Buttermilk Brined Fried Chicken [Pictures]

LTH,

Driven to the buttermilk fried chicken brink by Chicago Magazine's pic of Luxbar's buttermilk brined fried chicken and then nudged over by Hammond's Chef Luciano Fried Chicken thread and Erik's subsequent mention of Parlor's fried chicken and waffles I attempted to go to first Luxbar, then Parlor for lunch. Neither are open for lunch. (I called) So I thought I'd take matters into my own hands and roll my own, so to speak, buttermilk fried chicken for dinner.

My wife likes legs, I like thighs, so into a 2-gallon ziploc they went with a quart of buttermilk, 1/2-quart of water, kosher salt, brown sugar, Texas Pete, salt, pepper, Old Bay and whatever else was within reach at the moment. 4-5 hours in the brine, rinse, dredge in seasoned flour and let rest for a while. I also had a few green tomatoes which I sliced and gave the same treatment.

Buttermilk brined chicken and green tomatoes resting before frying.


Fried chicken in cast iron skillet.


Resting after frying.


Looks almost edible.


Ready for dinner.


Enjoy,
Gary

Hi,

The pictures look great! To avoid steam and spitting oil on your camera lens, do you take your picture from relatively far and use the zoom to focus in?

Now the really important question: how did it taste?

Regards,

Not to be picky but you may have overcrowded your pan - pics look pretty good though...

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

The pictures look great! To avoid steam and spitting oil on your camera lens, do you take your picture from relatively far and use the zoom to focus in?

Now the really important question: how did it taste?

Cathy,

Didn't think about the lens, but now that you mention it I have a few spots on my lens, which I will clean as soon as I finish this post. Thanks for mentioning the spattering oil, though letting the coated chicken rest a bit really cuts down on the splattering.

Chicken tasted great, quite juicy with a subtle tang from the buttermilk, little spice in the chicken flesh and a hint of heat from cayenne, white pepper, black pepper, kosher salt and old bay in the coating. I usually use my BBQ rub in the brine and coating, but had a fresh jar of Old Bay on the counter so I used that instead.

Enjoy,
Gary

Snark wrote:Not to be picky but you may have overcrowded your pan - pics look pretty good though...

Snark,

Thank you for the input, I'll take it under advisement.

Enjoy,
Gary

Gary,

What were you frying in?

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote:Gary,

What were you frying in?

Best,
Michael

Besides the skillet....I mean, what type of fat? Crisco?

eatchicago wrote:What were you frying in?

12-inch cast iron skillet.

eatchicago wrote:Besides the skillet....I mean, what type of fat? Crisco?

95% peanut oil, 5% olive oil, not extra virgin, for a little flavor boost.

Enjoy,
Gary

Interesting. I've started frying my chicken skinless because I find that the skin tends to get tough at 360 degrees, which is my optimal frying temp for the chicken meat.

My brine is a bit simpler: buttermilk, salt, pepper, cayenne.

YourPalWill wrote:Interesting. I've started frying my chicken skinless because I find that the skin tends to get tough at 360 degrees, which is my optimal frying temp for the chicken meat.

Will,

Though I understand this was not your intent, frying chick without skin would also reduce the caloric content, which is the main reason I have a hard telling selling the women in my family on eating more fried chicken. I'll give it a shot.

Hammond

Though I understand this was not your intent, frying chick without skin would also reduce the caloric content, which is the main reason I have a hard telling selling the women in my family on eating more fried chicken. I'll give it a shot.

Correct me if I am wrong ... you remove the skin, the meat underneath is sufficiently covered with breading that it remains moist and tender?

Baked or broiled skinless chicken is usually pretty dry. If calories were the issue, then at least I bake or broil with the skin on and remove it before eating.

