The best fried chicken ever

OMG. The best fried chicken ever and it’s not my recipe.

I have suffered over making fried chicken. I have several Southern staples slap down. I can make a mean pie crust. I can fry catfish with the best of them. But fried chicken has always defeated me. To brine or not to brine? All-purpose flour or self-rising? I’ve tried both ways in both categories to no decent result. And the infamous direction in any fried chicken recipe: cook until done. What the hell does that mean? How do you know if it’s done?

So I was very anxious to try the recipe in Bon Appetit. The whole issue is on Southern food and the recipe promised this: “This is the only fried chicken recipe you’ll ever need.” Pretty boastful.

I am a big believer in following a recipe exactly the first time. And I did. And I learned some things. The first thing is that today’s chickens are too damn big. Fried chicken, as I learned in the article, began as a spring dish with young chickens. Small chickens. If you look at a package of chicken breasts in the supermarket today they’re the size of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s biceps. So I cut the breasts in half, as the article advised.

The second thing I learned is that you should flip the chicken every two minutes or so. You’d think after countless tries of making fried chicken and having one side turn out almost black I would have figured this out.

The third thing is about seasoning. I’ve wet brined chickens before and I always thought the texture of the meat became spongy. What the article says is to dry brine it. They don’t call it that because they’re probably worried they’d scare you off, but basically you just apply the seasonings the night before and rest the chicken in the fridge. Somehow the spices penetrate all the way to the bone. How do it know? My question always about mysterious processes I can’t understand. I don’t know how it knows. But it does.

Last, cook until done. Get an instant read probe thermometer. I’ve told you about this before, people. Twenty

Probe poked in chicken leg, checking the temp, which is at 122. Keep a going to 165.

bucks at Bed, Bath and Beyond. If I had to list the top five essential kitchen tools, this would be near the top of the list. The chicken is done when the thermometer reads 165 with the probe in the thickest part of the meat but not touching the bone. Actually, you can just go to 160 because the meat will continue to cook after you take it out of the pan, which naturally must be cast iron. Don’t make me come after you.

One thing I didn’t do in following the directions is get a deep-fat thermometer. Too cheap and I followed the old Southern rule of knowing when fat is hot enough to fry in: Stick the handle of a wooden spoon in the pan. If bubbles immediately (but not furiously) form around the handle, the fat is just right.

So I am giving major props to Bon Appetit (someone asked me the other day what “props” meant – Aretha Franklin, look it up) by not even putting the recipe here. Go to Bon Appetit for it. They deserve all the credit. Guess I should describe the end result. Shatteringly crispy skin. Deep flavor in the meat. Utterly juicy. What your grandmother probably made every Sunday. Not mine, but yours. I feel complete. I’m on top of the world. Master of the universe. I ate three pieces by myself. Bad mommy. But so good.

8 Comments

  1. elva thompson
    elva thompsonReply
    February 19, 2012 at 2:41 am

    The old folks used to call the process of seasoning meat , then allowing the seasoning to “work” , striking salt.My husband used to salt the Bostons Butts he was going to bar-b-q the next day so they could “strike salt”. Chicken can “strike salt” in 30 mins – 1 hour. By the way, never use iodized salt for this, just plain salt. Love your columns!

  2. the south in my mouth
    the south in my mouthReply
    February 19, 2012 at 4:15 am

    Love that term, striking salt. Will remember that. The recipe calls for kosher salt. Thanks for the wisdom!

  3. scribblerchickDee
    February 19, 2012 at 4:44 am

    My mother [Elva] learned to cook fried chicken the old-fashioned way – trial and error. She made fried chicken for years that looked good but tasted awful. Nobody ever told her to salt the chicken and let it sit in the salt for at least 30 minutes! unsalted chicken is godawful. Finally my grandmother figured it out and told her. Mamaw made the best fried chicken in the world, and she used an electric skillet, BTW.

    I make fried chicken a much easier way. I soak the chicken filets in ranch dressing, then dip it in panko bread crumbs and fry it up. Make a dipping sauce out of ranch dressing and fresh parmesan cheese. Yum.

  4. Mark
    MarkReply
    February 20, 2012 at 2:45 am

    In “Respect,” Aretha demanded that her man “Give me my propers when you get home.” In a 60 Minutes interview, Ed Bradley once asked Aretha, “What does that mean, give me my propers?”

    It was the only documented occasion when Aretha Franklin blushed on national TV.

  5. William
    WilliamReply
    January 9, 2013 at 2:42 am

    The best fried chekin on the world is in saudi arabia , its a resturant called AL-BAIK , i tried fried chekin in usa , brazil, uk, france, egypt, sudan, malysiya, japan, dubai and all over the world, AL-BAIK is the best, its only in Jeddah,Makkah and Madinah cities .

  6. Stu
    StuReply
    January 31, 2014 at 7:24 pm

    Nice recipe and the oil temp and cooking time is right for todays larger chicken pieces. I found a recipe close to this with a little more kick you may like-http://www.newstribune.com/news/2013/mar/27/burning-desire-hot-chicken-takes-over-nashville/

  7. Barbara
    BarbaraReply
    May 4, 2016 at 6:33 pm

    can’t wait to eat it

    • Catherine Mayhew
      Catherine MayhewReply
      May 15, 2016 at 3:56 pm

      Hope you enjoy!

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