Every country makes fried chicken, and they all do it a little differently, They are all delicious.
The major differences are marinades, frying technique and starch.
The Technique I used is a combination of American and Korean.
American for the marinade, and starch, frying technique from Korea.
Marinading
There are four main reasons to marinade fried chicken, flavour, tenderising, curing, enriching.
by adding salt you draw some of the moisture from the cells leaving the chicken more succulent (for a more detailed explaination read the post on brining and hams). this can be achieved simply seasoning with salt, most fermented products contain salt and will have the benefit of enriching the flavour of the meat. some good examples are soy sauce, miso, fish sauce, fermented shrimp paste, red tofu, sake or hot sauce, the list if pretty endless. I have seen recipes using kimchi brine, kombu seaweed, instant noodle seasoning. fried chicken gets a pretty trashy approach as its often seen as hangover food.
Enriching will make the meat taste more promient, so you can add more seasoning without over powering the chicken, it will help to round out the harsher flavours of chilli and peppers if you choose to spice it.
Tenderising relies on products with live enzymes and time for the enzymes to do their work.
the most well known example of this is buttermilk fried chicken. this is the direction i go down as we always had plenty of buttermilk left each week from making butter.
for 1 whole large chicken cut into 12 pieces i would use about 100g cultured buttermilk.
other product which work well are yoghurt, shio koji, sake kasu, cincalok (fermented shrimp), beer and pineapple. A benifit of most of these products is they will also enrich the flavour of the meat allowing you to keep the marinade simple.
Spice wise again the options are limited to your imagination. my preferance is to keep it simpler, but it can be a chance to go wild. I usually reach for dried celery or lovage leaves, bay leaf, white pepper, coriander seed, fennel seed, garlic and onion powder.
Examples of other spices worth keeping in mind are curry or kafir lime leaves, chillis, fenugreek, tumeric, cardamom, ginger, tamarind, lemon grass for more west and pacific asian flavours or go wild and add your favorite curry pastes.
Frying
The standard method for frying chicken is to cook it at 180C until it is above 80 degees inside. The difference in the Korean style is to fry it twice, there are alot of similaritys to this and the triple cooked chips technique (click here to read about fried potatoes).
By frying chicken dreadged in flour twice, once at a lower temperature, once at a higher temperature you acheive three characteristics.
1. It allows the starch in the flour to gelatinise, hydrate and dehydrate at the same time (which means it will make a harder/crispier shell around the outside.
2. The meat is cooked more gently, (keeping it more juicy)
3. Time between each frying temperature you allow the meat to rest (making it more succulent)
The Korean technique is
Fry the flour dreaged chicken the first time at 150C for at least 3 minutes until the core temperature is reached.
2. Place on drying rack until cooled down and breading has gelatinized. let is sit for minimum 10 minutes before continuing.
3. Fry the chicken at 180C for 3 minutes or until 55C in the middle.
Instead of saying fry for 4 minutes fry until the meat reaches a core temperature by using and internal temperature probe. Pieces on the bone take longer to cook than those without.
For white meat cook to an internal temperature of 48 degrees (with resting this will reach 56 degrees).
For dark meat take it to 65 degrees, wings, thighs and drumsticks all have alot of conective tissue which need to be heated to at least 65 to soften and become tender.
Starch-
There are many recipes for dredging fried food, I am just going to suggest mine for this step, its the easiest to have on hand.
98% white flour 2% table salt.
This seems like a high amount of salt, but for reasons I haven't yet understood it makes the crust crispier.
The trick is to take the chicken straight from the marinade so it is still glazed in the juices and drop it into the flour mix, cover with flour and press down lightly. Remove the chicken from the flour keeping as much excess flour on the chicken. Drop it into a container of water for 1 second then place it back in the flour mix. Cover in flour and press lightly to make sure all the moisture absorbed by starch.
It is now ready for its first fry.
