How to make perfect buttermilk fried chicken
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Once you've masteredJill Dupleix's buttermilk chicken recipe mix it up with these tips and riffs.
Tips
- The secret to a thick,crisp coating is to double-dip in buttermilk and seasoned flour.
- Add cornflour to the plain flour to help keep the coating crisp.
- Buy chicken marylands,and cut through the joint to separate drumsticks and thighs.
- Cook same-sized chicken pieces at the same time.
- Eat with your hands – it tastes twice as good this way.
Mix it up
- Serve fried chicken with purple cabbage slaw,crisp green beans,mashed potato,warm potato salad or buttered corn cobs.
- Buttermilk fried chicken is just as delicious cold,which makes it perfect picnic fare (pictured above).
- You'll be needing pickles. Try dill pickles,pickled chillies,pickled onions,sweet gherkins or cornichons.
- Or make your own quick pickle:finely slice a red onion and pickle in 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar,1 tablespoon salt and 1 tablespoon sugar for a few hours,then drain.
- Skip the deep-fryer and pan-fry instead. Brine and flour the chicken,pan-fry in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until golden,then bake at 180C for 45 minutes or until cooked.
- For the best fried chicken burgers ever,make this recipe with boneless chicken thighs and serve in burger buns with coleslaw,pickles and mayo.
- Got a crowd? Serve miniature fried chicken as cocktail party snacks – joint two or three poussin (small chickens) into eight pieces each,dip in buttermilk and spiced flour and deep-fry for 6 minutes until crisp.
- For super-hot Nashville-style fried chicken,add 2 tablespoons hot sauce (such as Tabasco) to the buttermilk brine and double the cayenne in the flour. But don't say I didn't warn you.
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Jill Dupleix is a Good Food contributor and reviewer who writes the Know-How column.