43 Days until TASTE TEST meets the world!
Said chicken, mid-fry
So, I realize I’m making a bold claim here. But, really and truly, this is the best fried chicken I’ve ever tasted. There are several crucial factors that make this the case.
1. The bird — a free-range chicken from our friends at Open Book Farm, who I’ve written about before here.
2. The brine — my chicken parts bathed in a sugar & salt brine for about 6-7 hours in the fridge.
3. The breading — a light but flavorful mix of flour and spices.
Here’s what I did to get such amazing results, like these:
The Finished Product!
1. The Chicken: I cut mine into parts, only deboning the breasts because I prefer them that way.
2. The Brine: I mixed together a gallon of warm water, 1/2 cup raw sugar, 1/4 cup kosher salt, a palmful of black peppercorns, a bay leaf, a teaspoon of celery salt, and a couple shakes of crushed red peppers. I quickly mixed it, dropped in the chicken pieces and stowed it in the fridge for the morning and afternoon.
I don’t know what it is about this brine or this chicken. I’ve brined turkeys before and I’ve never really noticed a distinct flavor or difference. With this brine, though, the meat was completely penetrated.
3. The Breading: I mixed a cup of milk with a tablespoon of vinegar in a pie plate. This works in a pinch when you don’t have buttermilk. In a large freezer bag, I added a few cups of flour, about a teaspoon each of onion powder, garlic powder, and smoked paprika, and a couple teaspoons of salt. I bathed each chicken piece in the sour milk, shook it with the flour mixture and dropped into my pan (a high-sided skillet with about 1 1/2 inches of vegetable oil.)
Like I said, this chicken was phenomenal. Fried chicken isn’t easy to cook and get right. Honestly, I hate cooking chicken as a general rule. I can never get the consistancy to be what I want. That being said, this time I nailed it. I should tell you that it is advisable to always use a meat thermometer in instances such as these — I didn’t use one, I just eye-balled it, but that isn’t really the best method.
Seriously, try brining your meat. It makes all the difference!
