Fried Chicken

about one of our favorite food groups. I mean, every culture has fried chicken, a version of a fried chicken. I mean, what could be better? Hot oil, a great batter, and fried away fried chicken. Everybody, Yes, let's get it. We're making some fried chicken. Make some fried chicken, and I'm gonna use chicken thighs. Well, we can use the whole chicken obviously, but I just want to make some

chicken th today. So basically what I'm doing is I have, if you notice, I have this in some buttermilk chicken and yeah, and some buttermilk and some buttermilk, and then I'm going to make a dredge mixture of some all purpose flour some coin starch, which helps to make it crispy, and then I'm gonna put some panco bread comes in here as well for some texture. All of that gets seasoned.

Let's see what we got here. I'm gonna use some garlic powder, granulated garlic rather, and maybe some fennel seed. How does that sound sound great? And a little how about some tumoric too. The tumork is not going to give it a ton of flavor, but it's gonna make it a cool color. Just a little bit of tumeric. You like that deal? Yeah? Um, I use this when I make my fried chicken sandwiches for Bobby's burgers. Little fennel seed, granulated garlic, and then some salt and pepper,

and I think maybe some paprika as well. What do you think about that? Sounds really good? Fried chicken? Well, I mean fried chicken is um it's one of the great things on earth. Yep. It's crispy, it's chicken fried, it's very crevable. It's so it's so good. But you know, when uh, when I think of fried chicken, the first thing I think it was sort of Southern fried chicken, you know, usually has it's very simple, you know something.

Maybe it's maybe soaked in buttermilk. It's then you know, then there's a flower dredge and thrown in some some hot oil and fried. And that's basically, you know, the very basic, you know, fried chicken. But and there's different there's different styles of fried chicken all over the South, of course, and then there's different styles of fried chicken all over the United States based on the region. But there's also in my opinion, every culture in the world

has a version of a chicken that's fried. So I'm gonna just talk to you a little bit about I have a a method of cooking fried chicken that you know, it might be looked down upon by fried chicken aficionados. And there's a couple of different ways of fried chicken. You can deep fried chicken, of course, you can also shallow fried chicken or skill it fried chicken like in a cast iron pant, where it's like shallow oil, so it's like it's just coming up halfway up the chicken.

So you're basically frying one side at a time. I mean, deep fried seems to be more evenly cooked, and it keeps and and the it keeps the chicken the shape of the chicken when you skill it fried chicken. Sometimes it gets flatter depending on the cut. You know, there's all kinds of decisions you have to make. Are you going to use skin on, bone in? Are you going to use the you know, all pieces of the chicken, or you're just gonna use thighs, A you're just gonna

use breast. Is it gonna be boneless chicken? I mean, there's a lot of different ways you could go, and every one of those decisions changes you're cooking time and technique and method. It just does. And so one of the things that I like to do is cut up, cut up a whole chicken into like like eight pieces. So the breast has two pieces, bone in, skin on, the thighs are their own two pieces, So that's two for that's six, and then the legs and the chicken

legs that's eight. If you want to throw the wings in there, obviously that makes sense to maybe Now you're a tent. So then I soak it in buttermilk. And then here's the crazy part. I After I soak it in buttermilk, I take most of the excess of with the butter milk off and I put it on the sheet tray. And I just cover it with a little bit of foil and I put it in the oven and I basically almost kind of steam baked the chicken until it's about three quarters of the way done. That's interesting,

it's a little unorthodox. And then I and then I take my dredge so it could be a mixture of flour and corn starch and some I use. I let to use panco bread crumbs because it gives them a nice texture. And then some seasonings, so like granulated garlic, grandulate onion, some paprika. Maybe you can put some cayenne if you want to make it spicy. Sometimes I put some tumeric in there to give it this sort of

like golden color. It's up to you. But the most important thing is this is this kind of crazy technique that I do that I cook it re quarters of the way before I fry it. And really what I'm doing there, yes, really what I'm doing. And then I lit a cool and really what I'm doing there is I'm guaranteeing one thing. I'm guaranteeing that the chicken is going to be cooked properly inside. Is this what you do with Bobby's No, because that's just a chicken breast sandwich,

different meat. Yeah, that it just goes quicker. This is this is bony skin on Okay, like what used to serve when you serve it at b A. It's one of the like fried chicken is one of these things that we think of as a very simple dish that could that executed. Getting the execution right is very difficult. Look, there's two things that have to happen. You wanted crispy and golden brown. Golden crispy outside, it's key to fried chicken.

