Bon Ton Mini Mart KY. Fried Chicken

This is the best recipe for fried chicken that I have tried. The secret is in the marinade, and the duration of the marination. The chicken emerges crispy, spicy, and wonderfully moist and succulent.

It works equally well, with slightly different results, in a cast-iron skillet or a deep fryer. During the summer, I often break out my turkey fryer to make a mountain (which calls for some tolerance of inquiries and visits by neighbors, but then so does brisket- and pork shoulder-smoking.

The recipe is on-line at:

http://joycesfinecooking.com/Recipes/bontonchicken.htm

In my opinion, the site somewhat ignores the proper atttribution, which is Jan and Michael Stern writing in Gourmet magazine. They talked their way into the general ingredients, with no specifics, and experimented with amounts and proportions until they were satisfied.

A little more on the Mini Mart from the Sterns' Roadfood.com:

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=343

Cheers,
Wade

Something about this recipe doesn't seem right. Are you actually deep-frying with all of the chicken pieces completely immersed in 375F oil? I would think after 20-25 minutes, the pieces are going to be overcooked. No?

I usually fry chicken in enough fat to come up to the midpoint and that takes 15-20 minutes.

Bill/SFNM

I posted too hastily. You are entirely correct: deep-frying, as opposed to skillet-frying, requires decreasing the cooking time considerably. In the turkey fryer, I usually fry the smaller pieces together (shorter fry time) and the breasts together (longer fry time) in separate batches. Since I can eye-ball the done-ness, I don't (and haven't ever) used a timer, but I'm guessing that my completely oil-submerged chicken is ready in about 10 minutes. give or take. An important variable is the quantity you're frying. The more pieces you add means the longer the oil will take to come back to temp. Sorry for the confusion.

Cheers,
Wade

I decided to test this recipe and I tried it out on friends this past weekend. We all agreed that it was fantastic -- crispy, slightly spicy and definitely the juiciest fried chicken I have ever had. The key is definitely the brine/marinade. I marinated it for just over 24 hours and then deep fried the chicken.