I am, without a doubt, a fried chicken aficionado! Coming from Virginia, I grew up on buckets and buckets of the crispy stuff. What wasn’t eaten for the intended meal was placed in the fridge and devoured cold the next day. When I was training on how to become a cook,  I never even bothered to learn how to make the fried version. I mean really, why would I ever compete with folks who made it day in and day out. People with flour crusted hands and grease coated smocks approached the art of frying like Picasso approached a canvas. It really is an art that’s taken very seriously.

Now, living in San Francisco, I have cause. You can find OK fried chicken here but for some reason it isn’t the same. Maybe because you have to either travel over the bridge to Oakland or pay $20 a plate here in the city for something decent. Time to fry!

Initially, what got me inspired was an article in the September issue of Bon Appétit magazine. They ran a story with Thomas Keller (French Laundry) and Joel Gott (Taylors Automatic Refresher) throwing a picnic in their backyard. Of course Mr. Keller’s recipe had 20 steps including brining the chicken; so I wrote a simple version that is a bit more manageable. The one thing though that intrigued me was how Mr. Keller’s recipe called for letting the chicken stand at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours after dredging in the flour. So I gave it a try… tadaaaa! That step alone was probably the best advice you could ever add to a fried chicken recipe. It did a few things. First by letting the chicken sit at room temperature for a spell it prevented the fry oil from cooling down too quickly. The coating stayed on the whole time while frying AND the skin was dense and Mac daddy crispy!

The chicken turned out juicy and flavorful and yes, tasted even better the day after. So get out your skillet, put on some Johnny Cash and get busy with some hot grease. Happy frying!

Fried Chicken
Serves 8-10 people

Ingredients
1 broiler/fryer chicken, cut into 8 pieces
2 cups low fat buttermilk
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Flour, for dredging
1 gallon fry oil

Instructions

Place chicken pieces into a plastic container and cover with buttermilk. Let sit for 1 hour.
Drain chicken in a colander. Combine salt, paprika, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper. Liberally season chicken with this mixture. Next dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess. Let chicken dry out at room temperature for 1/2 an hour. (This will help produce thick crunchy skin)

Add fry oil to a heavy medium sized pot or a large cast iron skillet. Raise heat to 325°. Do not allow oil to get hotter than 325°. This way it can cook slow and low and not burn the skin leaving the center of the chicken pink.
Place chicken, skin side down, into the pan. Put thighs in the center, and breast and legs around the edge of the pan. The oil should come half way up the pan. Cook chicken until golden brown on each side, approximately 7 to 10 minutes per side. More importantly, the internal temperature should be right around 180 degrees. (Be careful to monitor fry oil temperature every few minutes). Too low and it will make the chicken limp and greasy.
Drain chicken on a rack over a sheet pan. * Don’t drain by setting chicken directly on paper towels or brown paper bags. If you need to hold the chicken before serving, cover loosely with foil but avoid holding in a warm oven.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 12:32 pm and is filed under Main Dishes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.