But it has to be cooked perfectly inside. Getting that temperature right is not as easy as saying, oh, put it into three six or three seventy or whatever whatever it is. There's too many variables. The variables are how much oil do you have the pan? How which pan are you using, how high is the oil? How big is the chicken? Yeah, no, that's what I was saying. Think about how thick is your dredging, your battery. There's

a lot going on too, variables. So what I'm saying is like kind of like taking advantage making it make it a little easier and so and so what I like to and this way it doesn't fry as long too.

So all I'm doing is I turn the heat up a little bit more on the fryer so that I get a crispier result, a crispier and it's actually a lighter result because I don't overdo it, because I don't want to cook too much longer in the in the oil, because I'm three quarters of the way there before I start, So I just I get it has a very lights almost stealth like crust on the outside, and then I throw it into the fryer, into the into the hot oil, and then all I'm looking for is crispy, golden brown.

I know that the inside will be cooked. Right. What do you think? What do you think about that? I think it's smart. I think that's a good idea. And I'm going to cook in a canoe oil chicken self. You've got some canola oil going on the stove, of course, sat from pepper, so we mix this up so the oil should be about three sixty degrees something like that. Okay, So I'm gonna take the chicken out, put it in

the dredge. And what I do is I just take a little bit more of the butter milk, and I wet it after I dredge it, so that it's one of these moves that it's hard to even talk about, like in a recipe book, because you just want to just kind of like throw a little dash of the buttered milk back in there so that it creates these like crevices. Is frying, definitely frying. You know, the more chicken you put in there and the oil, the more it's going to cool down that oil. So you don't

want to overfill it. Got it smells really good. Well, that's the garlic and all the spices I put it there. Do I Fried chicken, My gosh, I love frid chicken. Chicken, Fried chicken sandwiches my favorite. I was kind of smiling before because for some reason, I feel like I remember there being like an iconic episode of throw Down and Fried Chicken. Oh it's Sarah Toga and I is it And I just looked it up, and like the whole episode is on YouTube and you just look so young

in this. Okay, we're not talking about that, Sophie. I know, well I looked at the Fried Chicken episode and you look like a baby. What do you is that fifteen years ago? I don't it doesn't say when it originally aired. That was swearing a lot of makeup. That was in sara Toga Springs, New York. Did you win? That's Hattie's Fried Chicken the Best. Well, Hattie's there there. I actually I never met her, but I think I actually saw Hattie. I think she was like, you know, in a in

an advanced aged eighties early night. I can't remember how old she was when she passed away. But Hattie was a woman in Saratoga Springs, and uh, you know, we go to Saratoga every year. It's where the best thoroughbred racing is. It's only for six months, six weeks a year, and there's a place called Hattie's. Hattie doesn't. She's not around anymore. But and the I think he used to be called Hattie's Chicken Hatch originally. And then this family

bought it. This is the second or third family since Hattie had passed away that has owned it. And basically you buy the place and you get the recipe, and uh, his name is Justin. He's the chef, and uh he beat me with Hattie's recipe. I was happy to lose, like because you know, it is so good, so so good. But like you know that place it's it's it's Southern fried chicken, you know, but it's upstate New York. But everybody,

everybody goes there for the fried chicken so good. Um. So you know, then there's all kinds of other fried chicken. Like I was looking at there's a Mexican style fried fried chicken. A recipe name a recipe from this woman named Patti Hinitch, who who is an amazing Mixic Mexican cook. She's judged b Bobby Flay a bunch of times. She's

