Pan Fried Southern Chicken

I found some delicious chicken drumsticks on sale. I was wondering what I could do with them. Ordinarily, I would make Malu's Chicken Curry out of drumsticks, but I wanted to try something else.

We don't have television in our house, but when I was home for Thanksgiving a few years back, I watched the Food Network. Alton Brown had a show about Southern Fried Chicken, which looked absolutely delicious! I kept that stored in the back of my head.

When I saw the drumsticks, that memory came back and I decided I was going to make fried chicken!

Now, I tried making fried chicken once before, about a year ago. It was a disaster! I burned my hand with the hot oil (ouch!), the chicken turned out burned on the outside and raw on the inside. I had to decrease the temperature of the oil to compensate, and leave the chicken in longer. In the end, we ended up going to Church's Chicken for dinner. It was a bitter defeat!

So, I licked my wounds and buried my desire for fried chicken deep within me. A few months ago for work, I went to New Orleans and Atlanta and had my fill of southern cuisine. They really know how to fry chicken in the south! A few months passed, and my desire for homemade fried chicken grew once again. I decided to step into those waters again, but this time, I would not be defeated!

I went to YouTube and found the episode of Good Eats with Alton Brown about the fried chicken. I watched it maybe 3 or 4 times...Its not a terribly complicated recipe, but it does require strict protocols being followed. Don't skip any steps or skimp on equipment! You can find his recipe on The Food Network.

Special Equipment
3 plastic rectangle containers for marinating and dredging
You will need one container to marinate the chicken in buttermilk. You will need a second to roll the chicken in spices and a third to roll the chicken in flour.


A colander 
You will need this to drain excess buttermilk off the chicken.


A good cast iron skillet
This is key, as teflon coated pans are too thin and don't distribute the heat evenly. I was tempted to use my trusty wok, which I have fried wontons and other lovelies, but the round bottom of the wok prevents the chicken from getting the nice brown spots on it. Go classic and you can't go wrong!

An oil splatter screen
A fryers best friend! You are going to be putting cold chicken in hot oil. Oil will spatter. If you don't want to visit your local hospital's burn unit or spend the rest of the week cleaning up cleaning up oil from every surface in the kitchen, invest in an oil splatter screen. I got a set of 3 from Bath Bed and Beyond for $9.

2 cookie cooling racks
You will need the chicken to rest twice during this process: once after its flour dredging and once after you fry it. When I was in college, some of my roommates would make fried chicken and put it in a paper bag afterwards to eliminate the excess oil. The problem was that the hot oil would stick to the paper bag and some of the tasty skin would peel off! What a waste!

I only had 1 cookie cooling rack. So, I used the rack from my toaster oven as my second rack. It was smaller, so I used it to place the fried chicken on it.

Meat Thermometer
This is a "nice to have" item for measuring the temperature of the oil and the internal temperature of the chicken. When I was frying my chicken, I didn't have one, so I had to just to "eyeball" it. For the oil, that was not so difficult, but for the chicken is it really hard. In the end, I had to cut into the chicken with a knife to confirm that it was cooked thoroughly. Ironically, I got a meat thermometer for a wedding present the next day!

3 sets of tongs
You will need two for handling the raw chicken and one for handling the cooked chicken. Salmonella is a very serious concern when dealing with any chicken recipe, and especially so when you are dealing with fried chicken. If they are metal tongs, be sure there is some sort of heat protection on them, as they will conduct heat as you put them in the oil. I only had one set of tongs, so I used my trusty ryoribashi-super long Japanese chopsticks used specifically for frying tempura and other lovelies. I used the ryoribashi with the raw chicken and the metal thongs for the cooked fried chicken.

A paper paint bucket 
This is a "nice to have" item. I didn't have one so I stored my fried chicken in a plastic container. The paper bucket will absorb some of the excess oil on the chicken. You can pick them up at any paint store or hardware store.

Cristco or vegetable shortening
This recipe calls for vegetable shortening instead of vegetable oil to fry with. When I had made the chicken previously, I ignored it and went with vegetable oil. It didn't work out right. I think it is because of the difference in frying temperature between the two. Stick with the recipe and vegetable shortening.

Ingredients
1 broiler chicken, cut into 8 pieces (or 8 chicken wings, drumsticks, or breasts). I just had 8 drumsticks
2 cups lowfat buttermilk
1 tablespoon kosher salt (Alton Brown's recipe calls for 2 but I found it too salty for my taste)
2 tablespoons Paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon Ras El Hanout or cayenne pepper
Flour
Cristco or other vegetable shortening (around 10 spoonfuls)

Procedure
Place the chicken in a plastic container. Cover with buttermilk. Cover and refrigerate for 12-24 hours. Turn it once during that time to ensure it coats evenly. I went for the full 24 hours, and I think it made a big difference.

