Fried Chicken Feast

The secrets to fried chicken success are now mine. All mine! Fried chicken and red wine--I've been craving this for days!

Thanks, of course, goes to my friend from the south--Claire the Southern Queen. Even if this and Luzianne black tea were all she ever introduced into my life, I'd already be forever grateful . As a bonus, she's also wonderful in many other ways.

Fulton Valley Farms also gets a shout out today. Their chicken really is phenomenal. You can taste how fresh and sweet the meat is, with a firmness that your run-of-the-mill chicken (Safeway, I'm looking at YOU) lacks. Usually the thigh of a fried chicken is my favorite, but Fulton's chicken was so juicy the thigh was almost too dark; next time I'll get a breast for sure. The chicken had such a good texture that I was able to eat a lot of cartilage that's inedible on most chicken: most of the wing tip, the knobs off each end of the drumstick--I crunched through it all and gobbled it down.

You'll have to discover your own path to perfect fried chicken. Even I didn't follow Claire's instructions perfectly. Here's an outline of what I did; do with it what you will.

THE NIGHT BEFORE:

Cut up chicken into fryable pieces. I cut a whole leg into thigh and drumstick sections, and also purchased a wing.

Soak the chicken pieces in buttermilk. I didn't want to go buy more buttermilk, so I got creative. I mixed left over Mexican crema, whole milk, and about a tablespoon of vinegar until it was roughly the consistency of storebought buttermilk. Before you condemn me in your head, remember that it's all just soured milk anyway. Place the chicken and buttermilk in a pan, cover, and let sit in the fridge overnight.

Get a paper bag. I used a small one because I was only going to make three pieces. For more, use two layers of big grocery store paper bags. Mix a cup or two of all purpose flour with salt and pepper. I also added a healthy dose of cayenne pepper, celery salt, and about two heaping tablespoons of cornstarch. I'm not sure if the cornstarch was a mistake, but I did it because as a Chinese person it's engrained in me that all deep fried foods should be coated in cornstarch.

Before you leave for work or school or wherever it is you go all day, flip the chicken over so that the other side can soak too. The chicken should be fine for up to 48 hours if you bought it fresh. I wouldn't keep it that long if it was frozen and defrosted.

THE NIGHT OF THE CHICKEN FEST

Take your chicken out of the fridge at least an hour before cooking. It needs to come up closer to room temperature. That way you decrease the chances of getting burnt skin with raw interior. Heat up a cast iron skillet with canola oil, lard, shortening, or whatever combination of the three you have lying around the kitchen. Using a candy thermometer (look below at how I rigged mine with a binder clip--fantastic idea), raise the temperature of the oil to 350 degrees over medium heat. When your oil is around 325 degrees, continue.

Have the open bag of flour ready. Pick a piece of chicken up out of the buttermilk, and let it drip until most of the excess liquid is off. I used a small brown paper bag, so I could only shake up three pieces at once. Put all three pieces in. Hold the top of the bag closed, and hang on to the bottom so the chicken doesn't come crashing through (thanks Claire! I would totally have forgotten that). I shook it a few times, then rotated the bag to ensure even coating.

Shake the excess flour off the chicken, dredge again in buttermilk, then shake in the flour again. Double coating is essential to good fried chicken. Shake off excess flour.

Gently place chicken into the oil. Unless you splashed some water into it, have wet hands, or are otherwise reckless, the oil should not splatter much. Don't drop the chicken in; you'll burn yourself and/or start a grease fire. Hold the chicken gently but firmly and let go of it only after half of it is submerged in the oil. You want a third or so of the chicken to be above oil level Contrary to popular belief, fried chicken is NOT deep fried. Water needs to evaporate off the chicken as it cooks. If you submerge the chicken, the water will have nowhere to go as it turns to steam, and it will explode. It's hard to get cast iron to heat up or cool down quickly, but you want the temperature to stay between 300 ad 350 degrees--on the high side for small pieces, low side for large pieces.

Your mileage will vary depending on the size of your chicken as well as how big your skillet is, but I cooked my chicken on the first side for 10 minutes. Turn the chicken over with the longest tongs you own when the skin's dark golden brown. If you let your oil boil at over 350 degrees, the outside will burn before the inside is cooked. After you flip it over, the second side should be done in about five minutes. Keep an eye on it, and just take it out when it's as golden as the first side. If it takes you any less than ten minutes to get the outside browned, you probably cooked at too high a heat and will have a raw interior.

Remove to a plate lined with paper towels. Salt and pepper further, if that's your fancy. i think I should have left a little more flour on the chicken to get them reall nobbly, but maybe buttermilk also holds flour better than the thin stuff I concocted. There's always room for improvement!

What struck me about the chicken this time was the skin. It was so crispy I gobbled up every piece that fell onto the plate. And unlike mega-chain fried chicken, the skin did not come off in one huge slab, so I got to enjoy crunchy deep fried skin with every bite.

Revelation of the day: fried chicken is good with merlot! I opened a half bottle of Whitehall Lane Estate Bottled 2003 Napa Valley Merlot. The wine shop guy said it was one of his favorite merlots of all time and that it tastes like most merlots that cost twice as much. It was indeed great for the price point ($13 for a split, $25 for the regular 750mL), especially after I let a glass sit out for half an hour. What was really surprising, for me, was how great it went with chicken! After the first bite of chicken, the wine tasted positively sweet. It was just the right amount of acidity to cut through the grease and fat in the chicken, but wasn't "California big red wine" enough to make me yearn for red meat.