Once the chicken has been fried once at 150C it can be cooled and kept until you are ready to fry just before you eat it, a day ahead is fine, its how i tend to prepare it at home. as a whole chicken is alot to eat, and going to all this effort and clean up is a shame to do less than one. if you are sharing your chicken you will want to get the messy steps done in advance as it takes longer than you always think it will and you can just focus on the eating and laughing and drinking and the good times.
serving suggestions
personally I like it as it is, with pickles and some hot sauce on the side. it makes it more appropriate for the sides, coleslaw, sweet corn or potato salad tastes better without sticky sweet sauces.
having said that.....
the benifit of the super crunchy chicken is you can get it wet without losing the cripy texture, so it can be tossed in a multitude of sauces , spices, oils, mixed up in a big pile with spring onions and pickles, drizzled with honey or maple syrup (or birch syrup 'moorcock style').
for nashville hot chicken you drop the fried chicken in chilli oil then dust with chilli powder.
for a delicious sweet and sour mix of honey, vinegar and hot sauce for a tasty glaze.
if you put a wet sauce on your chicken it can then be coated in spices or seeds.
honey followed by za'atar spice is pretty special.
Soy, mirin and pickled ginger glaze followed by furikake
a mix of crustation oil and lemon juice finished with grated bottaga and spring onions is the truth too.
Gravy is really good too. but maybe better to dip.
so the recipe for 1 large chicken goes as
Marinaide
100g cultured buttermilk
100g water
10g powdered dried celery or lovage leaf
3g ground white pepper
4g ground fennel seeds
3g ground coriander seed
3g dried garlic powder
3g dried onion powder
2 bay leaves
10g salt
flour
2kg plain flour
40g table salt
oil for deep frying 8ltrs should be enought to fry the chicken in batches.
equipment
deep frier or a large pot
digital temperature probe
containers/ bowls for marinading chicken.
bowls/containers for flouring
tray with cooling rack
cut your chicken into 12 pieces, it is your choice to prepare the meat to boneless, bone in chicken is more juicy it is up to personal preference. I definity reccomend leaving the skin on.
Remove the breast from the crown, seperate the tenderloin from the breast, then cut the breast into 2 pieces of even thickeness.
2. remove the wings, remove the wing tip (little flappy bit at the end). you can cut the remaining pieces of wing in half again or leave as a double joint.
3. remove the leg from the carcasse, cut the drumstick from the thigh. if you want your leg to be boneless remove the thigh and drumstick bones now.
this should give you 12 even sized pieces of chicken ready to be marinaded.
4. blend all the marinade ingredents and toss the chicken in the mix. top with a piece of cling film and press down slightly to bring up any excess marinade over the meat. cover the container and place in the refridgerator to marinade and tenderise over night.
5. the following day mix your flour and salt and prepare your space to coat your chicken, it can make a mess, its better to give yourself some room. you will need a deep bowl for the flour, a bowl of water and a wide tray to place your floured chicken. set up your deep frier or the pot on the stove to 150C, with a digital probe, a tray and draining rack to its side.
6. the steps for dredging (flouring) the chicken are, take directly from the buttermilk marinade into the flour mix. press lightly so as much flour absorbs into the moisture, move the chicken lightly and press again, this will give you some of the extra crispy bits we all love.
7. without dusting off too much excess flour drop the chicken into the water, let it sit for a second and place it back into the flour. repeat the initial dry flouring method and place on the flat tray in a single layer and repeat with the remaining pieces. keep your breast pieces to one side of the tray and your dark meat to the other.
8. fry the chicken at 150C, fry you breast pieces first. depending on how big your chicken was and how thick it is cut it should take about 4-5 minutes to reach 47 degrees C in the centre. check with your temperature probe, it may take longer which it is fine.
9. remove the breast pieces to your cooling wrack, keep the pieces from touch as much as possible, this will allow the chicken to cool faster and for the starch gel to make a drier shell.
10. repeat the first fry with the dark meat until it reaches 65C, and cool in the rack.
11. leave your chicken to cool for at least 8 minutes for the starch to gelatinise, and the meat to rest. (if you are preparing in advance you can place the chicken in the fridge after the 10 minute rest. once cold the chicken can be allowed to touch.)
12. to serve, heat your frier to 180 degrees, fry the chicken pieces for 4 minutes. the chicken will now be very crispy, hot and delicious. read to eat.
13. garnish as you please, toss in sauces or seasonings. enjoy hot or cold, it stays crispy for days in the fridge too!
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