the store. Get a whole chicken. Rinse it and pat it dry. Now you want to chop it into the obvious pieces. I usually end up with drumsticks, thighs, breasts, two spine pieces (don’t throw them out!) and the wings.

SOAKING THE BIRD (TWO DIFFERENT WAYS)  

BRINING METHOD 

The brining method calls for the chicken to be soaked in a brine solution for a period of time before being drained, floured, and fried. The best brine I experimented with was as followed :

1 cup salt

1/2 cup sugar

dissolved in

4 cups of water

I have tried this method a few times now and have found that brining indeed does a lot as far as making your fried chicken, moist on the inside, tender, and very succulent. Brine also seems to really draw out more of a poultry-like taste from the chicken. The drawback with brining is that it can make your chicken too salty if your not careful. It is all too easy to end up with a fried chicken that, while being very juicy and tender, is too damn salty. There is not much that you can do to reverse the salty effects. I have soaked my chicken in brine for 2 days once and I will say that the chicken was indeed extra-special tender, but that the saltiness was too undesirable to make it worth the extra tenderization.

Brining is however great when you dont want to soak a chicken for a day, I E you want to have fried chicken tonight and havent prepared it yesterday. The only way to avoid a too-salty brined bird is by soaking it for a shorter time period.

THUS I HAVE CONCLUDED THAT BRINING IS BEST WHEN ONLY SOAKED FOR AN HOUR – TWO HOURS.

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BUTTERMILK METHOD 

This method is easy enough to grasp : you soak the cut up chicken pieces in buttermilk and lots of it, or at least enough of it to cover the chicken pieces. Simple enough. Its so simple that I really don’t need to tell you much else about this method.

There advantages to the buttermilk method which make it the better soaking method in my opinion. First of all, you can pretty much forget about the chicken once you get it into the buttermilk and into the fridge. A long bath in buttermilk definitely makes for a lot of tenderization and it really concentrates a creaminess in flavor that I find favorable in fried chicken. Whereas brine really can bring out the poultry flavors of a bird, buttermilk seems to really compliment the chicken in the silky flavor it adds. Another advantage (this may just be my opinion at this point) is that the buttermilk really helps the flour mixture cling to the chicken better than a brined bird would and I think it helps to make a crispier coating.

THUS I HAVE CONCLUDED BUTTERMILK IS AN EASIER MORE FOOLPROOF METHOD AND IS BETTER FOR LONGER SOAKING PERIODS.

COATING THE CHICKEN AND FRYING 

Right. So your chicken has been soaking for a day in buttermilk or 2 hours in brine. Your now ready to get to frying.

First, take your chicken out of the fridge and place it (still in its soaking liquid) out in your kitchen and let it come back to room temperature. THIS IS CRUCIAL. I cant say why, but I can say that I have fried cold chicken and I found it to be noticeably sub par compared to the chicken fried at room temperature.

Now with brined pieces you’ll want to pick them out of the brine and kind of hold them over the brining vessel until the piece stops dripping. Then you’ll throw it in the flour mixture.

If you buttermilk-ed its better to let some of the milk cling to the chicken piece before it goes to flour. I just pick them out of the buttermilk, give them like 5 seconds of drip time and then plop them into the flour. You’ll see that the buttermilk clings to the chicken really nicely and holds flour well.

I fry only in about 3/4 of an inch of Peanut Oil and in a cast iron pan ONLY. If you have neither, use a tasteless oil (vegetable oil, canola oil) NO OLIVE OIL OR COCONUT OIL DOG and use a robust, high-walled pan that can take a beating.

Once the pieces have fried long enough I find that letting them cool on a wire rack really helps keep them crisp on the outside. I put the wire rack over a paper towel lined baking sheet to catch the oil. The rack allows your chicken to be cooled by air and not be sponged up by paper towel directly. If you dont have a wire rack then use paper towels directly, just dont roll them around in the paper towels too long, just kind of place them lightly on the towels.

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What about the flour mixture? How long should I fry for? All questions are answered below in complete recipe form. I just wanted to  get you to read all of this before getting to the actual recipe. 

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CP’S FRIED CHICKEN RECIPE 

(BRINE + BUTTERMILK + TIME = GREAT RESULT)

-1 3lb – 3 1/2lb (about 1.3 – 1.5 kg) whole chicken, rinsed, patted dry, then cut into ten pieces

-1/2 cup sugar (100g)

-1 cup fine sea salt  (230g)

-1 quart of buttermilk (1.13652297 litres) (more or less depending on size of chicken)

-3 cups all purpose flour (375g)

-2 1/2 tsp paprika

-1 tsp cayenne powder

-1 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

-Peanut Oil for frying (you’ll need a substantial amount – depends on size of your frying vessel)

METHOD

In a bowl large enough to accommodate your chicken (pieces) pour the sugar, salt and 2 cups of HOT water, stir till dissolved or mostly dissolved. Pour in 2 cups COLD water, stir to dissolve remaining salt and sugar then let the brine come to room temperature. Add chicken pieces. Let sit for 2 hours.

Drain chicken and pat dry. In another bowl of the same size (just clean the first bowl if needed) add most of the buttermilk. Add chicken pieces, stir, then add rest of buttermilk until chicken is submerged or very close to being fully submerged. Cover bowl with plastic wrap / cling film and place in fridge. Let chicken soak for 1 – 3 days, turning and stirring at least once a day (its a nice morning ritual).

2 hours before your ready to fry, take the chicken in buttermilk out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. While its warming up, combine the flour, paprika, cayenne powder and black pepper in a bowl large enough to dredge chicken pieces in (best if this bowl is large enough to accomodate up to 3 pieces so that they can be thrown in all at once). Use a whisk to mix the dry ingredients.

Bring a cast iron skillet with 3/4 inch – 1 inch of peanut oil up to medium high heat. 350 f / 175 c is apparently a good temperature. You’ll know its right if you can put a drop of water in and the oil sizzles.

Pick a chicken piece out of the buttermilk, let it drip for just a few seconds (it should have a film of buttermilk clinging to it) and then place it into the flour mixture. Roll it around and press it until it is well coated but not caked with the flour mixture.

Drop chicken pieces (I try to do breasts first since they are biggest) into hot oil. If oil doesn’t sizzle immediately when the chicken dunks into it turn the heat up a bit. Make sure the pieces don’t stick to the bottom of the pan and let them fry until golden brown on each side, this usually takes about 7 – 9 minutes per side.

Transfer chicken pieces to a wire rack over a paper towel lined baking sheet. Allow to cool until all pieces are done, add some salt if needed and enjoy.