This is one of those recipes where I combine several others, taking the parts of each, to make the finished dish. In this case, the recipes are all from Serious Eats (and, specifically, from Kenji Lopez-Alt). Kenji is amazing, if you don’t have his book The Food Lab, buy it now (https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087).
Here are the recipes I pulled ideas from:
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/08/five-ingredient-fried-chicken-sandwich-recipe.html
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/07/fried-chicken-cole-slaw-sandwich-recipe.html
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/07/chicken-fried-chicken-with-cream-gravy-recipe.html
I use these techniques for any fried chicken I make – whether I’m usually boneless pieces or bone-in and also whether I’m eating them on a plate (as we did last night) or on a sandwich.
- I brine in a combination of half dill pickle juice and half buttermilk, I add a bit of salt (be careful, pickle juice is salty) and add pepper, paprika, and garlic powder. I do this as it lets you skip the step of putting the chicken into buttermilk before dredging in flour. Experiment w/ the proportions that you like
- Key – absolutely key – is combining 3-4 T of buttermilk with the flour you dredge in – this forms little clumps of dough that stick to the chicken and make it more crispy
- I add more spices – same as above – and a little salt to the dredge
- I fry as indicated – 3 minutes on a side in oil that starts at 425 degrees (but goes down into the lower 300s) for boneless thighs
- I make the gravy basically like indicated in the ‘chicken fried chicken’ recipe…but I don’t really need a recipe for chicken gravy as I was taught how to do this by my (paternal) grandma and my mom
- If I’m not making sandwiches (this makes really really good sandwiches) I always serve w/ mashed potatoes and corn because, you know, tradition
- I’m including Kenji’s coleslaw recipe too, it’s really good!
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/07/creamy-cole-slaw
