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Perfect Fried Chicken

A couple notes. Once the breading process begins, you really want to move things along quickly and obviously the chicken is best when inhaled almost directly from the hot oil –although I would recommend waiting at least a few minutes so you don’t burn yourself.

Ingredients

    • 1 quart buttermilk
    • 3 ½ teaspoons salt
    • 3 teaspoons sirracha, divided
    • 6 chicken pieces (1 large breast split in half, two thighs and two drumsticks)
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • Seasoned flour
    • 1 ½ cups flour
    • 4 teaspoons garlic powder
    • 2 teaspoons salt
    • 1 ½ teaspoons paprika
    • ¼ teaspoons black pepper
    • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
    • Canola or peanut oil for frying

Directions

  1. Add chicken to a large ziplock bag. Add in All but 1 cup of the buttermilk, salt and two teaspoons sirracha. Seal back and massage buttermilk into chicken. Refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
  2. Three and half hours before you fry your chicken, remove from marinade. Dry off COMPLETELY. Place on a baking sheet and pop back into the fridge, let dry out for three hours. Once the chicken has dried out, remove from fridge and let sit at room temperature while your oil comes to temperature.
  3. Fill a large cast-iron skillet ⅔ full of oil. Bring the temperature up to 360 degrees.
  4. Add remaining buttermilk, sirracha and baking soda to a medium-sized bowl, stir to combine. In a shallow dish, combine flour, garlic powder, salt, paprika, black pepper and cayenne.
  5. Dip chicken into the flour, making sure to pat off all excess. Dip into the buttermilk, let excess drip off. Finally, dip back into the flour, making sure the whole chicken piece is coated, but patting off any excess flour. Place gently into the hot oil. (You will probably have to work in batches.) Cook on until each side is golden brown, about 6-7 minutes per side. Use a thermometer to check the temperature, it should be 165 degrees closest to the bone.
  6. Drain on a paper towel and then immediately move to a cookie cooling sheet.
  7. Serve immediately.