Saturday I managed to make a trip to the
grocer. This allowed me to prepare and freeze 22 Breakfast Burritos (I added 1/3 each:
green, yellow, and red bell peppers along with an onion; all diced and sauteed
with the meat). I also made the Chocolate Pecan Fudge my husband
has been begging for (this is a quick fudge, I will be making a different
recipe on Sunday for a taste-test determination of the best recipe…stay
tuned!). Now that I am writing this down, I realize that Saturday quickly
turned into ‘All Things Brian LOVES to Eat’. J I say this
with love, as was the cooking that went along with today done with love. For
dinner, I created the meal requested by my lover the evening before; he even
pulled the meat out of the freezer in preparation/anticipation of this meal!
You see, my husband believes that I have
perfected fried chicken. That is correct- PERFECTED it; or at least as far as
my husband/family is concerned and that is who I aim to please. J I do not
make it often, even though I bake it off, it is first bathed/fried in oil so
the health factor is a little low. Aside from that, the sides with fried
chicken (as far as my husband is concerned anyway) need to be starchy and
creamy (i.e. mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese…one evening he wanted BoTH,
oh my!).
How have I perfected fried chicken? The
first trick is to brine the chicken for several hours, preferably overnight. I
came across the trick of brining turkey what seems a lifetime ago and it
SERIOuSLY changed my view on all things fowl. J That
Thanksgiving we stood over the stove top picking the turkey apart, we did not
even carve it…it was not making it to the table whole! EVERYTHING about that
turkey was delicious; NO MORE bland turkey meat! Heaven was smiling upon me the
day I discovered brining and my family has been thankful ever sense. J
OK, I am back in the present, what a nice
memory…food does that you know, the smells and tastes can instantly take you
back in time; our own individual olfactory time machines! Now that I am back in
the present, I should get to the business of sharing my chicken recipe. OH,
don’t let the length scare you, I wrote the recipe with the beginner in mind. J
Fried
Chicken (for Beginners and Seasoned Cooking Vets Alike)
Brine
Ingredients:
6- Legs of Chicken (I use only legs because as a
child I always had to fight my 4 other siblings for the TWO legs…I lost a lot. You can use any part of the chicken you want…BUT
IT MUST HAVE ITS SKIN INTACT.)
1- Tbsp Dried Rosemary
1- Tbsp Salt
1- Tbsp Pepper
1- Tbsp Garlic Powder
3- tsp Paprika
Water (to cover 1” over the chicken; I use a plastic
zippered bag large enough for the chicken [usually the one I had them frozen
in])
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| The chicken is soaking in all of that goodness! |
~~~
You can use frozen or fresh chicken when using this
brine. If you chose to use frozen then
allow the chicken to thaw before taking it out of the brine (usually 4 hours up
to overnight, depending on amount of chicken).
Place your chicken in the container you will use for the brine. The secret to brine is to ensure that the
ENTIRE surface area of the meat is fully covered by the brine; preferably 1”
above the meat surface. With cut chicken,
I have found that it is easiest to ensure this occurs by using a plastic
zippered bag large enough to easily hold the chicken and water (6 legs will fit
easily inside of a Gallon bag with room to spare).
Once chicken is inside of your container, add the
spices above. THEN add the water. It sounds like it could happen either way,
and technically you can add water then spices but I have found that plastic
bags, once filled with water and chicken, become a slippery mess and my spices
miss the target…not to mention my meat sometimes shoots into my sink while
doing this. EEK!
Place your container full of the chicken-brine goodness inside of your refrigerator until you are ready to prepare. Allow your meat to enjoy the bath you created. If the meat is thawed, 30 minutes is the
minimum amount of time to brine; the longer the brine, the tastier and moister
the meat. TRUST ME!
Quadruple
Threat Coating Ingredients
2-3 eggs
1 Tbsp milk
1 ½ tsp pepper
1 ½ tsp paprika
1 ½ tsp seasoned salt (or table salt…I prefer the
added flavor of seasoned)
1 ½ tsp garlic powder (important to use POWDER, you
do not want your meat TOO salty)
1+ dashes of Tabasco sauce (I omit this when frying
for my kiddos)
2 c flour
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| I was over-zealous with the egg...should have used only 2. Oh well! |
~~~
In a bowl large enough to lay your largest piece of
meat in you will mix: 2-3 eggs (3 eggs if you are doing more than 6 legs/pieces
of chicken; 2 eggs 6 or fewer pieces), milk, ½ tsp pepper, ½ tsp paprika, ½ tsp
seasoned salt, ½ tsp garlic powder, Tabasco (optional).
