Fried Chicken: Cook-Off 5

[Marlene]

Susan's pretty much talked me into trying fried chicken using my new range. So one more experiment to come. Probably on Thursday. Now, which recipe, I wonder?

[fifi]

Piperdown has added two inspired ideas here. When I make the chicken drumlets for the fishing trip, I think I will use sriracha instead of the Tabasco. We all love that stuff. I wonder what would happen if I seasoned the flour with some ground ginger? OK . . . This is getting nuts. (Still sounds good, though.)

I think I have heard of adding onion to the buttermilk but I haven't tried it. Frying those things up is truly inspired. The heat would kill anything. There probably isn't much in the way of baddies in there anyway. The buttermilk bugs and the acidity will probably take care of those.

[Marlene]

It's hard to stop isn't it? I'm thinking Aunt Minnie's recipe and method this time around. One last round of fried chicken coming up on Thursday.

[piperdown]

Piperdown has added two inspired ideas here. When I make the chicken drumlets for the fishing trip, I think I will use sriracha instead of the Tabasco. We all love that stuff. I wonder what would happen if I seasoned the flour with some ground ginger? OK . . . This is getting nuts.  (Still sounds good, though.)

I think I have heard of adding onion to the buttermilk but I haven't tried it. Frying those things up is truly inspired. The heat would kill anything. There probably isn't much in the way of baddies in there anyway. The buttermilk bugs and the acidity will probably take care of those.

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I was originally just going to throw the onions out, but it seemed like a waste. I'm glad I changed my mind because those suckers were tasty as hell. No stomach problems yet, so I think I'm all good. I'm just glad I could contribute something to this thread.

[snowangel]

One last round of fried chicken coming up on Thursday.

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Praytell that this Thursday's batch won't be the LAST ever. Praytell that there will be more batches in the future. Reminder that it will take you at least a couple of batches to figure out the stove! Summer is just around the corner, and fried chicken is the most wonderful summer and picnic food ever.

Yes, piperdown's use of the onions was inspired. Just may have to bore my family with yet more fried chicken just so I can do onions.

[Chris Amirault]

All right, friends, here we go: eGullet Cook-Off VI: Pad Thai.

[Chris Amirault]

I was just snooping around in my past posts trying to find something, and I found this simple recipe for chicken nuggets, which I had promised to post. So here it is :

Cut up a few cubes of white meat chicken. Make a spice rub with this and that (cajun, curry, Mexican, you name it*) and split it. Douse cubes with half of the spice rub and perhaps some hot sauce and let em sit for a while (hour or two max).

Submerge the cubes in 1-2 beaten eggs and a little bit of milk until they are slippery moist. Dredge the cubes in flour -- half unbleached AP, half corn is my favorite -- that has the other half of the spice mix in it and a good pinch of salt.

Fry the cubes in small batches in 375 oil until the chicken stops hissing. Drain and serve hot.

*For parents, I find that thyme, sage, onion powder, celery salt, white pepper, and black pepper best replicates generic chicken nugget seasoning.... Sigh....

[Darcie B]

I am quite interested in purchasing from a live market myself the next time I make fried chicken.  This is undoubtedly the way my mother (and certainly her mother) had fried chicken.  I am wondering, though, how to manage the whole buttermilk soaking part.  Ordinarily I would marinate in Red Devil sauce for around 8 hours and then soak in buttermilk for around 16 hours before frying (usually in the afternoon).  To a certain extent, however, this would seem to defeat the purpose of getting superfresh just-killed chicken.  Now I'm thinking of getting the freshly killed chicken early in the morning, soaking in buttermilk/Red Devil for around 8 hours and then frying in the evening.

