The GREATEST Fried Chicken!

I mentioned that I was going to try Thomas Kellar’s Fried Chicken recipe out of his Ad Hoc cookbook because Tina said it was great and Annie said that a friend of hers tried and liked it too. It was FABULOUS Fried Chicken! The chicken was moist and tender and the crust was light, crispy and NOT greasy. I do have to say, however, that he calls for a quart of buttermilk, as well as 6 cups of flour for a 2-3 pound chicken cut into 10 pieces. I only used a fraction of the ingredients so after coating the chicken, I threw a lot of flour and the used buttermilk away. Do you think I can get the same results with half the amounts? The brine is also delicious and is the secret to the moist chicken. If you have the book and like fried chicken, you have to try this recipe! Coincidentally, Fine Cooking magazine, August issue, has a recipe for the “Perfect Fried Chicken.” I am tempted to try that one to compare the two recipes because this version doesn’t brine the chicken nor does it do the same routine to dredge and fry the chicken.

The secret is to buy small chickens so the ratio of meat to coating allows the chicken to cook on the inside while crisping the coating on the outside. Big chickens are not GOOD chickens.

And, lastly, some bad news. I used to rave about Trader Joe’s pastry crusts, sold in two already rolled circles. This year they are not folded into quarter circles but in full circles. And, for some reason, they are not the same. They are too thick so rolling them out a bit more is critical and they don’t taste the same when baked. The texture is different as well. Maybe it’s because it’s summer and ‘room temperature’ is different now? I’m now thinking that I have to start making my own pie crusts again…bummer. It was so easy to bake pies before…

I am sure that joepastry.com will have the perfect pie crust instructions on his website.

Stay tuned,