Regards,

I remember a USDA study years ago (although cannot quote exactly) that did chicken with and without skin and measured calories. The finding was that removing skin after cooking only added a small amount of calories but gave much better flavor. However, fried chicken without breading would not be as good. The thing to remember is that boneless skinless chicken cooks faster so don't overcook.
Paulette

My husband indulges my love of fried chicken/hate of chicken skin (don' t start.....it's a texture thing) by making mine skinless. Employing the brining technique, resting and frying for a shorter period of time produces a well coated, juicy chicken breast. I love the coating and get annoyed when I have to lose it all by taking the skin off. This works well for us!

He makes the bestest fried chicken.....mmmmmmm!!!

dees_1 wrote: I love the coating and get annoyed when I have to lose it all by taking the skin off. This works well for us!

See, that makes a lot of sense to me. As long as the meat can stay moist (a problem, especially with breasts), then skin-off frying sounds like a good way to go.

David "Make Mine Commando-Style" Hammond

Skinless fried chicken?

I've been known to batter and fry just the skin!

Bill/SFNM

It was my understanding that skinless thigh (and/or leg) had a greater fat content than chicken breast with skin on.

With heating (frying or roasting) the fat under the skin to a large extent is rendered and drained and the skin itself does not have that much fat. At least that's the rationalization that keeps me munching on crispy chicken skin.

Bill/SFNM wrote:Skinless fried chicken?

I've been known to batter and fry just the skin!

Bill/SFNM

I'm with you, Bill. Fried chicken without the skin is a travesty. Why bother eating it? If it's a health concern/issue, why not just have something else?

stevez wrote:

Bill/SFNM wrote:Skinless fried chicken?

I've been known to batter and fry just the skin!

Bill/SFNM

I'm with you, Bill. Fried chicken without the skin is a travesty. Why bother eating it? If it's a health concern/issue, why not just have something else?

There's chicken skin and then there's chicken skin. I found the crispy, spiced up poultry epidermis at Luciano’s to be quite excellent; at Del Rhea’s, the skin was looser, more yellow and much less appealing…still, I ate that, too.

Hammond

Bill/SFNM wrote:Skinless fried chicken?

I've been known to batter and fry just the skin!

You don't even need the batter.... Gribenes -- yum!

I suppose there's some point to frying skinless chicken -- McNuggets, chicken fingers, et al. -- but it's sure not what I think of when I think of "fried chicken." That's skin-on chicken on the bone and nothing less.

A piece of trivia I picked up recently is that Italian Jews serve fried chicken (marinated in lemon juice, not, of course, buttermilk) for Hanukkah.

David Hammond wrote:There's chicken skin and then there's chicken skin. I found the crispy, spiced up poultry epidermis at Luciano’s to be quite excellent; at Del Rhea’s, the skin was looser, more yellow and much less appealing…still, I ate that, too.

Hammond

Poorly prepared fried chicken is a completely different issue than trying to justify frying chicken without any skin on it. One is poor technique, the other is unspeakable.

By the way, Parlor brines its chicken in sweet tea. It's quite flavorful, if only they had a lighter hand with their coating.

stevez wrote:

David Hammond wrote:There's chicken skin and then there's chicken skin. I found the crispy, spiced up poultry epidermis at Luciano’s to be quite excellent; at Del Rhea’s, the skin was looser, more yellow and much less appealing…still, I ate that, too.

Hammond

Poorly prepared fried chicken is a completely different issue than trying to justify frying chicken without any skin on it. One is poor technique, the other is unspeakable.

See, I'm not sure I'd say Dell Rhea's was poorly prepared; it's just another way of preparing chicken that's highly acceptable to some.

On a related topic, truth be told, chicken breast is probably my least favorite meat, no matter how you prepare it. I think of it as being like tofu: pretty dull but susceptible to becoming much more interesting depending upon what you cook it in.

Tofu skin is pretty good, too.

Hammond

LAZ wrote:By the way, Parlor brines its chicken in sweet tea. It's quite flavorful, if only they had a lighter hand with their coating.

The whole issue of using tea as a "condiment" is very interesting to me.

