I was inspired a few weeks ago by a post over at Smitten Kitchen on what we are afraid to cook and why. What a great question! And what a great thing to take on. There’s nothing like the feeling of overcoming fear (baking bread, souffle, sushi), plunging right in and coming out the other side victorious. Kind of like a culinary Outward Bound.
What are you afraid to cook?
In my case, it was fried chicken.
OK, I expect a few snickers, especially from you southerners that were born frying chickens right there in your pretty little bassinets. Me, I was raised way up in the north, in a time when Shake’n’Bake ruled and there was a Kentucky Fried Chicken in every neighborhood. Since then, chicken and dumplings, eastern european-style: yes. Roasted whole chicken with herbs and pan sauce: yes. Fried chicken: no way. Too scary.
Three things intimidate me about about fried chicken. Number one is the grease. A large vat of boiling fat is scary for a number of reasons. It’s messy and smelly and gets all over your kitchen. It’s dangerous. And it’s extraordinarily fattening.
And then there’s the fact that fried chicken is one of those things that some people do very well, with very little effort. They wake up after their afternoon nap, stretch a little, and wander into the kitchen. A few minutes later they wander back out with with a large platter of gorgeously crisp and golden fried chicken. They place it on the dining room table with one of those little shrugs that says ‘no big deal’ and you bite into a drumstick and it is a big deal: a very delicious, flavor exploding in your mouth, crunchy, chewy, moist big deal.
Finally, people have very big opinions about fried chicken. What it should or shouldn’t be fried in, what it should or shouldn’t be coated with. Given my Yankee background, I wasn’t sure if I was worthy of taking all that on. Some things should just be left to the experts. Right?
So challenged and inspired to overcome my life-long fear, yesterday I fried a chicken. And I’m here to say, like most fears, (almost) everything I was afraid of was true and (almost) none of it really mattered.
Yes, the boiling hot peanut oil was a challenge (to the purists: sorry, but I didn’t have the time to track down lard) and required a bit more clean up than usual. And yes, the smell lingered in my house for a few days, which I didn’t particularly enjoy (small studio, no exhaust hood.)
But the results were incredibly delicious! I was amazed and delighted and so was my lucky neighbor who got pulled in as a taster. I may just try this again someday. It’s still a pretty unhealthy, caloric dish but every now and then, in between my usual roasted chicken and veg, I may just wake up from my afternoon nap, stretch a little, and wander into the kitchen...
Tender at the Bone Fried Chicken
After doing a little bit of internet research, I ended up borrowing heavily from Ruth Riechl’s fried chicken recipe in Tender at the Bone. Originally I wanted to be very authentic and go with the goddess of southern cooking, Miss Edna Lewis, but her recipe takes two days and I hadn’t planned out for that. As it was, Reichl’s chicken needed an overnight in the refrigerator but there were enough similarities between the two (spend some time in salt in the beginning, soak in buttermilk in the middle, fry in lard in the end) that I felt OK giving it a try.
My touches: exchanging peanut oil for lard and, as I was curiously out of cayenne pepper, I substituted smoked paprika which gave the chicken a nice, subtle hint of bacon.
21/2 to 3-pound chicken, cut up
3 T salt, approximately
3 cups of buttermilk
2 onions sliced thin
1 cup flour
3 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup peanut oil
1/4 cup butter
Place the chicken in a baking dish and sprinkle heavily with the salt, turn over and repeat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for two hours. With a paper towel, wipe the salt off of the chicken and from the baking pan. (Reichl has you rinse the chicken.) Add the onions and pour on the buttermilk. Cover with the plastic wrap and return to the refrigerator overnight.
Place the flour, salt, paprika and pepper in a large plastic or paper bag, close tightly and shake to combine. Pick up one piece of the chicken at a time, holding it over the pan to drain for a few seconds before putting into the bag. Shake to coat the chicken in flour. Remove to a clean plate. Repeat until all the chicken has been floured.
