Fried chicken

Cafe Society
1

I rarely make fried chicken, so I haven’t had much practice. When I have in the past (and it’s actually been years; hence ‘in the past’ which really is obvious as I can’t have made it in the future unless time is a… Oh, never mind.) I dip a couple of boneless breasts in egg wash, coat them seasoned flour, and fry in shallow oil. The results are edible. Even tasty. But not ‘correct’.

Here’s what I’m planning to do next time: Use bone-in chicken parts. Dredge in corn starch. Dip in egg wash. Dredge in seasoned flour. Maybe (or maybe not) another dip in the egg and another dredge in the flour before cooking. Fry in deeper oil.

Unless someone has other ideas?

I don’t really want to use crackers. I have flour, corn meal, and the usual seasonings one keeps around the kitchen and I’d like to stick with those.

2

I use seasoned flour instead of corn starch. So dredge, dip in egg, dredge. Season the chicken, too. Fry in a cast iron skillet (preferably) with veg oil about 3/4 inch deep. Deep enough that the level of oil is halfway up the piece of chicken, not submerged. I think 350° is around the optimum temperature. Don’t crowd the pan, or the temperature will lower and you will steam the chicken and not get the crispy golden crust.

Some people like to marinate the chicken forst, but I never do. I keep meaning to try that!

3

I make the real deal (though there are some variations). I use a recipe based on the Pine Bluff, Arkansas Ladies Auxilliary cookbook (most of the recipe submissions are from ladies who go by “Mrs. Fred Tucker” and the like).
If you’re so inclined, buy a smallish whole fryer and cut it up yourself. Otherwise, definitely use bone-in parts.

Egg wash=egg/water only. Don’t use milk, and don’t do that soak in buttermilk thing. This stuff scorches. Also, save the seasoning for right after it’s done frying.

I don’t know about using corn starch on fried chicken, BTW.

Heat about a half inch or so of oil on high in a skillet with a lid.

Dip the chicken in the flour, then the egg wash, then the flour again. You don’t want it to be utterly caked with the stuff.

Fry on high, skin side down, for 1 minute, then turn the heat down to medium low and cover the skillet, slightly ajar and cook for about 10 minutes.

Turn chicken, cover and cook for 10 minutes more, then remove the lid, crank it up to high and crisp it up on either side for up to a minute. Drain on paper towels and salt and pepper liberally.

While the chicken’s cooling, drain off all but couple of tablespoons of the grease, leaving the bits of breading in. Set it to medium low. Add as much flour as you have grease, and brown it pretty good, whisking it the whole time. Now slowly add cream, 1/2 & 1/2 or at least whole milk, probably around 2 cups and whisk it until it thickens, then add salt & pepper as desired.

4

The corn starch is before the egg wash, to help the egg wash stick. (It works for fish, as I discovered last month.) The actual coating is seasoned flour.

That sounds pretty much how I planned, except for covering the skillet. I don’t have a cover for it. I’ll have to see if I have one that will fit, or else use foil.

My oven is old. Early-'80s at the newest, and probably mid-to-late-'70s. And unfortunately, it’s electric as I can’t convince the gas company to run a line 100 yards up the street. So temperature control is approximate. My hush puppies yesterday browned very quickly. I can see the one minute on high, but it will take a bit for the oil to cool. Ten minutes won’t burn?

5

No, it shouldn’t burn, but you might have to go more on the low side. It’s weird, though; it pretty much gets as brown as it’s going to in that first minute. It doesn’t brown appreciably during the 10 minutes.

I’ll double check my recipe when I get home to make sure I’m not steering you wrong, temp-wise; I was just going off the top of my head.

6

Outstanding! :slight_smile:

7

Thanks. I’m not planning to cook it until Saturday.

8

I do flour -> egg wash -> seasoned bread crumbs (usually, just salt, pepper, bread crumbs.) Cooking it right so it doesn’t burn, yet remains crispy on the outside and fully juicy and cooked on the inside can be a bit of an art. I’m not terribly well practiced at it, but mom & an old girlfriend were pretty much experts at monitoring the pan and adjusting the temp to achieve the delicate balance.

9

Here’s Alton Brown’s recipe. He’s never steered me wrong before.

Basically, soak in buttermilk overnight, drain, season, dredge, then fry. Vegetable shortening works the best for chicken, I think. You could use half shortening, half canola or peanut oil, though.

10

I generally love all things Alton but when I tried this it just didn’t seem right. The tang from the buttermilk doesn’t go with fried chicken IMHO. I’ve used the same technique with salt water instead and it works well. The chicken stays extremely moist.

11

Yeah, that’s what I do. I add sliced onions to the buttermilk mixture, and a few hours of soaking seems to work as well as overnight. I only use canola oil, and it always gets good and crispy using just that.

12

Does anyone have a better method of frying boneless skinless chicken breasts? I essentially do as noted in the OP, and would like something a bit more… Fried Chicken-y?

13

I put a LOT of black pepper in my flour, some sage, and then (and this is a secret I swore I’d never tell, so keep it to yourself) I crumble some chicken bouillon into the flour as well. When I dredge the chicken in the flour, I pack it into every nook and cranny as firmly as possible.

14

Try going the breadcrumb route and see if you like that. Mix in some panko breadcrumbs if you like the extra crispiness. My folks are Eastern European, so my family has always gone the wienerschnitzel route for breading (flour->egg wash->fine breadcrumbs->into the pan).

15

Trivia,

When I asked Alton Brown which episode of Good Eats he was least fond of, the Fried Chicken piece appeared to be the winner.

16

That whole “fry some more” thing was annoying as hell.

17

I like Alton Brown, but I haven’t seen the chicken show. He seems to like buttermilk.

The thing is, buttermilk skeeves me out. Dad liked it, ice cold with salt in it. Whenever I tried it (not since I was a teen) I wanted to retch.

18

It’s pretty grim. MY Grandfather would crumble a piece of cornbread into a glass of buttermilk, and eat it with one of those killer peppers he grew.

19

Yeah, the voice used for the “chicken” in that episode was, in fact, what he regretted most about it.

20

It’s really not much different than kefir or yogurt, for that matter. If you use it as a marinade, you won’t really tell there’s buttermilk in it. That said, for fried chicken, I don’t find buttermilk, marinades, or brines to be necessary. If you cook it right, even the breast should remain plenty juicy without the crutch. And, to be frank, the texture is better.