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From what I have read (and vaguely remember from my grandmother's farm) is that a superfresh just-killed chicken won't be any good. You need to let the meat rest (I think about 24 hours is right), for all the normal dead-thing stuff (maybe it's rigor mortis, maybe some other enzymatic action) to work its magic to transform the meat into its tastiest. I remember reading on another cooking board (gasp!) that someone made chicken within a couple of hours of killing it and it was tasteless and the texture was off, too. I'm trying to find that thread that had a great response by someone quite knowledgeable about offing one's own meats.

[Chris Amirault]

Sure the onions were sitting in raw chicken for a day, but then so was the chicken, and I ate that. Maybe it was a little stupid, but I don't mind being stupid if it tastes good.

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That second sentence would make a great signature quotation!

[Pan]

From what I have read (and vaguely remember from my grandmother's farm) is that a superfresh just-killed chicken won't be any good.[...]

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My experience as a youngster in rural Malaysia directly contradicts that assertion. Then again, they never just deepfried chicken. It was usually cooked in a curry.

[Marlene]

I'm ready. I've got me a new gas cooktop and my chicken has been soaking in buttermilk since last night.

The last thing my husband said as he went out the door this morning was, "good luck with your chicken, don't start a fire". Huh? What exactly does that mean?

Somebody clue me in on the intricacies of cooking with gas and hot fat please. What should I do/not do? Besides keep a fire extinguisher beside me!

[ellencho]

Somebody clue me in on the intricacies of cooking with gas and hot fat please. What should I do/not do? Besides keep a fire extinguisher beside me!

I'm a gas stove fryer too, and what I try to do is not overload my dutch ovens with oil because the weight of the chicken parts will displace the oil and you don't want to cause a spill over. If you have some sort of reliable thermometer that you can keep in the oil during frying that would help too. That way you can jack up or lower your heat as you need to to keep your chicken happy.

[Smithy]

Somebody clue me in on the intricacies of cooking with gas and hot fat please.  What should I do/not do?  Besides keep a fire extinguisher beside me!

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Keep a large box of baking soda around as the first response for a fat fire, and use the fire extinguisher only as a backup. Baking soda is less messy than the fire extinguisher, and if the fire is small it's just as effective.

Not that you're going to need any of this, of course.

[Marlene]

One more time. Armed with my box of baking soda:

I was ready to try one last batch of fried chicken. This time I used the Aunt Minnie/Martha method. I soaked the chicken overnight in buttermilk, Tabasco and kosher salt.

I found the buttermilk soak adhered better to the chicken this time around, I have no clue why and I lightly seasoned the chicken before throwing the rest of the spices into the flour mixture:

I got really good coating of flour this time and I didn't let it sit around too long:

Temp control was a lot easier using a gas range. I still had a couple of problems, but generally the temp stayed a lot more even on this range than it did on my other ceramic cooktop. Ryan snatched the legs before I could take a picture of them on the platter, so I made him take a picture of his plate:

The rest of the chicken:

The results? Dave, Brooks, move on over and let Aunt Minnie show you how it's done. The Tabasco definitely adds something, as does the baking powder added to the flour as specified in Martha's recipe. The crust was just - richer, somehow. That's the best way I can describe it. This was without a doubt, the best batch of pan fried chicken I have made.

I've now made 3 batches of pan fried chicken for this cook off, and previously I've deep fried two batches. In all honesty, I'll probably go back to deep frying. Why? Well for one thing, it's not nearly as messy. And you just drop the chicken in the basket and 10 minutes or so later, it's done. No turning, no muss, no fuss.

In addition, standing over the stove top frying chicken in a cast iron frying pan is like having a never ending hot flash.

But it sure was fun!

[Chris Amirault]

I've now made 3 batches of pan fried chicken for this cookoff, and previously I've deep fried two batches.  In all honesty, I'll probably go back to deep frying.  Why?  Well for one thing, it's not nearly as messy.  And you just drop the chicken in the basket and 10 minutes or so later, it's done.  No turning, no muss, no fuss.

In addition, standing over the stovetop frying chicken in a cast iron frying pan is like having a never ending hot flash. 

