Fried chicken talk

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grumpyoldman said:
i have made my chicken as i described above and let freinds and family eat it and when they wanted to make their own i gave them my exact recipe , then they came back and said what they cooked wasn't as good as mine so then i vac. packed every spice and even the coating and gave it to them ,again they said it wasn't as good as mine ...so i think my freinds just can't follow directions !!!! that or they are to dang lazy to cook it and just want me to do it for them ...lol
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That just might be the problem!! Hah!! :stop:
 
grumpyoldman said:
most people buy precut chicken at the market , most of these are unsuitable for frying because they are to big ( i have bought chicken breasts that look like they came off a turkey !!!) instead buy whole hens and cut them up yourself
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I've recently taken to using frozen chicken almost exclusively - except for some recipes that may need a whole bird. Fresh chicken has become so expensive around here it's ridiculous - this was sparked by a shortage of neighbouring Malaysia chickens resulting in an import ban to Singapore which caused prices to rocket (if you could even find it). Despite the ban being lifted some months ago, Malaysian chicken prices remain high (about USD $11-$15 a kilo!!!).

I can get frozen chicken imported from Brazil for $4.50 a kilo - $3 if it's on offer which it is quite often.

After having used it for quite a few months, I'm convinced there's no noticeable difference in taste or texture for the majority of applications - especially fried chicken where there's a ton of seasoning/coating and stuff goes in hot oil. It may matter for something more refined (such as some of those whole bird recipes I alluded to above such as Hainanese chicken rice).

Conclusion - you don't need the best most premium fresh chicken to make KFC-alikes (and I've made A LOT of those :) ),
 
grumpyoldman said:
never use a batter ( wet coating ) the reason i say this is this : you might get a crispy crust on the outside but the underside of the crust will be a soggy mess , never use an egg wash the reason i say this is that it just washes off the coating you just put on the chicken and at best you will get uneven clumps of crust , instead season your chicken while its still wet and coat it with a dry flour mixture and shake off any excess flour ,
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I agree - I'm absolutely not a fan of those buttermilk coatings that give a hard crunchy shell - that texture just dominates the whole bite and is a sponge for oil. I prefer as you say, a dry seasoned flour coating having just dipped the chicken in cold water prior. After all - that's how KFC do it! :)
 
vernplum said:
I agree - I'm absolutely not a fan of those buttermilk coatings that give a hard crunchy shell - that texture just dominates the whole bite and is a sponge for oil. I prefer as you say, a dry seasoned flour coating having just dipped the chicken in cold water prior. After all - that's how KFC do it! :)
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It is my understanding that buttermilk is used as a marinade in the US, not used to make a batter. There is something in buttermilk that makes it tenderize chicken.

Perhaps someone can add to this post.

CD
 
caseydog said:
It is my understanding that buttermilk is used as a marinade in the US, not used to make a batter. There is something in buttermilk that makes it tenderize chicken.

Perhaps someone can add to this post.

CD
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Yes - you're right - it's not a 'batter' in the same sense as say, a fish and chips 'batter', but taking Kenji's Buttermilk Brined Chicken as an example, while you are urged to let excess buttermilk (which is the brining liquid) drip off, it is still the adhesive in the equation that binds the coating to the meat and when that's fried up, then you get a batter-like shell (as opposed to a 'powder coat'). Another ingredient commonly seen in recipes like that is egg, which contributes to this result. KFC-alikes don't have either of these.

I suppose I assumed this is what grumpyoldman was referring to...
 
most recipes that call for an egg wash use it to help the flour stick to the chicken and many say to double dip the chicken meaning dip the chicken in the egg wash then flour it then repeat in order to try to give the chicken a thicker coat of flour ,
this simply doesn't work
chicken has gotten expensive so when you want to experiment just use 2-3 wings rather than chancing a whole batch of chicken , this way you can tinker with all kinda things such as spices , different oils , or whatever you like without breaking the bank
 
if any of you ever ate anything fried at a fast food joint ( mc donalds , wendys popeyes and such before the early 90s you have had food fried in beef tallow , public pressure about colestrol and such caused the big chains to switch to all vegatable oil but before then it was very common , its not the healthiest thing to cook with, but it does make a difference in the flavor of fried foods , i ''ll sneak it into my fryer every so often when the wife is not paying attention
and as soon as she tastes fries or something i cooked using it she knows ...lol i will use a 25/75 ratio
anyone else still use it ?
 
for many years i have been trying to copy "popeyes " fried chicken , i never got it quite right until this weekend ,and after all these years i nailed it to pure perfection !! i even told my wife in a strange way i was kinda sad for my quest to finally be over
the odd part of all this is that the recipe i came up with about 5 years ago is better than "popeyes" but i just could not let go of my goal to copy theirs , but now my quest is over the chicken experimints are all in the past, but still a bit sad to know the quest is over
 
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I'm going to make some fried chicken like what you'd see in the restarants, in THIS such as Popeye's. I'll marinate it in buttrmilk overnight, season it & make the flour crumbly so that it looks just like theirs & put it in a bun & eat it happily!! I bet that it'll taste really good!!! :whistling:
 
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i will tell you one thing "popeye's is NOT marinated in butter milk or any milk for that matter. but if thats what floats your boat ....do it
 
I've always soaked the chicken in buttermilk before frying. I've done it for years & years. :whistling:
 
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chicken is one of those things that seems easy to cook but isn't . of course evveryone can fry chicken , just not very well , and most time's they do the same thing over and over and expect a different result then they wonder why their chicken doesn't taste as good as the fast food joint down the street , the 1st thing anyone has to do is figure out how they want their chicken to taste ,2nd thing is to figure out how to do it , and that also means how to cook it , most people today simply won't take tthe time to learn how to cook chicken right
 
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