so good. She's so knowledgeable. You know. They put like chili the arball and Wahio chili is like in the in the in the in with the buttermilk, so it gets that red chili flavor and then they fry it. You know, something like that's good. You know, Korean fried chicken has like just become a phenomenon. I love Korean fried chicken. I ate so much Korean fried chicken in Korea. Yeah, kore fried chicken and beer. You know that they had that koji jong ingredients red pepper, Korean red pepper that

is just so good. And it's like you know, and they make like some kind of glaze with it to put on the chicken. Love that I used to make bluecorn fried chicken a lot. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, bluecoin meal with flour. The problem with corn meal and fried chicken is that it breaks up. It's sort of it's sort of crackles a little too much. So it's it really is mostly flour and then a little corn meal is really the way to do it, you know. So that's sort of a Southwestern version of of of

of fried chicken. Um. I went to Bone Appetite site and they had like a bunch a list of like their favorite fried chicken recipes, so I want me to give you a few. So one of them is a glaze fried chicken with old Bay and I can't remind writing lemon. I think it says len. Also old Bay seasoning is that Baltimore, that Maryland, that Baltimore Maryland season

and that they put on crabs. So it's got like, you know, paprika and black pepper and garlic, an onion and proprietary so exactly what's in it, but you know it's it's it's it's got celery seed of some sort and for sure, definitely so so good there's a there's another one. This one sounds really good. Garlic and ginger fried chicken. So fresh garl like fresh ginger, or you know, you just crush a bunch of it. Put it, you know, in with the chicken. Chicken. Let it marinade. So good.

That sounds delicious. Yea five spice fried chicken. So Chinese five spice? You know, so we have like star a nis in it and other ingredients for other ingredients. What's what's Chinese five spice? I don't know. Look it up. Let me look it up. Um, you know. And here's one that here's something that a lot of people do instead of instead of buttermilk, they they soaked the chicken before they dredge it and pickle brine. So like you

have your pickled jar. Look at your pickle jar and your refrigerator right now, everybody, go to your refrigerator right now. Look at your pickle jar that's half empty and you have all this pickling liquid. Do not throw that out. That is such a good thing to use. You can marrinate your chicken in it. I love it for potato salad. You make really good potatoes. Use it in my potatoes. You make messed up good potato salad. I'm glad to hear that. Hear that, well, I hear that that's not

a fake podcast. Sound those are frying chicken, That is Carisby. I would often to make you friad chicken sailing, but I don't have any cole slaw. It is imperative. How many is this in here? Well, it's a great questions. You have to remember like this, These these don't even have bones in them. They're they're boneless chicken thighs. You and I are chicken by freaks. We love it freaks. Yeah,

we love chicken thighes. So listen, So what do you think the two most important things about frying chicken on and you're frying it, um, the temperature of the oil. Well, I'm saying in terms of the chicken itself, what are you looking for the crispinus while you're looking for crispy and golden brown on the outside. So it's got to be cooked through. Oh yeah, of course it's not an easy feet yes, you know. I mean it's it's really easy to kind of overcook the chicken on the outside, yea,

on the inside, you know. So it's like that's why the temperature is really kay. Come, these are looking pretty golden brown. That was great, dad, I love fried chicken. Okay, these have been frying for about eight nine minutes. Yeah, we'll take him out. You can put it either on a rack or at least some paper towels, and then a little salt and pettle on top. Always. Yeah, you can see the oil is like yellow. Yeah. And then what I do is I take chicken. I put some

of this spicy honey on top. Pretty little vest that's so pretty. Get the fork. I'm so excited. I'm more scited about this than you're Pettie Burger crispy. That is so good. Yeah, the honey is so important. I agree from my childhood, it's like, you know, you have like fried chicken with honey. Do you ever have the Popeyes fried chicken sandwich? Have you? Like? Here's better? Do? I absolutely? Then, of course this thing is like taken awful across the country.