Let sit for 1/2 hour to dry out a little and come to room temperature.
Heat the peanut oil and butter in a large cast iron skillet to 325 degrees. Add as many pieces that will fit, covering the pan to bring the heat back up. Remove cover when heat is back at 325 degrees and fry, turning once or twice, until golden, about 15 to 20 minutes. Test the chicken by removing from the pan and piercing the thigh with a knife. The juices should run clear.
If you need to work in batches, keep the fried chicken warm in a 200 degree oven.
Let the chicken rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. This makes a big difference in the juiciness. Serve with reckless joy!
Bonus: Because I cut the onions into rings, I decided what the hell, I would try to make onion rings. Yum. Fearless.
Smitten Kitchen post
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Steak is what I'm afraid of.......I never get it just right.
view Brig's profile
i totally agree about the fried chicken. i attempted making it once for someone's 90th b day. it didn't turn out well. i was a very inexperienced cook then and didn't realize i needed a thermometer in the oil. by the time the chicken was thoroughly cooked the outside was burned. i haven't tried making it since...
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view cassiopia's profile
I am also not keen on frying. Mostly because I dont know what to do with the oil after i'm done. I know a lot of people just throw it away but that seems like such a waste! Also putting it in a jar and reusing it just seems... well gross. :)
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view Shannon Bradly's profile
My family is just about as southern as you can get, yet fried chicken is one of those special occasion things you make in your house. I have always been a bit leary of making it myself because of the whole Skin Hot Oil = Burns thing, however I make a mean cube steak, lol.
view asides's profile
Yup, I am afraid of any frying that involves a lot of oil - visions of 3rd degree body burns burns, kitchen fires, shrieking and running for my life.
And as usual in life, you get a big helping of your fears - I was working in a group home and was surprised to find a pot with 4 inches of boiling oil on the stove, with no one around, the burner red hot. The person who had put on the oil to make chips had then gone upstairs, turned on her headphones and forgotten about the oil. AGH! No one was hurt and the person didn't see why doing this was a problem - AGH!
view peacelily's profile
I agree I'm afraid to fry chicken as well. My best friend makes the best fried chicken so I leave it to her with promises of basil and salad in return.
Other things I'm afraid of are souffle and steamed/fried fish - simply because I'm never sure how fresh the fish is and I don't want the house to get all smelly.
Congrats on overcoming your fear!
view PinkThumb's profile
Frying scares the crap out of me - I made the tempura onions for Thomas Keller's Liver and Onions, though, and that loosened me up a bit. Maybe fried chicken should be next!
view meg_ues's profile
I'm afraid of cooking beastly things like escargot bourguignons and frog's legs.
view Eve in Hochelaga's profile
I don't like to fry things either... The smell is nauseating and the oil does seem like a waste. However, I just received the new Bon Appetit with a delicious-sounding recipe for Buttermilk Fried Chicken from Thomas Keller, so I might have to try it.
view jamiealyse's profile
Until yesterday, bread was the only thing I vowed never to make. Yeast, kneading, blah blah blah...no thanks. I was out of Ezekiel bread and I really wanted a sandwich. None of the flatmates were home to see my bread-making exercise go tits up, so I decided to try one of the no-knead recipes.
I will never buy a loaf of bread again.
view Amandica's profile
My mom used to make french fries at home, from real potatoes, fried in oil on the stove. They were good, man. I can't imagine doing that. Fried chicken? No way! I would be afraid of burning it on the outside and leaving it raw inside.
I used to be afraid of steak until we started eating a Paleo-style diet (i.e. lots of meat, vegetables & fruits and easy on the grains). Now it's a snap, either on the grill outside or the grill pan inside. I just started trusting that I could do it. The trick? Cook it until it's almost done to your taste then remove it from the grill/pan and tent it with foil for a bit. Finishes nicely.
view CleanSimple's profile
I used to be horrified by raw meat so I'd never cook it. I think it was some odd fear of germs, nevermind that the odds are so damn slim. I have since gotten over it. I was also slightly nervous about canning the first time I did it but doing it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be. It was labor intensive and you had to be snappy on the timing, but it was totally worth it to have jam that I made to tide me over until summer.
