on the grounds that as he walks along he catches “the Sunday smell of someone’s frying chicken”? More broadly, no one can claim a monopoly on what we think of as “fried chicken”. Like stuffed parcels of dough, it’s one of those great ideas that every culture seems to hit upon sooner or later. Deep frying is an ancient technique, and archaeologists have found evidence of it from Medieval Europe to Russia to Japan to Mexico. What the Italians called pollo frito, the Vietnamese called ga xao and the Japanese call kara’age. And it is easy to see why it has historically been so popular. For one thing, fat is flavour, and before anyone came up with the idea of putting the words “obesity” and “epidemic” next to each other and using them as an excuse to peer into our kids’ lunchboxes, our bodies instinctively craved the stuff. For another, fried chicken kept and travelled well – all important in the days before refrigeration, and still pretty useful for packing picnics or excursions to moonlight cinemas and winery concerts. Great fried chicken is a pretty simple matter to achieve at home, if you follow a few simple rules. First, source a good bird, and a small one at that. Go to a good butcher and source smaller, free-range birds – not overgrown supermarket beasts. Second, brine your chicken. This may seem like an extraneous step, but it is crucial to tender, flavourful meat. Boil a pot of water with a couple of cups of salt, some cut-up lemons, a small hand full of peppercorns, and some herbs. Let it cool and soak your chicken pieces in this for about eight to twelve hours in the fridge. Finally, heat control. Invest in a little thermometer so you can see exactly what your fat is doing. The temperature will drop considerably when you add the meat to the pan, so make sure to not overcrowd it, and be cooking on enough BTUs to get the temperature back up quickly. What results should have a crispy skin, tender flesh, and a good salty flavour – and is as good hot out of the pan (after having rested a bit, of course) as it is the next day.
Buttermilk Fried Chicken You’ll need: 2 small (1-1.5kg) free range chickens, cut into ten pieces and brined Canola or peanut oil 300 ml buttermilk 6 cups flour 1/4 cup garlic powder 1 heaping tablespoon each paprika, cayenne pepper, and salt 1 teaspoon fresh black pepper Sea salt Method: 1. Remove your chicken from the brine; rinse and pat dry, and let rest at room temperature for one hour. Fill a pot with three-four centimetres of oil, and heat to 160 degrees C. Set a cooling rack to one side, and arrange a dipping station: all coating ingredients divided between two bowls, buttermilk in the other. Add some salt and pepper to the buttermilk. 2. Working in batches, dip chicken piece by piece into the dry ingredients, then into the buttermilk, then into the second bowl of dry ingredients. 3. Carefully lower the chicken pieces into the hot fat, and fry for 11 to 12 minutes until golden for thighs and drumsticks, 6 to 7 minutes for wings and breasts. Remove from the oil, place on cooling rack, and add salt. Enjoy
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