Earlier this year, March 15th’s Entry to be exact, marked my quest to reproduce John Bell’s Southern Fried Chicken. This is a specific piece of chicken I’m looking for. I can sharpen my own blades, when I’m not busy and I can fry chicken with the best of them. But I am unable to make fried chicken like John’s. This is the 3rd episode within a string of however many it takes to get it done. And brother, (or sister, sorry)I got darned close this time.
Here is John’s chicken. Notice the crusty craggies. Best ever.
Here is my chicken, Effort #3.
So far this is the closest I’ve been able to get. It’s crunchy and a few pieces had some craggy crust going in all different directions. But the breast portion wasn’t quite there, a little thin in the craggy department.
The thing that burns me is the fact John walked in to our house, my kitchen. He brought nothing with him. He used what I had, milk, eggs, flour & skinless chicken. Nothing else was used in the creation of this product. Ooooooooo.
In my last effort, #2, I did a wet/dry/wet/dry attack plus the old wet/dry. This equaled Failure.
In this attempt it was the dry/wet/dry/wet attack. During the last few months I had read that doing wet first screwed with the adhesion of the crust and I did remember the crust coming loose from the meat, not good. When your mouth chews through the pieces you don’t want to lose it. Especially if your crust tends to be quite crunchy, it’ll fly off in a few directions. Neat.
Since John used my electric deep fryer, that’s what I’ve been using. Not a shallow fry in a cast iron pan. Maybe some other time. I need to get this out of my craw first.
Note: All frying is done outside. This way the kitchen doesn’t smell of used oil for two days.
Anyway, I found that if I did the last dip wet it started doing that crazy lava like explosive crunchy crust. That wet egg mixture really dialed it in. Of course John swears he does wet/dry/wet/dry. Of course he does. I think he’d cop to anything at this point in time, I’m getting close and he can feel my breath on the back of his neck. This FRIED CHICKEN TECHNOLOGY WILL BE MINE !!!
As you can see, we had a wonderful meal that Friday evening. Juicy, crunchy and just fine, perfectly respectful fried chicken.
There was one little piece left over the next day, this chicken also tested fine as a cold snack.
Look out John, I’m uh comin’. I’ll gitcha’.
Xo Xo
You don’t think it has anything to do with being a “yankee”, do you?
heh
I’m not a Yankee, I’m a Norwegian Axe Murderer.
The FIRST thing to remember is that frying chicken is not an exact science. I know people who actually TIME the frying process (heaven forbid)! Its truly a ‘seat of the pants’ process…if you do it right.
Because of that first thing….the second thing to remember is the chicken doesn’t ALWAYS come out perfectly. MINE, yes. YOURS, probably not.
And you don’t have to hum “Dixie” or have an RC Cola in your hand. But it helps.
Here (I swear) is all I do:
Skin the chicken (my nod to “healthiness”). Dip FIRST in the milk/egg mixture. Then roll it around in the all-purpose flour. Then dip it BACK into the milk/egg mixture. Then roll it around in the flour, again. The milk makes the flour stick! Really!
Then drop that sucker into HOT grease. Keep doing that til the frier is overflowing.
Cook it til it looks done…then just a few minutes more. Remember to move the pieces around while cooking, because the ones at the bottom will cook faster.
Its THAT SIMPLE. Really. If it were difficult, I’d never make chicken.
Next time I’m there, I’ll make my wife’s meatloaf recipe. Or, if I can FIND it, the chili recipe that my dad stole from LBJ.
Oh, I wish I was in the land o’ cotton………
Well, see. That is what I watched you do. And yet, I cain’t do it. I’m more than willing to keep trying though. All in the name of getting your meat correct, that’s me.
I’m on it. I’ll eat some bran this week and see if I can’t get back to the chicken soon. The day after we had fried chicken I went through another loaf of pate. Oh well, what you gonna do.
No, no. The next time he’s here, have him make his wife’s fried shrimp recipe. Absolutely fantabulous! (Notice the fried theme?)
Hey, John
How many eggs in how much milk do you use? Do you beat or wisk the mixture . . . to barely blended, or smooth, or frothy?
What incantation do you use?
What about hush puppies? Or some kind of deep fried corn bread? What about that? HUH ???
And when? I need to get the boom boom room set up for a deep fry party.