Frying things right doesn't add tons of oil, according to Alton Brown. And it's so SO good. Try Orangette's ricotta fritters next time, they even flip themselves over when it's time to do so!
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
I agree. I fry stuff about 3 times a year. I made my fiance some deep fried wontons from scratch about a week ago. I'm still trying to use up the wonton oil. I got quite into it though. I even folded some origami cranes out of the wonton pastry and deep fried those :)
view buda's profile
No way am I ever frying chicken in my house. Or anything else for that matter. I am a very adventurous cook, and it's not fear, its the smell and mess. It costs like $5 to go get fried chicken here in Seattle at Ezelle's, and like 50 cents for a killer egg roll. No thank you.
view tarah's profile
Fried chicken was one of my very first culinary hurdles I jumped, and with great success. My friends and family have all been blown away by my fried chicken, but like others have mentioned it is a once, maybe twice a year indulgence.
My method is to season with salt and black and cayenne pepper, marinate in buttermilk overnight. Flour, egg wash, flour again, and in the oil the chicken goes. I fry the chicken for a couple of minutes, then remove and place on a slotted pan, sprinkle with salt, peppers, and various herbs, pop it in the oven to finish baking (and draining) there. The "flash" frying crisps the outside, and seals in the moisture. The oil drains off the chicken, so less greasy too. I use less oil, it's not really deep frying. It works for me!
One little thing I always do when frying is to keep a shallow bowl of white vinegar out, I swear it helps with the odor of frying.
view emeraldtea's profile
Frying can be scary, especially since oil can get so scary hot so quickly if you're not paying attention to it. When I make fried chicken, I fry it just enough to brown and crisp up the breading, then finish it in the oven. The first time I tried this, I was afraid it wouldn't get or stay crispy, but it actually did! I can't think of anything I'm afraid to cook or bake.
view OneWallKitchen's profile
How about one of these?
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=45739-803-D14427DZ&lpage=none
view dsgnomite's profile
Any kind of red meat, and fried food (which is probably for the best).
view Kit's profile
i hadn't fried anything in so long, i gave my FryDaddy away on freecycle a few months back. but when i go home i always ask my mom (Kentucky born and bred) to fry me up some chicken!! as hers is the best ever.
she says the way to good fried chicken
1) always fresh chicken, not frozen. when chicken unfreezes the blood seeps out and makes dark, unattractive spots on the chicken. when she was a kid they would buy Sunday chicken fresh from the chicken house and grandmom would pluck and dress it right before cooking.
2) don't crowd the pieces in the pan. the oil looses its heat faster, chicken doesn't cook as fast, less crispy, the skin gets that soggy flour underneath. and let it heat back up before reloading the pan. sometimes two pans if she's cooking for a crowd.
3) she says, "all i add is a little salt, celery salt, and paprika" to the flour and somehow a little baking powder makes it more crispy. and shake it in a brown paper grocery bag.
4) and only once a year (if we're lucky), as we are all now watching our weight and health, fried in lard with a little butter ...............delicious with cornbread and collards. then we all get scared and go to get our cholseteral checked the following week.
view carolynapplebee's profile
My fear is fried anything. Sauteing is OK, but my mom was frying shrimp one night when we were little kids, the pot caught on fire and she put the lid on it to put out the fire and that was the end of fried foods at home. I've never fried anything. The neigbor's kid across the street, in the same model home as ours, set their kitchen on fire when making a quesadilla when he as about 18 and his parents were out.
The other thing I'm a little afraid of is canning stuff. Mom and my sister and dad will make jams and stuff at mom's, but the most I've ever done is check the lids. I'm afraid of food poisoning myself!
view kaanswfm's profile