In the south, fried chicken is like religion, and like religion everyone believes that their way is The One True Way. When Patrick requested it for his birthday I felt a twinge of terror. I’d never fried chicken before. I’d never deep fried anything before. So I did research, a lot of research. I read about fried chicken for days. And it seems I’m no different than everyone else because I have emerged from my chicken meditations, and I’m here to tell you that I have found the One True Fried Chicken. May it keep us always.
Speaking of chicken and religion, when my mother called to ask how the party went, she told me she actually prayed for my fried chicken to turn out well. Well, evidently the God of Chicken & Biscuits (a very prominent deity in this part of the country) heard her, because this is momma slappin’ chicken. That is to say it’s chicken that “tastes so good, it makes you wanna slap yo momma”. I give you Urban Dictionary’s break down for your edification:
1. Tastes so good, it makes you wanna slap yo momma
When you try some new food that tastes so delicious it makes you wonder “why can’t my mom cook this well?”. This thought makes you so angry that you feel like slapping your mom for feeding you mediocre food…
Kid 1: Yo dawg, I’m tired of eatin’ at home. My momma feeds me the same ol’ grilled cheese sandwich for lunch every-damn-day.
Kid 2: Don’t sweat it home slice. Why don’t you come on over to ma crib after school? I’ll make you to best PB & J sandwich you’ve eva tasted. Tastes so good, make you wanna slap yo momma!
Kid 1: Yeaaah boii!!
Always piping hot, succulent, and intensely flavorful (the meat as well as the breading), theirs is the only fried chicken in the world I’ve ever really cared for. I can honestly say I’ve never had fried chicken that was as juicy, tender, and well seasoned. And I lived a block from the famous Dunbar’s in New Orleans. And I’ve had fried chicken at Ad Hoc. Don’t get me wrong Dunbar’s was fantastic, and Ad Hoc’s fried chicken was delicious. The evening I ate at Ad Hoc I even saw the man himself, Chef Thomas Keller, walk through the dining room in a Giant’s baseball cap. I felt like a teenage girl in the 70’s catching a glimpse of David Cassidy. But still, neither experience lived up to Lamar’s. Maybe, I worried, Lamar’s fried chicken can’t exist outside the Chrystal Lounge. Maybe jazz, velvet wall paper, Christmas lights, and life ruining white Russians are essential ingredients in their fried chicken. Maybe you have to be young, drunk, and in the dark for fried chicken to taste that good. And if Dunbar’s & Keller couldn’t satisfy me, how could I ever hope to?
Well it turns out, thank the God of Chicken & Biscuits, that I could. I’m not claiming this is a replica of their chicken, only that I like it just as much. I knew for sure I was going to brine my chicken. But I also knew I wanted the chicken to sit in a “buttermilk bath”. So why not just create a buttermilk brine, I wondered? Most recipes I read used one or the other. Well, at first I feared that the dual action of the acid, enzymes, and calcium in the buttermilk along with the tenderizing effects of salt penetrating the meat via osmosis would render my meat mushy. So I kept reading.
It seemed that, while less common than you would think, people do brine their chicken in buttermilk and it doesn’t make it mushy. So, I was set. I consulted Keller’s recipe and created a brine using his approximate ratios for liquid, salt, and honey with my own flavorings, and after reading his recipe along with countless others I decided I would also “dredge, dip, dredge” in flour and buttermilk prior to deep frying at around 325° F in an enameled cast iron dutch oven. I’d also read that baking powder and cornstarch in your dredging flour led to an extra crispy coating, and that nutmeg was cited as a “secret ingredient”. I love nutmeg, so I was sold on that idea, and I decided to use unbleached all-purpose flour plus a teaspoon of baking powder and a tablespoon of cornstarch per cup as my dredging base. Lastly, I’d read in The Pioneer Woman’s recipe and in others that mixing the final dredging flour with a bit of buttermilk till “shaggy” led to a nice coating on the chicken. I found this naturally occurred in the second dredging dish as I dredge, dipped in buttermilk, and dredged again. I think when doing so much chicken (I did a double recipe) it would have gotten too clumpy if I’d added buttermilk beforehand. I might add a tablespoon or two if I were doing less.
