Buttermilk Fried Chicken
Have you ever gotten some food that you haven't had in years stuck in your mind? So much so that you just have to find a way to make it and satisfy that craving?
While I don't recall having homemade fried chicken when I was growing up (may be that I just don't remember), My Husband does have fond memories of this dish.
Last weekend, we did the food shopping together and I didn't have a full idea of what dishes I was going to make during the week. This meant that we came up with ideas while shopping. I suggested picking up a whole chicken that I could roast... which, then turned into let's try frying chicken at home.
It's a good thing that we decided to do this while we were at the grocery store... because that meant we could pick up a quart of buttermilk. Buttermilk is a key ingredient to really amazing fried chicken.
Buttermilk helps break down and tenderize the meat, assists in keeping the chicken moist and adds flavor.
Once we got home, we did a bit more research on how to properly fry chicken. I found a recipe for Chef John Besh's Grandma's Fried Chicken.
This was the first method we tried and while it worked out really well, we opted to try something a little different this week when we made our second batch.
This week we were going to try frying the chicken in my large Dutch oven - basing this suggestion off of Food Wishes on YouTube. We find his videos to very informative and simple enough to follow on our own. Of course, the idea of heating up 2.5 quarts of oil inside the house had us thinking that we would have that oh-so-lovely cooked oil smell in the house for the next few days. Uggghhh!
Then, My Husband decided it might be worth trying this in our turkey fryer! Bonus points for finding another use for this contraption that we bought last year (and, we fell in love with fried turkey as a result). The nice thing about using the fryer for fried chicken is that you use enough oil that you can cook all of the chicken at once and there is no need to turn it over. It cooks up in about 20-25 minutes.
This batch fried up beautifully! We added more seasonings this time. Before soaking the chicken in buttermilk, we sprinkled a combination of garlic powder, onion powder, white pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper and Kosher salt. I don't have an actual recipe for this one... it's one of those things you have to do based on what you know your family will enjoy.
After all of the chicken was seasoned, it was all placed in a large glass bowl and then the buttermilk was poured over all of the pieces. We allowed it to marinate/soak overnight - about 24 hours.
Once we were ready to fry up the chicken, we combined about 3 cups of flour with the same spices again - minus the cayenne pepper. Making sure that each pieces was thoroughly covered.
As you can see, the chicken fried up perfectly and we were able to satisfy that craving for fried chicken two weekends in a row! I think our preferred method was to use the turkey fryer, but if you don't have one you could definitely try cooking it in a Dutch oven with 2.5 quarts of oil.
The other method of cooking it in about 1 inch of oil works fine, but it does take a lot longer since you will have to do it in batches. It is also harder to keep the oil at the proper temperature the whole time.
Please note that all photos and content belong to Patsy Kreitman, unless otherwise noted. If you want to use something please ask first.
While I don't recall having homemade fried chicken when I was growing up (may be that I just don't remember), My Husband does have fond memories of this dish.
Last weekend, we did the food shopping together and I didn't have a full idea of what dishes I was going to make during the week. This meant that we came up with ideas while shopping. I suggested picking up a whole chicken that I could roast... which, then turned into let's try frying chicken at home.
Buttermilk helps break down and tenderize the meat, assists in keeping the chicken moist and adds flavor.
Once we got home, we did a bit more research on how to properly fry chicken. I found a recipe for Chef John Besh's Grandma's Fried Chicken.
This was the first method we tried and while it worked out really well, we opted to try something a little different this week when we made our second batch.
This week we were going to try frying the chicken in my large Dutch oven - basing this suggestion off of Food Wishes on YouTube. We find his videos to very informative and simple enough to follow on our own. Of course, the idea of heating up 2.5 quarts of oil inside the house had us thinking that we would have that oh-so-lovely cooked oil smell in the house for the next few days. Uggghhh!
Then, My Husband decided it might be worth trying this in our turkey fryer! Bonus points for finding another use for this contraption that we bought last year (and, we fell in love with fried turkey as a result). The nice thing about using the fryer for fried chicken is that you use enough oil that you can cook all of the chicken at once and there is no need to turn it over. It cooks up in about 20-25 minutes.
This batch fried up beautifully! We added more seasonings this time. Before soaking the chicken in buttermilk, we sprinkled a combination of garlic powder, onion powder, white pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper and Kosher salt. I don't have an actual recipe for this one... it's one of those things you have to do based on what you know your family will enjoy.
After all of the chicken was seasoned, it was all placed in a large glass bowl and then the buttermilk was poured over all of the pieces. We allowed it to marinate/soak overnight - about 24 hours.
Once we were ready to fry up the chicken, we combined about 3 cups of flour with the same spices again - minus the cayenne pepper. Making sure that each pieces was thoroughly covered.
As you can see, the chicken fried up perfectly and we were able to satisfy that craving for fried chicken two weekends in a row! I think our preferred method was to use the turkey fryer, but if you don't have one you could definitely try cooking it in a Dutch oven with 2.5 quarts of oil.
The other method of cooking it in about 1 inch of oil works fine, but it does take a lot longer since you will have to do it in batches. It is also harder to keep the oil at the proper temperature the whole time.
Please note that all photos and content belong to Patsy Kreitman, unless otherwise noted. If you want to use something please ask first.
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