I had a grouper in basil-tea sauce at Nick's Grill last Friday, and it was very interesting -- not great, but interesting, with flecks of tea that gave the fish a very slight and subtle herby quality. When I asked one of the remarkably clueless wait staff what kind of tea it was, she asked, "Like the brand?" and I said, "No, like the kind of tea, you know, oolong, darjeeling" and she came back and said, "It's Pickwick's." Cute.

Bill Todd (of Todd & Holland) thinks cooking with tea is pretty stupid because the power of tea is in its aromatics...still, tea-smoked duck is fine stuff and I am still searching for a dish I really like that uses tea as a condiment or, better, an ingredient.

David Hammond wrote:Bill Todd (of Todd & Holland) thinks cooking with tea is pretty stupid because the power of tea is in its aromatics...still, tea-smoked duck is fine stuff and I am still searching for a dish I really like that uses tea as a condiment or, better, an ingredient.

I'm extremely fond of tea-smoked duck. I use a similar technique for turkey breast. (Although I use lapsang souchong, a tea I never drink. A description I once heard is that it tastes like burnt telephone poles, which I think apt.)

I also like tea ice creams and sorbets -- not only the ubiquitous green tea ice cream. I've had some made with black tea and Earl Grey.

In a Chinese tea room in Las Vegas I had some tea dumplings I enjoyed, but I'm not sure if they were steamed in the tea or if the tea was incorporated as an ingredient in some other way.

The Burmese use tea leaves in salad. I've had this a few times and liked it a great deal. Unfortunately, Chicago's one Burmese restaurant closed some years ago.

I've started such a controversy here. I find that my skinless checken fries up quite well with a heavier coating of flour. It tends to seal in the juices. From reading Dave Hammonds comparison, I'm starting to think that I am frying my chicken at too low a temperature.

YourPalWill wrote:I've started such a controversy here. I find that my skinless checken fries up quite well with a heavier coating of flour. It tends to seal in the juices. From reading Dave Hammonds comparison, I'm starting to think that I am frying my chicken at too low a temperature.

Will, you might find these pages to be of some use:

John Bell's Southern Fried Chicken @ MeatHenge

Biggles' Drunken Chicken Orgy #1 @ MeatHenge

E.M.

Regarding Buttermilk Brine,

I tried this the last fried chicken dinner I made. I brined over night. One thing I noticed was that either the skin didn't render much of the fat out as it cooked or the skin absorbed an awful lot of the buttermilk. I don't know if that's possible but the end result was the skin was kind of flabby in spots. Anyone else noticed this? By the way I really didn't notice a thicker skin when I cut up the bird. I bought it at Whole Foods, if that makes a difference.

Hi,

Cook's Illustrated has been continuous revising their brining method. Initially, they suggested going straight from the brine to the oven. To improve crisped skin, they now recommend removing bird from brine, rinsing and wiping off. On a tray lined with paper towels, arrange, arrange chicken on a rack to dry in the refrigerator. For the Thanksgiving turkey, I dry it overnight. For chicken, I might brine overnight and allow it to air dry during the day.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

Cook's Illustrated has been continuous revising their brining method. Initially, they suggested going straight from the brine to the oven. To improve crisped skin, they now recommend removing bird from brine, rinsing and wiping off. On a tray lined with paper towels, arrange, arrange chicken on a rack to dry in the refrigerator. For the Thanksgiving turkey, I dry it overnight. For chicken, I might brine overnight and allow it to air dry during the day.

Regards,

I do not rinse and wipe after my buttermilk brine . . . I just shake the chicken gently to make sure that no excess buttermilk/hot sauce wets the seasoned flour. I'd be worried that if you wipe the entire brine off, you might end up with too little crust and not enough buttermilk flavor (although it should still be very moist and tender). And I'm not one of the people that believes in double-dipping either (buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour) so it's not like I'm looking for a really thick crust. After going in the seasoned flour, I shake off any excess flour and let it rest about 20 minutes before frying. I have not experienced the problem BigDCB mentions.