I love fried chicken and endulge occasionally. I have tried many recipes and just stumbled across this one.
Anyone have some really great recipes?
18th Century Fried Chicken.
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Wow, that was pretty interesting. Thanks.
I have various recipes for fried chicken (I grew up around Louisville, KY - and I even met Colonel Sanders once, so it is kind of in my blood) I use based on time and effort. That is akin to my longer version but with a more seasoned, vastly more acidic/faster marinade. I have heard of frying parsely but I never have any that is dried like he said; it's either fresh or the dried in a jar. Have to make a point of trying that some time and leave some fresh parsely to dry out.
About 10 years ago, I got really interested in trying to replicate a KFC style chicken and experimented a lot. I got both a counter-top electric deep fryer and a "Chick'n Bucket" pressure fryer. I tried a zillion different methods recommended on the internet (weirdly, there is a UK website that is hard-corps about KFC recipe duplication). My general approach when I want to make "sunday dinner" fried chicken is very much akin to the one in the video:
a)Marinate it in acid (I use buttermilk or vinegar/milk with herbs and overnight vs. short/fast like that)
b)Season and batter
c) deep fry (with a portion of lard in the oil)
It's really heavenly and one thing I find to be effective is using "poultry seasoning" as part of the seasoning. It is a standardized herb blend designed for this purpose, and it works well. There is a place in southern Indiana that sells their unique blend that is reputedly what colonel Sanders used to base his unique blend off of (he had them make his). Marion-Kay, yeah, that's the name. Another thing is I learned it is quite easy to make a gluten-free fried chicken that tastes great; you aren't relying on the gluten component of the flour for any of it's unique properties, so substituting a mild-tasting non-wheat flour is no problem.
I got my basic technique from my grandmother, who got it from her mom who was born in the late 1880s (I knew her as a child), and she got it from her mom. So it's probably not too far removed from that recipe above, just simplified a bit for the working man's kitchen than the servant-staffed kitchen that book was written for.
There are also many simple ways to make quicker fried chicken I do for the kids on a week night - quicker marinate, pan-fry in less oil vs. deep fry in heavier oil/fat/lard.
Next week I'll make some chicken portions and try that recipe but pan-fry. Probably on Tuesday when I start making the cornbread for the dressing I need to prepare on Wednesday. I'll pan fry it, though, because I thoroughly cleaned up the deep fryer and then put it on a back shelf several years ago after gaining too much weight from using it too often. 
Thanks for sharing that; I was intrigued and will play with that. I frequently look up recipe histories and enjoy that type of thing quite a bit. If you do, too, since thanksgiving is comping up, look up turkey/chicken Tetrazzini. The history of that with the famous tenor and Delmonico's restaurant is really neat to me. It is a killer thing to do w/left over turkey and I make it whenever I roast a turkey (which is 5 to 6 times a year at least; I love it and we eat it more than just at holidays).
Thanks for sharing that; I was intrigued and will play with that. I frequently look up recipe histories and enjoy that type of thing quite a bit. If you do, too, since thanksgiving is comping up, look up turkey/chicken Tetrazzini. The history of that with the famous tenor and Delmonico's restaurant is really neat to me. It is a killer thing to do w/left over turkey and I make it whenever I roast a turkey (which is 5 to 6 times a year at least; I love it and we eat it more than just at holidays).
Oro, thanks for sharing. BTW, I have been to Louisville and I visit Kentucky regularly as I have friends that live in Cincinnati and their family lives in Florence. I love Pimento & Cheese Sandwiches which I'm told is a Southern Treat. So bad for you but so delicious!
Chicken fried in lard is a whole nother thing compared to frying in vedge oil.
Oh yeah...
I love fried chicken..i been holding myself back from putting a deep fryer in my house though...would make it too tempting to eat more junk 
I suffice with chicken breast strips dipped in panko and unsweetened coconut cooked on stovetop in a good measure of oil but only once a month or so.
I suffice with chicken breast strips dipped in panko and unsweetened coconut cooked on stovetop in a good measure of oil but only once a month or so.
