Monday, April 02, 2012

Fried Chicken

I can't take any credit for this one, but I made some fried chicken over the weekend... and it was AMAZING.

Recipe can be found over at Bon Appétit. I bought this issue because of the giant picture of a fried chicken leg on the cover and the bold claim of the best fried chicken ever.

A few notes:

1.- Make sure you use kosher salt, regular salt will make it too salty according to the comments.
2.- I substituted half the paprika with smoked paprika, because smoked paprika is awesome.
3.- Use cast iron pan with high sides. I imagine most complaints of splattering are from low-side pans. Remember, hot oil splatters, and Archimedes figured out a few thousand years ago that putting stuff in liquid makes the liquid go higher.
4.- I found the chicken took a couple extra minutes to cook through than claimed.
5.- Thermometers can never be overrated. I had a deep fry thermometer in the pan, but took it out because it wasn't getting an accurate reading. That's why I had my Thermapen out as well, which I used to check oil temp and meat temp for doneness.
6.- I used a full bottle (just under a litre/around a quart) of peanut oil in a 12-14" skillet

2 comments:

lightning36 said...

My son recently bought some ghost pepper sauce and asked me if I knew what ghost pepper was. Of course, having read your blog, I surprised him with my knowledge.

Astin said...

Always happy to help parents surprise their kids :)

I'm trying to think if I have any myself. I know I've been tempted, but I think I've held off with the "not until I use up my other sauces first" mentality.

That said, my ghost pepper salt isn't too bad, but the dried ghost peppers I have are damn powerful.