Fried Chicken Quest: Day 2

A little late on the update, but here it is anyway.  I'll save you the suspense and just flat-out tell you that it was pretty good - not perfect.  One thing to mention - brining was definitely worth it.  Also, not as big as a pain in the ass as I expected.  I used a big pasta pot to make the brine, let it cool and tossed all the chicken in the pot and shoved the whole thing in the fridge.  Easy.  One little thing, Thomas Keller's brine recipe calls for 12ish cloves of garlic, which I obliged but in hindsight it was too much.  Fried chicken is supposed to be simple, the garlic and herbs tasted...unnecessary.  If that makes sense.

Coated chicken resting - you're supposed to let it get pasty to get a good crust.  In theory.

Anyway, so the big problem I had last time - bland chicken - solved.  Of course, this time the breading was really tough, which is strange, because I used the exact same recipe and technique from the last batch, and that batch was better.  After the chicken rested (we took it to Rena and Ben's for dinner) the breading softened, which solved the toughness but of course, there goes lost the crisp coating.  Sigh.

Bubbly.

I was more than a bit tempted to give up (disposing of all that oil sucks) and leave the chicken frying to the kindly folks at KFC, but I think I'll give it another shot.  Maybe fry it at a higher temperature and then finish it off in the oven.  Suggestions?

For all my bitching it was pretty good. 

Hope you all had a Happy 4th!