But Nashville hot fried chicken and this recipe the six tablespoons of cayenne pepper. Let me just say something, WHOA during my years of throwdown, this is a long time ago. Now, we went to Nashville and we did we did a I don't even think it was Throwdown. I think it was Food Nation, which is before Throwdown. Food Nation was this travel show where I went around the country and let's discover the food culture of a different place every time. And we were really young then. And uh. We went

to Nashville. So I tried the hot chicken, the hot hot hot chicken, cause you can get it in different degrees. I couldn't feel my face. It was so incredibly painful. So like in this in the Bunappe Tea one, the Nashville Hot fried chicken has six tablespoons of cayenne, six spoons of cayenne pepper. I don't know, it seems like it seems like a lot to me. Have you had Howland raised Nashville fried chickens in Chinatown in Los Angeles? No, Oh, it is so good. It's just the one that they

line up for. Yeah, the line is crazy. Okay, have you had it? Yeah, it's delicious. We we've waited in that line, you and I not not you and I mean my friends. We have weighted in that line. All right, I'll have to do that, Howling Rays, I'm there. We went to Blue Ribbons. I like blue ribbons fried chicken. They actually then they actually opened a blue ribbon fried chicken. What what did they say? They make their their fried chicken with mazza mazza meal to put matza meal in

the flower. That was so interesting to me. Instead of bread crumbs, they use mat so so Bruce and Eric Bromberger did Jewish guys, so you know, obviously they grew up beating a lot of matsumule. Cool idea. It totally works because it's like bread crumbs. I mean the same same principle. Okay, we have to talk about we're talking about fried chicken. We have to talk about this this

fried chicken sandwich phenomenon. What is going on? Like it's like all of a sudden about a year and a half ago, like the world discovered that you can make a fried chicken sandwich. Like, why all of a sudden? What happened? Do you think it's just marketing by Popeyes? I think it must have been. Yeah, I mean the fried chicken sandwich is just skyrocketed. I mean, they created a shortage of chicken. It's insane just by that one sandwich. Are you a fan of it? Of the Popeye fried

chicken sandwich. Yeah, yeah, I think it's good. I think it's good. But there's so many different fried chicken sandwiches to try now that it's kind of fun, you know, Like I really like the fried chicken sandwich at the window in Venice. There's a new spot that just opened up near me. I want to say. It's called day Bird. Let me say this isn't it? Oh you know it is. It's called day Bird. The chicken. Yeah, there you go, so it Bobby's burgers are fried chicken sandwich is taken

off as well. I mean yeah, I mean we sell burgers and we sell fried chicken sandwiches, and basically it's the fried chicken that I've made for you today, except we use chicken breast, and we served with pickles and a delicious coleslaw. And then I have this sauce that I think is the killer ingredient of the entire dish, which is it's that Ahi am Ario. Yeah, that sauce was so good. It's that it's that South American chili pepper with mayonnaise some lime juice, and it's so good.

Some people think it's a little spicy because the spice in it it's the it's that chili pepper. It's that yellow chili. But it's I didn't think that was well, I guess we put it in We put it in honey. So this is in mayonnaise, which is also going to quell the heat. But it's um, you know, I think you have to have some sort of spicy mayo on a fried chicken sandwich. Speaking of Hell and Ray's, when you go there, you can obviously choose how hot you want it. It's just kind of one of the things,

and they're their hottest option. It's called howling, and you have to wear gloves. What I mean, let's listen. I just think like at that point it's crazy. I totally agree, but that's kind of I mean, you and I have this conversation pretty often about you know, like these ghost peppers, like we're not really we like spice, but we're not really interested in like burning our taste. But I mean you could literally use ghost peppers as a weapon. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,

I'm not into that that part of it. You don't need it, no, I mean if you don't, if it gets so hot that you can't taste the actual food, what's the purpose do you watch the show Hot Ones. I love that show. Yeah, I think it's really cool. You should go on that show. They haven't asked me. Oh my gosh, please make my dad cool and I'm going Hot Ones? Please? Does that make me cool? Yeah? Clearly I'm not cool. Let's see some fried chicken sandwiches.

Always Hungry is created by Bobby Flay and Sophie Flay. Our executive producer is Christopher Hasiotis. Always Hungary is produced, edited, and mixed by Jonathan Hoss Tressler. Always Hungry is engineered by Sophie Flay. For more podcasts on my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.