Fried Chicken

I have never been a fast-food fan as such but I did enjoy fried chicken until I discovered the source of the chicken used. Now there are only two places I eat fried chicken and that is from my kitchen or my friend’s food truck Dirty Bird fried chicken

There are two secrets to having the perfect fried chicken, brine the bird and marinate in buttermilk. The choice of your seasoning in your flour dredge is up to you, I doubt mine are ever the same, sometimes spicy other times herby depending on my mood. The recipe for this one is below.

Recipe:

600g boneless chicken thighs

Spice mix

2 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsp onion granules

2 tbsp mixed herbs ( oregano, thyme, parsley)

1 tsp garlic granules

1 tsp chilli powder

salt and pepper (sea salt fresh cracked black pepper)

Marinate:

5% brine ( for a litre of water 50g of salt dissolved) you can add to the brine with things like bay, pickling spices, citrus peel etc

300 ml buttermilk (if you can’t get buttermilk you can use whole milk and add cider vinegar for 300ml of milk add about a tablespoon of cider vinegar)

Dredge:

100g self raising flour

100g cornflour

You can use rice flour or even get some cornflakes and crush to a flour like consistency.

Method:

Make your brine by dissolving the salt in water, place the chicken thighs in the cooled brine for 4-6 hours. Remove from brine and pat dry with kitchen paper. Place the chicken in a container cover with the buttermilk and refrigerate overnight or for about 8 hours. The slightly acidic buttermilk helps tenderise the chicken by breaking down some of the proteins in the meat.

Mix the flours and most of the spice mix together, keep some of the spice mix back to mix with sea salt to season the chicken after cooking. Put the flour and spice mix in a bag this is the easiest and least messy way to dredge the chicken.

Frying:

Heat your oil to 170c personally I use beef dripping for my frying as I do not use highly processed vegetable oils. If I were to use a vegetable oil it would be a UK cold-pressed rapeseed oil. Cook the chicken in batches of about three pieces depending on the size of your fryer or pan. Deep fry for 8 minutes as with all my meat cooking I use a meat probe and cook to an internal temperature of 74c. As each batch is cooked I put on a rack and put in the oven at about 50c to keep warm but not continue cooking.

With this one, I did a spiced slaw using candied jalapenos from my good friend Rag who owns The Preservation Society. To say they are the best cowboy candies ever is an understatement and I truly am addicted to them. Chunky potato wedges seasoned with my chilli spice mix salt and pepper and roasted. Along with that was a side of my sauerkraut, I eat this with almost every meal I have.

So there you have my take on fried chicken hope you enjoy making it, get the kids involved and have fun.