Because I was cooking a double recipe for a group and also due to the fact that I had rather large chickens that I’d gotten from Hoe Hop Valley Farm at the Main Street market, I knew I wanted to hold and/or finish my chicken in the oven. I was worried this would result in a soggy exterior. It did not. I will say that detail is not my ideal. Ideally the chicken would be cooked through in the oil, rest on a rack over paper towels for about ten minutes and be served immediately thereafter. But on this point I had to compromise. Michael Ruhlman said it was okay, so obviously it’s okay. The Pioneer Woman, Ree, also says it’s okay. The benefit of finishing in the oven is that you can pull your chicken out of the oil at its golden peak and then finish it without having to worry about overcooking the exterior or undercooking the interior. Also, there’s the obvious benefit of being able to serve it when you want and keep 16 pieces of fried chicken hot. So, conceptually I had in my head the blueprints for perfect buttermilk brined fried chicken for a crowd. But as you know, cooking is something learned by doing and all the reading in the world can’t guarantee a successful result. You just have to do it and use your intuition & five senses along the way.
When I wrote about my first layer cake experiment, I mentioned that I, up until this year, had a pension for celebrating birthdays with “death knells and banshee wails” not things like cake baking & dinner parties. That wasn’t to imply that birthdays bothered me, that aging was some terrible fate that I lamented. I was feeling far too youthfully immortal to concern myself with the inevitable march of time. Instead it was to say that my particular brand of celebration was a brutally wild sort. Now things are different, more civilized. It’s a novel, calm reality that has settled on me softly this past year like waking up in your own bed after a terrifying dream. In contrast to years past, we celebrated his 26th with a small dinner party of his closest friends replete with tea lights in mason jars, tiny vases of Crayola colored flowers, and a large pitcher of hibiscus honey iced tea. As per his request I made buttermilk biscuits, potlikker kale, and a salad of vine ripened local tomatoes with Bonnie Blue herbed goat cheese, basil from my porch garden, and fleur de sel. For dessert he requested bittersweet spicy chocolate soufflé (better and far easier than cake for me!) with homemade Lapsang Souchong ice cream. And, of course, there was buttermilk fried chicken.
Buttermilk Brined Southern Fried Chicken
serves 4-6
Ingredients
8 pieces of chicken (I cut up whole chickens from Hoe Hop Valley farm, and used the breasts, legs, and thighs. I also cut the breasts in half horizontally because they were large)
Brine
1 quart buttermilk (I used Cruze Farm’s, if you can get it, I recommend it)
Coating
Directions
As for the recipes for the potlikker greens, spicy chocolate soufflés, and ice cream…. they will be posted in the future!
I would love to get my hands on this! It looks fantastic.
Every household loves fried chicken…The pictures kept me craving. Yum!
beautiful pictures and delicious chicken
Great looking recipe and what a cool birthday gift!
found your blog googling around for lapsang souchong ice cream ideas. your photography is beautiful and this sounds like a dream meal at a dream party–also, what a perf birthday gift. happy to have found you!
This looks fantastic. I started the chicken brining tonight for the picnic tomorrow!
Reporting back in, you have made me a hero. Everyone says this is, without question or exaggeration, the best fried chicken they have ever had. I eventually printed out a sheet with the URL for this page printed on it 20 times, hopefully you’ll get lots of traffic from it. There weren’t any strips (or chicken!) left at the end of the day.
I live pretty much on the Mason Dixon line, and people from both sides thought this was slap-yo-momma good. Thank you so much for figuring it all out and sharing the recipe!
That is excellent to hear!! Really, I cannot tell you how much that excites me. It’s one thing to have a recipe work for you but real success is knowing it works for other people! And that all my “fried chicken research” stands justified. Again, so glad you liked it… it’s a crowd pleaser!
Hi, I live in New Zealand and can’t source the following ingredients. Could you please suggest some generic substitutions for them?
Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning
Frank’s Hot Sauce (or other vinegar based hot sauce)
Sriracha hot sauce
Thank you very much.
Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning
Recipe By : Tony Chachere
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :
Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
26 ounces salt
1 1/2 ounces black pepper — ground
2 ounces red pepper — ground
1 ounce garlic powder — pure
1 ounce chili powder
1 ounce Monosodium glutamate — (Accent)
As to the vinegar based hot sauce, I’m sure there are 100’s of recipes on google for homemade ones. Here’s a NYT recipe: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/diy-hot-sauce/
Sriracha is a chili garlic sauce. Here’s a d.i.y. method: http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/do-it-yourself/2011/10/how-to-make-sriracha/
If you don’t feel like going through the trouble, the chicken will still be good with it omitted.
