Once in a while, you know you want it. We live by the principle that it’s not what you do Saturday night that counts, but what you do the rest of the week. So have some fun, try a new recipe that tastes just as good as if you were visiting the Colonel’s house in Kentucky.
This is deep-fried chicken, not oven baked or pan fried or broasted (pressure cooked in oil). You can adjust the recipe for your own situation, but we experimented and we came up with this recipe and we love it (once in a while).
Oh, and the healthy benefits of making this at home is you can use free range, or organically raised chickens, and local chickens, so you’re not getting a chemically laden chicken that’s been raised in horrible conditions.
Ingredients
- Chicken (duh) cut up into its parts. (The thickness is important for finishing up, as you will see below).
- Buttermilk
First Rub
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 Tbl Celtic Sea Salt
- 1 Tbl white pepper
Egg Dip
- 2-3 eggs, whipped up well (we use a submersion blender)
Last Rub
- 1 cup corn flakes blended up into a powder
- 1 Tbl Celtic Sea Salt
- 1 Tbl white pepper
- tarragon flakes
Marinate your chicken overnight in the buttermilk. If you have a “vacuum sealer,” the marinators that are available to you shorten this process to less than three hours. Suck the air out and your chicken really gets saturated.
Go ahead and mix up both rubs and whip up the eggs (so that there is no separation between the yolks and the whites.
Times and Temps
Again, these are for your deep fryers.
- Wings — 375° F for 8 – 10 minutes (judged by color)
- Strips and Tenders — 350° F for 3 – 5 minutes (again by color)
- Crispy Fried Chicken — 375° F for 12 – 15 minutes, then, if needed, place in the oven at 200° F, and they are done when the internal temp of the largest piece is 165° F.
Preparation Tips
Mix up the ingredients in your rubs thoroughly and have a second container ready (you’ll see why). The amount of tarragon is up to you, but you can easily put the flakes between your hands and rub them together and spice up your last rub that way. Again, the amount is up to you.
Take the chicken out of the marinade and place on a plate covered with paper towels. You don’t need dripping wet pieces for your first rub, just moist.
For each piece, you’ll put a bit of flour in the bottom of a big bowl and set the chicken piece inside. From the other bowl containing the rest of your flour mixture, sprinkle some on top and bounce the piece around till it’s thoroughly coated.
Then pick it up by one end, holding it tightly, and dip both sides in the eggs, and then finally, in the last bowl, make sure the bottom has a bit of the cornflake concoction (all blended together) and drop it in there, and, like the first rub, pour some of the cornflake mixture over it and bounce it around.
There you have it. Pick it up by one end and place it on a plate, and when you have enough pieces for your deep fryer, pick each one up by one end and place them into the hot oil, spreading them out so they don’t collide, and start your timer. Remember, it’s the color you go by. If you like them light colored or dark colored is up to you.
And once again, your thicker pieces might not get up to 165° F on the inside by the time the outside is done to your preference, so have the oven warmed up to 200° F, and have a meat thermometer ready.
One Last Thing
Heating carbs (the flour and cornflakes) to high temps creates a chemical called acrylamide which is a carcinogen. And even small amounts can do damage in our bodies.
Curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, is a powerful antioxidant as well as an anti-inflammatory agent. Antioxidants protect against damage from acrylamides. Our favorite is found at Swanson Health, and contains Mervia for added absorption. Ecklonia Cava Extract is also a very powerful antioxidant that can help here.
But there is something else, that we take after each meal, and that’s Minty Chlorophyllin from Swanson. It’s like an after-dinner mint, but with benefits: Chlorophyllin is a powerful DNA protector, and even MD Anderson has suggested a chlorophyllin cocktail for cancer prevention. It’s just damn good for us. I keep a bottle on the kitchen table.