In a separate, larger, bowl, place the flour and
remaining 1 tsp each of the spices listed above (NOT the Tabasco, this is only
put with the wet ingredients). Mix
well.
{NOTE: Typically, you use the same spices in the egg
and flour mixture as in the brine. I did
not want an overpowering flavor of rosemary, hence taking it out of the egg and
flour mixtures and putting seasoned salt in its place.}
Ingredients
and Tools to FRY MEAT!
Oil of choice (I use vegetable oil due to cost and
taste. I would NOT recommend olive oil
for this recipe)
Large 12” skillet (if you want to do it in one fell
swoop, otherwise whatever pan you have)
Tongs
Non-stick cooking spray (do NOT use kind that has flour)
Grill/Griddle pan (use the Grill side…or if you do
not have this use a large, sided sheet with a cooling rack fitted inside. The key is to allow the oil/fat to drip off
the meat)
~~~
Pre-heat oven to 375-degree Fahrenheit. Spray your grill with non-stick cooking spray
and place grill inside of the oven.
Place the large skillet on your largest burner (even heating will occur
this way) and pour your oil until you have covered the entire bottom of the pan
and it is about ¼”- ½” deep (give or take, you want plenty of oil…flour coated
meat has a tendency to soak it up). Turn
the burner to medium-low heat (my stove has a 1-10 mode, I use 3.5-4.0 for
frying chicken). I canNOT stress enough
that you do NOT want too high of a heat for this process. You want HOT oil, hence heating the oil
before conducting the Quadruple Threat Coating process. You do NOT want to have
oil so hot that it splatters your face/arms/neck every time you look at it
(experience talking here, PLEASE take heed).
Your chicken has rested long enough, time to bring
it out to play! You need to have PLENTY
of paper towels. I am talking quadrupled
on a metal (easy to sanitize later) tray, then several more to dry the
chicken. Remove the chicken from the
brine and rinse well, placing the pieces onto your bed of paper towels. Once your chicken is on its new bed of paper
towels, you need to pat it dry. The
chicken should be pretty darn dry at this point. J
 |
| Chicken will have some seasoning still on it from the brine, this is OK. |
{NOTE: dry meat allows the egg and flour to stick
during the coating and frying process.}
I typically create an assembly line of raw meat, egg
mixture, flour mixture, and metal platter/cookie sheet. Now the messy, fun part begins! Dip one piece into the egg mixture, then
completely coat with flour. This piece
goes back into the egg mixture and then again into the flour. Finally place it on the platter and repeat
the process with all of your meat.
{TIP: Use one hand for egg mixture and one hand for flour mixture. This will help cut down on the goopiness on your fingers.}
 |
| My assembly line typically is from left-to-right but for picture taking it would not fit :-) |
Place the coated meat gently (leaving some space
between pieces) into the hot oil. Take
care not to drop the meat, the oil burns like a…well it hurts really badly. L
Once the meat hits the oil, let the oil
work for you. This means do not touch
the meat for at least 5 minutes, the longer the meat remains untouched, the
better your crispy crunchiness will be!
I do not know if it is me, but the first side always takes the
longest. DO NOT COVER THE MEAT, you will
lose the crunch we are going for! Once
your chicken reaches the desired golden color, flip and repeat the
process.
 |
| Yes, I am OCD when it comes to chicken placement! You can get more in if you place it this way. :-) |
 |
| Beautiful golden yumminess! |
 |
| Can you SMELL it?!? Mmmmm |
When all of the pieces are brown (the meat will not
be cooked, but the crust will be done), place them onto the grill inside of
your oven and forget about it for 20 or so minutes (until the juices run clear). Not kidding, the longer you bake it the more
grease will come off the chicken and you should be able to eat the chicken with
very little need of napkins between bites. J
 |
| The grill I use. The wooden spoon was supposed to show the amount of grease that came off of the chicken. FAIL on getting that in the picture. *sigh* |
During the baking of the chicken you are now free to
make any side dish you wish (assuming it will take 20 or so minutes to
make).
Enjoy and let me know how if you enjoyed your
chicken as much as my family enjoyed theirs! (Suggestions and comments are welcome as well, this is my first recipe that I have written out completely on my own so if I missed steps or over-wrote let me know [remember I did have the beginner cook in mind]).
