BUTTERMILK FRIED CHICKEN (ad hoc at home p. 16)
I had to scale down this recipe as I live alone and am not about to fry 2 chickens’ worth of parts. I simply used 3 boneless skinless breasts since that’s what I had on hand. You make a brine of water, halved lemons, fresh parsley, fresh thyme, honey garlic, black peppercorns and kosher salt. Bring the brine to a boil, let cool, refrigerate, and then put your chicken parts in it. Keller says 12 hours is the max for brining or the chicken will become too salty.
Before frying remove chicken from the brine, rinse, and pat dry. Let come up to room temperature. Then you mix up flour with some other seasonings (onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne, salt, pepper). Dredge chicken in the flour mixture, then coat with buttermilk, dredge in flour mixture again and finally fry in peanut or canola oil.
I wound up brining the chicken for closer to 24 hours rather than the 12 hours that TK calls for. I agree that it did make the chicken pretty salty. I LOVED how lemony it was though. I’d do a long brine with less salt in the future. It was tough for me to wait until the canola oil got good and hot before starting to fry. I was sure at any moment I was going to burn the apartment down. In the end the chicken was golden brown, juicy, and very flavorful if a bit too salty. I wouldn’t share it with anyone but I also won’t throw it out. It is good. Lesson learned about the balance between salt and brining time ratio.
I’ve never had success with any of my other fried chicken attempts. This one is a winner.