Buttermilk fried chicken and regular fried chicken
When it comes to fried chicken, you know when it's right. You know when you feel it baby. You hold it. You hear it. You taste it. It's right. Wait a minute, that sounds exactly like a Diet Pepsi commercial! Here is the commercial in case you didn't grow up around a TV in the early 90s. It's Ray Charles, basically saying everything I want to say about frying chicken at home. The only difference is that he's a famous musician and that he's talking about Diet Pepsi. Minor differences. Fried chicken is awesome too. Fried chicken is just something you know right away when you have something good, and it's kind of hard to make a bad tasting fried chicken.
Fried chicken differs from french fries on one minor and very important point... you really have to marinate your chicken. French fries are something you can salt and season after the frying process. Chicken on the other hand, really requires a marinade that lets flavors seep into the chicken.
Many people suggest a buttermilk marinade for fried chicken. I'm not sure whether it's a time tested thing, but most recipes call for either buttermilk (see here) or brine (see here). I haven't tried the brining because the buttermilk version is good enough to impart flavor to your chicken.
One thing you should NOT do with your chicken is to fry it at 375. Do not do that folks. You still cook your chicken just fine, except the crust is going to be slightly burnt. I realized my stupidity and read the recipes again... they all tell you to go no higher than 325. OOOPSY. I should learn to read, it'll probably help. You see above what happens to your chicken. Still tastes great, but the crust is just darker.
If you fry chicken at home, you'll notice right away that it's super duper easy to attain a good crust. This is probably because you'll never let the chicken sit for too long. The fried chicken is also going to be very juicy if you don't over fry it. Most recipes call for somewhere between 7 and 10 minutes per side. That's about what you're aiming for, but even at 10 minutes, your chicken is still going to be moist and delicious. No dry chicken when you fry it at home since your margin for error is large.
So to rehash... marinate your chicken. Dredge it in flour. Check oil temp to make sure it's 325 if you want golden looking chicken. 375 if you want a really really brown crust. This definitely requires more nuance than french fries, but the reward is pretty satisfying. It makes you want to sing like Ray Charles and drink pop.
Speaking of which... has ANYONE seen Pepsi Throwback [Youtube]? It's that new Pepsi with real sugar. I've actually had numerous 2 liters of Passover Coke and Sprite and can tell you that you can't taste a goddamn difference when you're playing PS3 and playing tower defense games. It's tasty, fizzy, and almost exactly like the regular stuff... So I wanna see if this Pepsi stuff is also just regular tasting... anyone seen it?
(I invite you to follow me on Twitter so you can get more of my non-sense in another medium.)
So which one tasted better? Buttermilk or regular.
And by the way, you use "marinade" to "marinate" the chicken. Sorry to get all grammar nazi -=X
wonders
April 30, 2009 11:36 am
@Wonders,
Good catch! Should be fixed now... Well with regular fried chicken without marinade.. you just put it in a milk/egg wash and then dredge with flour. That doesn't make it salty enough. Maybe if you brine it... but if you do marinate your chicken in buttermilk for at least a day, it'll taste good. I think... haha
Danny
April 30, 2009 11:54 am
I tried the Pepsi throwback twice. Once in a glass bottle (called Pepsi Natural) and once in a plastic bottle (Pepsi throwback). I have to say that it tastes so much better. I'm very fond of real sugar. I don't use any of that other stuff. One thing I noticed is that the glass bottle makes a difference in the taste. The glass one tasted better than the plastic one.
Oh yeah, I usually don't drink soda unless it has alcohol in it. But this I can drink!
Hungry
April 30, 2009 12:26 pm
@Hungry,
Where did you find them?!
Danny
April 30, 2009 1:33 pm
are you planning to brine the chicken anyway? am a fried chicken fan (just hate the deep-frying part) - would love to know if buttermilk trumps brining.
jae_em
April 30, 2009 3:07 pm
The glass bottled Pepsi natural was at a food event. Haven't seen it outside of that. But the plastic Pepsi Throwback was in a regular supermarket (Shop Rite). The specific one I went to was in NJ though. You definitely have to look for it because it was swimming in a sea of other very similarly labeled Pepsi Products. Try looking for the cans. They were the most abundant.
Hungry
May 1, 2009 12:25 pm
get in my belly!
Obama Bitch
May 1, 2009 11:45 pm
I thought buttermilk and brining (separately) were just to maintain juiciness, not flavor. Mmm fried chicken...
Yvo
May 6, 2009 11:13 am
Brining definitely imparts saltiness to meat. I brined some chicken wings the other week and left it in there for three days. Put the wings in the oven, no salt added, and that thing was salty as all hell. So yea, brining definitely helps if you want to get some salt into a chunk of meat, but if it's a smaller piece, maybe don't do it for three days.
Danny
May 7, 2009 12:22 am
Good point. I brine my turkeys and I don't think I salt it afterwards, but it comes out fantastic. I just remember that all the extra garlic I threw in the brine totally didn't add garlic flavor to the turkey.
Yvo
May 7, 2009 4:06 pm