Brined Fried Chicken

We have been tinkering with this recipe for over a year now.  The impetus for the whole "make fried chicken at home" thing is that the best fried chicken I'd ever had we found at Annie Bailey's (an irish pub in Lancaster) and it is a sweet tea brined, pecan encrusted, piece of deliciousness.  It is one of my favorite foods for sure, but it's a $15 plate of chicken and potatoes and I became convinced Scott and I could do this cheaper and just as well at home.  Eating at home is much easier than trying to eat a nice meal while our kids are talking loudly and falling off of the very high table stools at Annie Bailey's (no need for someone to die while trying to get a good piece of fried chicken).

Epicurious has a recipe for brined fried chicken, but the first time we tried to make it we were worried it was undercooked and so we let it go long enough that the breading burned.  Over time we figured out that we could make it with chicken tenders if we adapted it (less salt, less time to brine) and then it was easier to make sure it was cooked enough on the inside yet only golden on the outside... So we make ours without skin, without bones and yet with all the key ingredients (salt and sugar) it is so, so good.

 Here's our version.

The ingredients that make this dish so finger lickin good.

Brine:
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 teaspoon Black peppercorns
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 or 2 bay leaves

For the Chicken:

1 package of chicken tenders (or chicken breasts no bones, no skin)

3 cups buttermilk

2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

3 cups of flour

1 Tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

2-3 teaspoons of cayenne pepper

1 Tablespoon freshly ground black pepper  

Oil for frying 

For brine:


Pour 4 cups cold water into a pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from the heat and add the sugar, salt, bay leaf, peppercorns, and coriander seeds. Allow to cool completely.

For fried chicken:
1. Put the chicken in a glass baking dish and pour the brine over the chicken. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4-6 hours.

2. Remove the chicken from the brine, remove any peppercorns stuck to the chicken, and let the chicken dry slightly on a wire rack while preparing the buttermilk and flour.

3. In a large bowl, stir together the buttermilk with 1 tablespoon of the salt. In another large bowl, stir together the flour with the remaining salt and spices.

4. Dredge the chicken in the flour. Transfer to the buttermilk, gently shaking the bowl to coat the chicken. Transfer the chicken back to the flour, being careful not to scrape off the batter. Gently shake the bowl to coat the chicken with flour, then transfer the pieces to a wire rack, again being careful not to scrape off the batter. Repeat with the remaining pieces of chicken and let dry on the wire rack for 30 minutes.

5. Pour the oil into a 5-quart pot and heat it to a temperature of 350°F. Cook over medium heat. The oil will cool to about 300°F after adding the chicken; this is the correct heat for cooking the chicken. Cook for 4-5 minutes, then turn the chicken over and cook for an additional 3-6 minutes. If the chicken gets too dark, lower the heat. Drain on a wire rack and repeat with remaining chicken. Serve hot or cold.






One final note-- if you're going to use a lot of oil 
to fry some chicken, 
it only makes sense to thinly slice up a potato or two 
to throw into that oil and the end- and turn into chips.
There were only a few, but they were really really good.  
They were crisp and much tastier than anything coming from a bag 
(sorry Martin's, but even you can't beat Scott's).
Happy frying folks! Enjoy the snow (if ya got it)...

Out Come The Dutchies!

So, my hubby says to me-- Checkie(or Jacquie for those of you who aren't PA dutch)-- we need to make some pot pie!  And I said, "whell, yous know I am always good for sum starch with starch and a lil' chickn!"  So we go to the frigiator and get a chicken and roasted it.. He cleaned it real gut.  and nowuh we are makin our own nooodles from scratch! (oh, i give up, it's hard to write that accent out...)

Although my hubby is one half PA dutch (it's a strong and dominant half) we didn't ever get his grandma's recipe.  I don't think she knows what a good cook her grandson is, so she only ever taught the granddaughters I believe. Oh if only she knew.  He can roll dough with the best of them.  Well, since we didn't have grandma Young's recipe, we started by looking at this one:  

http://www.chezpim.com/blogs/2008/08/pennsylvania-du.html

which sounded mostly like pot pie (without the corn, we've just never traditionally used corn).

And it is a good starchy meal.  White with white and more white.  We adapted some of it, but started with her noodles. The real gut part here is the doughy noodles.  Yum.  

So, we made those noodles, and let them dry.  Roasted a whole chicken with some thyme, salt, pepper and oil, and picked it apart.  Then cut up some potatoes.  We had left over celery and a shallot and we  threw them in a bowl to wait.

Then boiled some homemade chicken stock plus a box of store bought (I'd say about 8-10 cups of chicken stock).  As it was boiling, we threw in 2 tablespoons of magic chicken base, which is really called "better than bullion".  When that came to a rolling boil, we added the celery, potatoes and shallot and cooked for ten minutes, then added the noodles one at a time and cooked them for about 15 minutes, then threw in most of a chicken and cooked it all for 5 more minutes.  It was the best pot pie we've ever had.  Really.  Scott also heavily salted and peppered it all.  It was simply amazing.  And everyone agreed (a rarity at our house).

Tonight's learnings:

I love cooking with my husband.  

Love making things from scratch when we can.

Love being in our new kitchen no matter what.

It's good to be home.

Neena and Isaac answering the question: "who wants a biscuit?"

Ike testing the noodles to make sure they are good!

She may be cute, but she's nothin but trouble! Especially at the dinner table.

--

Blessings on your homes tonight...

Blessings when yous outen the light

Blessings when yous tuck into bed...

Blessings on each little head...

-- much love, Checkie, Neena and the dutchies...