Remove the chicken from the refrigerator after the allotted time period and set aside. You don't want the chicken super cold when you fry it. By leaving it out for 10-20 minutes as you prepare everything else, it will slowly come up to temperature.

Set up your stations.

From right to left: Spice rub station with tongs, Flour dredging station with ryoribashi, Resting station with grilling tongs, and Frying station with cast iron skillet and oil splatter screen

Station 1: Chicken drain
I make station 1 in the sink. My sink has 2 compartments. Place a colander in one compartment. Pour the chicken and the buttermilk into the colander and let it drain. Take the dirty plastic container (with all of its raw juices) and place in the second sink compartment for washing later on.

Station 2: Spice rub
Combine the salt, paprika, garlic powder, Ras El Hanout (or cayenne pepper) and mix in one of the plastic containers.

Station 3: Dredging
Pour flour into a plastic bin for dredging. Place to the left of the spice rub container.

Station 4: Resting station
Take a cookie sheet with a cooling rack and place it to the left of the dredging station.

Station 5: Frying Station
Use your cast iron skillet with Cristco

Station 6: Fried Chicken draining station
Take another cookie sheet with a cooling rack and place it to the left of the frying pan. This will be for the chicken after its fried. This will allow the chicken to cook while it is out of the oil, and allow the chicken to cool so you can eat it!

Directions
Place the chicken in a plastic container and cover with buttermilk. Cover and refrigerate for 12-24 hours (24 hours is better).

Station 1: Chicken drain
With a pair of thongs, remove all of the chicken and place in the colander in station 1. Let any excess buttermilk drain off into the sink.











Station 2: Spice rub
Using the same pair of thongs, transfer one piece of chicken at a time to the spice rub at station 2.

Gently roll the chicken so it is completely covered in the spice rub.

At this time, melt shortening on low heat. You will need the melted shortening to come up to 1/3 inch up the side of a 12 inch cast iron skillet (I used 10 spoonfuls of Cristco). Once the shortening has melted, increase heat till it comes to 325 F. Do not allow the heat to come above 325--the shortening will break down chemically and taste bad. Check the temperature of the shortening regularly with a thermometer. Do not allow the temperature to exceed 325 F.





Station 3: Flour Dredging
With a second pair of thongs or chopsticks, transfer the chicken to station 3: flour dredging. Again, gently roll the chicken so it is completely covered with the flour. If you have a container with a lid, you can put the chicken in, close the cover, and give it a good shake. This is an important step-if you reversed these steps (flour then spices), the spices would burn, give the oil the wrong flavor and eventually burn your oil. I used a spoon to sprinkle flour on the hard to reach places of the chicken.



Station 4: Resting
Remove the chicken from the flour dredge and place on a cookie cooking sheet. Give it a good tap or two to remove any excess loose flour--that will easily fall off and start to burn your oil. Let the chicken rest for 2-3 minutes.

Station 5: Frying Station
Once your oil is hot enough (325 F), gently add the chicken. The center of the pan will be the hottest, and the outer circumference will be slightly cooler. If you have a variety of chicken pieces (breasts, drumsticks, wings, thighs), place the chicken thigh in the center, and the drumsticks around the circumference. If you have all the same pieces, spread them around the circumference of the pan at 11am, 1pm, 5pm and 7pm and one in the center. Keep in mind the one in the center will cook faster.

Be careful as you are adding the chicken to the hot oil-Gently and carefully add one piece of chicken at a time. You might get some oil sputtering and you don't want any oil spilling out of the pan. I used my oil spatter screen as a shield from the oil. I had a friend who burned their foot really bad because they added the chicken haphazardly and it splattered on their bare foot. Ouch!

Place the oil splatter over the pan and cook until golden brown on each side, around 10-12 minutes. After 10 minutes on one side, check it with your meat thermometer. The internal temperature of the chicken must be around 180 degrees. The meat should have a nice browning on the side that was in the oil, a dark reddish hue, like in the picture below:

Station 6: Fried Chicken draining and cooling station


With a separate clean pair of thongs, remove the cooked, fried chicken from the oil and place on another cookie cooling sheet. Be sure that there is parchment paper or something to collect the excess oil and fried crumbs that will fall off.

Allow the chicken to cool before eating. I had mine about 10 minutes after frying--I couldn't help myself. It was still super hot, but tasty!





Fried Chicken also is great cold! Store in a paper paint bucket or plastic container.

After you are done frying the chicken, remove the oil from heat and let it cool slightly. Once the oil has cooled, but not turned solid, carefully strain the oil and put into a glass container. Alternatively, let the oil cool overnight. The next day, put in on a burner and gently heat, until it melts. Then strain and store in a glass container. Use it later for different dishes...the grease is great for cooking eggs with.

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