This. Was. Amazing. My boyfriend and I made it for some friends, and it was generally agreed that this fried chicken kicked some substantial ass; all of your research totally paid off!
Absolutely divine!
“Butter my biscuits!” Great recipe; even better story to accompany! Can you also tell me what type camera you’re using and any additional equipment (lighting? light umbrella? etc.); photos are beautiful! I do quite a bit of food photography and always somewhat disappointed with depth of field, contrast, color intensity and focus even though using a relatively high end digital camera. Maybe I’m having a basic equipment issue…never had problems with a “real” SLR!
Thanks!
I use an old Canon Rebel XTI DSLR, a hand me down from my dad. I don’t use any additional equipment and only shoot in natural light. Sometimes I use a white foam board or poster board as a reflector, but not in these photos. Do you do post processing on your photos? If not, you might be able to achieve what you’re looking for there.
This facebook page is using your photo and recipe with no credit given to you:( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=277001929099048&set=a.187968631335712.45028.187938204672088&type=1&theater
Your image is being used without giving you credit!!!!!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=277001929099048&set=pb.187938204672088.-2207520000.1364338347&type=3&theater
You did the same research I did on the brining issue, glad I found your recipe!! I wanted to know how long do you put the chicken in the oven and what temp if the chicken isn’t cooked through? Thanks!
Put it in the oven at 350° for ten minutes and then check the internal temp again if it isn’t cooked through after frying. Though if the chicken is room temp and your frying oil is kept between 310°-325°F you should be able to cook it through in the oil without it getting too dark on the outside unless they are exceptionally large pieces of chicken.
Can’t wait to try the recipe and love the story. Just a little “tip/fyi”….in the paragraph where you reference birthdays it should be “penchant” not “pension”. No offense intended, I would want someone to tell me so I thought I would say something.
Plan on getting some chicken from the farmers market today & making this tomorrow. Loved reading your thoughts on fried chicken, especially to the tune provided by Lamar’s Bar & Restaurant’s website…seriously, it’s good.
Wanted to make this for Christmas Eve and being a Yankee I am clueless to the whole fried chicken following. Sadly. So I am trusting your research and skill implicitly. My question is regarding all the heat you give this chicken, we are feeding quite a few young palates (ages 2-9). Does this chicken have a kick and will omitting some of the spices hurt the overall taste?
I can’t find the recipe for dream biscuits pictured at the bottom. Can you help please?!
So happy to get the chicken fried recipe because I like so much
Hey the recipe liiks amazing but i have a question: if i want to make a Kosher version what can i replace the buttermilk with??
I don’t know much about what is and isn’t kosher, so I can’t tell you. The creamy, tanginess is what you’re after. So maybe something with lemon juice added.
Could a person who has to be gluten free use rice flour or GF all purpose flour instead of regular flour?
I’ve been following your blog for a few years now- although not since 2012 (I found this recipe in your archives), and I’m a huge fan. I’ve made several of your recipes with great success, and a lot of praise from my roommates.
I made this fried chicken for my dad on Father’s Day, after remembering him say he never liked eating any fried chicken besides his mother’s. My grandma unfortunately never wrote down any recipes, and resorted healthier version (probably omitting the Crisco) after a heart attack in the 90s, so the fried chicken he ate as a child has probably been lost forever…I digress. Reading through your distinctly Southern recipe, though, I had a feeling this one might rival my grandma’s. Just like you, I’d never fried chicken, or really anything else, before, so I was quite nervous about how it would turn out. But sure enough, after several pieces of chicken (and some of your sky-high biscuits), my dad comments “you know, I think this chicken is about as good as grandma Alma’s”. 🙂 So much a good cooking and good food is about creating (and recreating) memories. Thank you again for this great recipe!
Just made this and it was a hit. Thank you. As a side note, I looked up Lamar’s as I’m only a couple hours away in Murfreesboro and apparently early this year it closed mysteriously. Do you know anything about it?
Hi I just wanted to let you know, chicken is supposed to reach 165 F for safe consumption. Letting it rest after finishing in the oven should bring it up through carryover cooking but if someone is going to eat it right away they should make sure it reaches 165 degrees internally.