Saturday, July 3, 2010

Fried Chicken Quest


I just finished a book, "Cloud Chamber" by Michael Dorris.  It was awesome, for the record. There is a great chapter near the end where the characters essentially take over a KFC in Montana and make homemade fried chicken for the unsuspecting, and extremely lucky masses.  When my friends Rena and Ben asked if Mike and I wanted to do a bike tour/picnic on the 4th of July, I was all over making the fried chicken.

I'm not huge on frying food, but this isn't the first time I've made fried chicken, nor the second.  That was a little over a month ago.  It turned out ok, but I thought the chicken itself was bland.  Then I remembered a recipe I read a long time ago for "Thomas Keller's BEST Fried Chicken", recalling thinking "well, no shit it's awesome" when I read the recipe: first he first brines the chicken, then soaks it in buttermilk.  Each step gets a good 8-12 hours.  Geez. The rest is pretty much the standard flour/paprika/s&p dredging.  I thought that was pretty intensive, but considering the previous batch results, I've reconsidered.  So, here's my attempt at TK's Giant Pain In The Ass Fried Chicken: Day 1.

Check out this brine:


Rosemary, thyme, garlic, peppercorns, sugar, salt, and bay leaves from Carol's trees in CA - almost out of those.  Think it's time for another trip west.

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