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I gotta say, I agree. I also think that pan-frying, with very few exceptions, seems to create what I consider to be excessive browning on the part of the chicken that rests on the pan. It certainly happened to me, and from the looks of people photos it happened to them, too....

[Mayhaw Man]

One more time.  Armed with my box of baking soda:

I

The results?  Dave, Brooks, move on over and let Aunt Minnie show you how it's done.   

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Minnie, Schminnie. Whatever.

When I start taking chicken frying lessons from Canadians that'll be the day I take the skillet to Goodwill and call it a day. My next move will be ten toes up and 6 X 6.

[Marlene]

When I start taking chicken frying lessons from Canadians that'll be the day I take the skillet to Goodwill and call it a day. My next move will be ten toes up and 6 X 6.

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Eh? I don't think Aunt Minnie was Canadian.

[fifi]

. . . . .

In addition, standing over the stovetop frying chicken in a cast iron frying pan is like having a never ending hot flash. 

. . . . .

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Thanks for my GulleyLaugh of the day.

Aunt Minnie was a third (at least) generation Texan.

[snowangel]

Minnie, Schminnie. Whatever.

When I start taking chicken frying lessons from Canadians that'll be the day I take the skillet to Goodwill and call it a day. My next move will be ten toes up and 6 X 6.

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Will you take it from me? Born in Florida. Several years in College Station, TX. A couple in Nigeria. Many in Thailand. Now (hanging head) a yank in Minnesota.

Brooks, give it a try. So you can tell us how much more wonderful Dorothy's is.

[piperdown]

So if you want to deep fry chicken, do you do anything different? I mean do you change the recipe in any way or do you just follow the normal steps, but just drop in into a deep fryer?

[Marlene]

I don't do anything differently. A buttermilk soak first, then spiced and floured, and heat the deep fry oil to 350.

[Malawry]

I made fried chicken for my 34 girls last night. I started Wednesday by cutting up 9 small chickens from Sysco. I then made a salt water brine and let it soak overnight in the fridge.

Yesterday early afternoon, I poured off the brine and replaced it with a mixture of buttermilk and Tabasco. I let that soak a few more hours, this time at room temp.

I made a mix of flour, salt, thyme and cayenne in a big paper bag. I drained the chicken and dropped a few pieces at a time into the bag and shook them with the flour. I then divided them into three pans: breast pieces, leg and thigh pieces, and wings. I set two big pots of oil on the stove and started heating them. When they hit 350 degrees, I started deep-frying.

I added a little too much chicken to the larger pot, and some oil spilled over and started a grease fire instantly. I had to turn off the heat, remove some chicken, cover and move the pot, and then smother the fire with a huge pot lid. I then ran around and opened all the windows to prevent the smoke alarm from going off. I've never started a grease fire before and frankly it was pretty scary. I've started little fires on the stove many times before and was always able to get them out instantly. This one took several minutes to put out. Next time I'll add a buttload of salt or baking powder and then smother it with a pot lid. At least I don't have to clean up from my handheld fire extinguisher or (worse) from the fire-control system going off and blanketing my stove in foam.

I did manage to fry the rest of the chicken without mishap, but I'm feeling kinda spooked about frying chicken and don't know that I'll do it for 34 again. (This was my second time trying.) And now I have to report to work today and scrub down my entire stove--it was too hot to take care of it last night.

[Chris Amirault]

Yeesh! That does sound scary.... I'm glad that you reacted so quickly and well. Good luck with the stove; I can sympathize.

[fifi]

I think Malawry's experience is a good example of why you rarely see pan fried chicken in restaurants. It just takes too much attention. The thought of pan frying chicken for 34 makes me shudder.

[Malawry]

Grease fires are a lot harder to start in a dedicated deep-fat fryer than they are on the stove. I don't have a fryer at work, so when I fry for my girls (not very often) I use a pot of oil.