Hello! This is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with my recipe
for Buttermilk Fried Chicken, one of my favorite recipes of all-time, and not
that hard to put together. And, uhh, just for fun, I'm gonna show
you how I break down a whole chicken, for fried chicken.
I'm gonna take off the wing tips, those are useless.
I'm gonna de-joint the wings right where they attach to the body.
Alright, the thigh, leg section comes off. Don't be afraid to snap, and dislocate.
And then that gets cut between the drumstick and thigh. Yes, this is quick,
but go back and watch it,
you know 7 or 8 times, you'll see.
So once the legs and thighs are done, i'm left with basically the carcass,
which has the backbone and the breast. You'll notice I'm using nice heavy cleaver,
the ultimate tool for a chicken breakdown. Snap the backbone like that.
Cut the breast in half,
and then each press gets cut in 2 pieces, you'll notice here when I cut the
breasts in half, I slice down till I hit the bone, and then I give it one
pound of my hand so it goes through in one shot, nice and clean.
Otherwise you get like bone fragments.
So there's my 4 breast pieces, my two thighs,
drum sticks,
and the two wings.
Alright, into the bowl it goes. Black pepper,
salt,
paprika,
dried herbs,
white pepper,
cayenne,
and that gets tossed.
all of the, believe it or not,
11 herbs and spices will be on the site.
Okay, after that's well tossed with the spices and herbs, you're
going to top it with buttermilk. And we're gonna let that sit for 6 hours.
You can get away with 4, you can go overnight if you want.
But I like 6 hours.
Alright, then we're gonna make some seasoned flour.
Which is just flour, salt,
some paprika,
some cayenne,
some garlic powder,
some white pepper,
and some onion powder.
so give it a mix.
After the buttermilk marinat-ion,
the chicken pieces get dredged,
oh my God, there's a fire truck going by,
hate when that happens.
The chicken gets dredged in that seasoned flour, well,
there you want it really nicely coated. Give it a little shake off,
put on a plate,
and we're ready to fry.
And what we're going to do,
and there's lots of different ways to fry this,
I'm gonna take a dutch oven,
alright that's a big 8-quart dutch oven,
and I have about two-and-a-half quarts of oil in there.
And I'm gonna fry all 8 pieces at once. Some people like to fry in a skillet,
in just like an inch or so of oil,
and then they do in batches, and they turn it halfway through.
You know, I don't have the patience, I want it to all be done at the same time.
Of course this uses twice the oil, but you know what, how often do you
fried chicken? Like once a year? So 350, I'm gonna cook that for
about 10 minutes, it's gonna develop a nice crust, I'm gonna go in after
10 minutes, and just move it around a little in case some pieces are stuck
together; I want to cook evenly.
That's going to go for about another 10 to 15 minute, so it's about
20 to 25 minutes total in the hot oil to cook all the way through.
Now while that's finishing up, I like to take a rack, and put it on some paper
towels on a sheet pan,
and that's what I'm gonna use to drain the cooked chicken on.
Alright, so that's ready.
and the chickens ready!
Look at that. Unbelievably beautiful.
So again, that's been about 20 to 25 minutes total in the oil.
I'm gonna fish it out with my spider, that little strainer thing you see there,
and what beautiful chicken!
Impossibly crispy, amazingly delicious. Don't bite into a for, about 10 minutes
cause it's so hot, and you won't enjoy it. You'll just burn yourself.
So 10 minutes later, we have a delicious plate or fried chicken, and I just could not
bring myself to eat this in front of you, but trust me,
it was every bit as good as it looks. That is not a hard recipe, it does take a
little bit of work, but really worth it. So, like I said, 11 herbs and spices,
believe it or not, was what was included in this,
you can go to the site, count them yourself, cause all the ingredients are
listed there. And as always,
enjoy!