Thanksgiving Fried Chicken Extravaganza

Wife doesn't like turkey.

So what does one do on Thanksgiving, THE TURKEY HOLIDAY? Well you don't make turkey. So what then? I was wracking my brain and I settled on Fried Chicken. Wife and I had tried this a number of years ago. It wasn't bad. Fried Chicken is notoriously difficult to make because there are numerous variables one has to deal with from the flavoring of the chicken itself, the battering or breading one chooses, not to mention the actual deep fat frying procedure. None of this was anything where I had any particular expertise or experience.

I did remember the wonderful fried chicken we had for breakfast numerous times in Krabi, Thailand last spring. At the time, I was perplexed about how they actually produced the end result. I decided to do a bit of research, As fate would have it, I was directed to a cook who I'd seen on YouTube doing a very authentic Pad Thai. As soon as I saw the recipe and the accompanying videos, I knew I'd found the guide I was looking for. Here are the basic elements.

1. Brining / Flavoring - I find with almost anything related to chicken a brine and flavor bath is key to getting flavor. This is a pretty simple combination by Thai standards with just white peppercorns, cilantro stems, garlic, sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, and water. And that's it (though having a Thai style massive mortar and pestle helps because you need to pound the shit out of every thing to create a paste).
   
2. Rice Flour to Create the Crust - You simply add the rice flour to the chicken and brine just before you cook. No dredging in multiple steps.

And that's it. With the exception of the actual frying (more on that below). On to the action!

 Our mise en place getting ready to prepare our chicken

 Making the batter covered chicken - so simple compared to other fried chicken preparations

Battered chicken ready to be fried!

Now the REAL action. Chicken in the fryer. Will de-I die of third degree burns? Will he burn down the Tower completely?

NO! By all the Cooking Deities, this looks like real fried chicken!

 

We made 'faux' Frites using a recipe I love from the Joy of Cooking (a favorite cookbook)

Wife and My Simple Thanksgiving Spread

Analysis:

This was a very interesting cooking exercise both from using a totally unfamiliar means of preparing the chicken to doing a cooking technique I am mostly unfamiliar with. Will we do it again? Yes. There was enough good that it warrants perfecting it. But it needs a number of modifications. 

1. The sizes of the chicken pieces - I had too many different sizes that made it difficult to get uniform cooking. And they were too large for the pot I had available. We will only do chicken wings next time and make sure they are not too big!
2. Limit the volume cooked - i hadn't looked at the volume of chicken the recipe called for and bought 4 TIMES THE WEIGHT! Bad move. This caused all kinds of problems because I had to cook in four batches with all kinds of issues controlling the temperature of the oil
3. Have a Thermometer that works - I was using a candy thermometer we've had for decades. I found out (as I suspected from he data it was giving me) it was not close to accurate when I used an instant read thermometer to double check. This led to some pieces getting overcooked and others under cooked.
4. Minor adjustments to the flavoring - It needed a bit more salt and a touch more heat.

I have written all this down. This is something I'm definitely going to do again. I think this flavoring and technique will go well with seafood such as shrimp, scallops, and fish like tilapia or catfish.