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
I love fried chicken..i been holding myself back from putting a deep fryer in my house though...would make it too tempting to eat more junk
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Being from Ontario where it seems that no one seems to know how to make Chili properly, I really like Cinci Chili but only from Skyline. Not Goldstar or anywhere else. If I ever make it to Texas I will try it there. I do like Texas Roadhouse Steak and fried chicken. Not sure if that is true Texas food but it agrees with me. 
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So the chicken is marinating. I will start battering it in a half hour or so.
I made the marinate to the recipe, and I will the batter, too. Interesting thing, I had some “organic” acv in the cabinet I got on sale somewhere. Opening it the first time, you could have sold me that it was malt vinegar off the aroma; very unlike the Heinz or other mass market acv I have used in the past. Some of it and the lemon juice that I didn’t wash off my hands fully sat and combined a while. I was reading a lnovel a little while agon and with a my hand against my cheek; the smell finally hit me. Fine aged tobacco. Really, it could have been Cuban. So Now I am very curious how the flavors meld.
Originally Posted By: Oro_O
So the chicken is marinating. I will start battering it in a half hour or so.
I made the marinate to the recipe, and I will the batter, too. Interesting thing, I had some “organic” acv in the cabinet I got on sale somewhere. Opening it the first time, you could have sold me that it was malt vinegar off the aroma; very unlike the Heinz or other mass market acv I have used in the past. Some of it and the lemon juice that I didn’t wash off my hands fully sat and combined a while. I was reading a lnovel a little while agon and with a my hand against my cheek; the smell finally hit me. Fine aged tobacco. Really, it could have been Cuban. So Now I am very curious how the flavors meld.
Ok, so that was good! I was really tired last night and didn't feel up to giving an accurate description. So here goes:
I made it per the recipe except instead of in oil in Dutch oven over a fire, I fried it in a Dutch oven on the stovetop in about 1" of 60/40 lard/sunflower oil.
1) The acv/malt vinegar marinade adds a musty flavor to the meat that other types of acid marinade do not.
2) The Rhein wine batter is interesting - very good, but subtle, complex flavor. I used an inexpensive local Gewurztraminer to be accurate to the "Rhenish wine" of the original recipe. Since this recipe is absent a lot of the spices I would use in a regular fried chicken - like a traditional poultry mix, some cayenne, or Montreal steak seasoning, it doesn't have any strong notes but is mellow. But very good. The batter came out thicker and more "cake/fluffy" than I expected. I don't know if I didn't thin it enough, or the alcohol reacted with the gluten in the flour in a way I didn't expect, or what. I also imagine modern ap flour is way higher in gluten than the ground flour of the time. A courser type of flour or mix of other flours with typical flour would be slightly better. The other thing that would have helped would have been to roll the chicken in some flour before battering.
3) the parsley was a hit and added a nice taste and texture. I threw it in the pot still a little damp just to spite him.
To check out the taste of the batter more fully, I made more than necessary, and battered onion rings. No other seasoning on them at all. They were really delicious. The thicker batter was perfect here.
I would totally make this again, being more careful with the batter. I would also:
a) use that marinade technique again and on different dishes
b) use that batter instead of other techniques. I'm not going to open a bottle of wine just for it, but sometime when some is open, that's great.
c) use the fried parsley as garnish when frying other dishes.
Tonight I am making cornbread and roasting yams for cooking tomorrow. But I'm already looking ahead to the turkey Tetrazinni on Saturday or Sunday (my favorite use of left over poultry and a fantastic dish with a cool history in its own right - I use to eat occasionally at Delmonico's in nyc where it was invented).
To check out the taste of the batter more fully, I made more than necessary, and battered onion rings. No other seasoning on them at all. They were really delicious. The thicker batter was perfect here.
I would totally make this again, being more careful with the batter. I would also:
a) use that marinade technique again and on different dishes
b) use that batter instead of other techniques. I'm not going to open a bottle of wine just for it, but sometime when some is open, that's great.
c) use the fried parsley as garnish when frying other dishes.
Tonight I am making cornbread and roasting yams for cooking tomorrow. But I'm already looking ahead to the turkey Tetrazinni on Saturday or Sunday (my favorite use of left over poultry and a fantastic dish with a cool history in its own right - I use to eat occasionally at Delmonico's in nyc where it was invented).
Thanks for the review!
YUM!!! I soak mine in buttermilk and hot sauce. LOVE fried chicken.
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