Buttermilk Fried Chicken

 

Fried Chicken. When I see it on a menu I have to order it. When I see it out I have to take a look at it. I love it in every shape and form. Cheap. Expensive. Gourmet.

It doesn’t matter; it’s the perfect food in my opinion. I don’t know why I love the dish so much, probably because as a kid it wasn’t something that was readily accessible at home. We always had to buy it out, and it’s the one dish that is very hard to screw up.

My personal connection with fried chicken starts with my Mom’s version of it as a kid which in Farsi is called Shennycell or schnitzel for everyone else. Yeah, Iranians have a funny way of adopting words sometimes. Anyways, shennycell is really a chicken cutlet, breaded, and then pan fried. While delicious, it doesn’t really compare to true southern fried chicken.

My next experience came at the hands of the southern version of von Clausewitz himself, Colonel Sanders from the great armies of KFC (that’s a military philosophy joke). Anyways, Kentucky Fried Chicken in the 90’s was about the only place that I could get fried chicken, and every time I went the chicken was juicy, crispy, and delicious. The original recipe chicken brought the perfect blend of spices and fat to really sooth my chubby heart. (Probably also doing all sorts of other bad things to my chubby heart)

Every Saturday for a good bit of time in my early pre-teen years (i.e. my fattest years), my Mom would have to work and my Dad would be responsible for feeding us kids lunch. And like any responsible Iranian father, we were fed a bucket of fried chicken from the good Colonel. So when my Brother and I would sit down at the table, the race was on to consume as much chicken as possible while depriving the other brother of the rest of the chicken. I would typically win this race, because I’m a fast eater. My brother calls me the buzzsaw because I typically buzz through my food. It’s not a necessarily good habit, but it’s one that I do take pride in.

So basically ever since my childhood it’s been my mission to perfect making fried chicken. It took me many years, mostly because I had little guidance but my fried chicken vision quest ultimately led me to fried chicken Valhalla, which is today’s post.

A quick backstory on fried chicken itself, because who doesn’t love a good backstory? Fried chicken has been around for centuries in Europe and also in West Africa. When Scottish settlers came to the United States they brought their cuisine with them to the South. As the slave trade grew in America and more West Africans were being brought over as slaves, many became cooks on the various plantations. This then led to West African spices being incorporated into the fried chicken dishes, and the flavor profile of what we call fried chicken today was born.

The dish became popular amongst African Americans in the South, but the expensive nature of chicken made it a dish for a special occasion. That meant it was typically served for a Sunday dinner or for big gatherings like the Fourth of July. It’s ability to keep relatively well without refrigeration, makes it the ideal picnic food. The traditional method was to coat pieces of chicken, with the skin on, with flour and then you would proceed to fry the chicken in a cast iron pan with lard. The end result was a delicious concoction that’s been making people happy for over a hundred years.

 

The way I prepare my fried chicken is by letting it marinate in a delicious salty buttermilk bath that makes the chicken perfectly juicy. I got the idea from America’s Test Kitchen, because duh, they pretty much do everything right. Except for Persian food! (So wrong, so very wrong).

I prefer to deep fry my chicken in a large pot like a Le Creuset because it distributes the heat evenly. I would suggest you do the same. You’re going to love this dish.

Recipe – Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Ingredients

Marinade

2 Quarts of low-fat Buttermilk

½ Cup of Table Salt

¼ Cup of Sugar

2 Tablespoons of Paprika

5 Cloves of Crushed Garlic

3 Crumbled Bay Leafs

Chicken

3 ½ pounds of Chicken, skin on

4 Cups of Flour

2 Large Eggs

1 Cup of Corn Starch

2 Tsp. Garlic Powder

1 Tbsp. Milk

1 Tsp. Paprika

2 Tsp. Onion Powder

5 Cups of Peanut Oil

Method

Step 1- In a very large bowl or container, mix all of the marinade ingredients together until they are completely uniform.

Step 2- Submerge the chicken in the marinade and allow it to marinate for 3 hours.

Step 3 – Remove the chicken from the brine, shake off the excess, and then refrigerate for up to 8 hours if need be.

Step 4- In a large dish or bowl, mix your corn starch, flour, spices, and milk together. The milk will help it clump a little making for tasty crunchy parts in the chicken.

Step 5- In another bowl, beat your eggs.

Step 6- Now dip the chicken in the flour, then the eggs, then the flour again and set on a wire rack.

Step 7 – Once all the chicken is coated, heat your oil to 375 degrees in a large pot.

Step 8 – Once the oil is hot enough, in batches, start frying your chicken. *I always test my oil by throwing a few clumps of flour in there to see if it starts to sizzle quickly.

Step 9 – As you put your chicken in the oil, the temp. will drop so be careful not to overcrowd it.

Step 10 – Cook the chicken in the oil until it turns golden brown all over, about 8 minutes per batch.

Step 11- As pieces cook, lay them on another wire rack to allow excess oil to drip off, preventing your chicken from getting soggy.

Step 12- As the chickens cook, transfer them to a 300 degree oven, allowing the internal temps to reach the optimal temperature.

Step 13- Once all your chicken is cooked, serve and enjoy the praise!