I had some buttermilk left from making the biscuits and gravy for the tea party, actually there was quite a lot left so one thing I’ve always wanted to try with buttermilk is to make buttermilk fried chicken. I haven’t set foot in KFC for a long time, not because I dislike fried chicken but well….my taste buds are getting averse to all these fast food chains because they’re starting to taste soooo….generic? Even occasionally I prefer Ramly burgers to McDs.
Anyways…I used just drumsticks with the skin on for this recipe because it was first time I’m making this so I’ll start with something small and easy. I mixed the buttermilk with some seasonings, poured them into a ziploc bag and just placed the chicken drumsticks in the bag with the marinade, rubbing it all over.
The flour for dusting was just something I picked up from the store, or course you can just as easily make your own seasoned flour but I guess I wanted to test out if this stuff really works. I don’t make fried chicken very much, this will be like my…sort of…second time? I wanted a spicy flavour to emulate the Hot n Spicy menu of KFC, why was the chilli on the box made to look like a Mexican? I have no idea. It’s a spicy pre-seasoned flour and when I opened up the bag, the spicy smell was rather strong, I had a feeling it might be too spicy so I added an additional 3 Chinese spoons of all-purpose flour and some Italian herb mix. Don’t bother with dredging on plates, just place the flour mixture in another bag. when you take out the drumsticks from the buttermilk marinade, just dust it all over in the pre-seasoned flour bag using a shaking motion. This method I find is less messy to your fingers and kitchen and no floured, sticky dishes to wash.
Now if you’ve got those fancy frying pots with a thermometer reading or those home deep fryer gadgets, that will make life really easy but I just have the bare essentials. I also have a theory about the manual frying technique which worked out for me. My theory is that, you wait for the frying oil to heat up but not to the screaming hot temp where when you drop a little crumb into the oil, it will sizzle immediately. The crumb should just sink down to the bottom but still bubbling. Too hot and the drumsticks’ skin will burn too quickly. Drop in the dredged chicken drumsticks into the oil by batches at this point and wait for the temp of the oil to come up to deep frying phase.
Deep-fry the chicken drumsticks till they’re brown and crispy all over and then drain them a rack. I know some of you might think, well what if you drop something into oil that isn’t hot enough, won’t that make the chicken absorb and retain more grease? That wasn’t the case here at all, the drumsticks turned out to be super moist inside without a lot of grease seeping out. I find that using this method also makes sure the chicken is cooked all the way through the bone and with crispy skin that’s crunchy like chips.
I’m not saying that I will forever stick with this method because it might not work with bigger chicken parts like thighs or breasts, life is all about discovering, but for this dish, this method worked so maybe if I do fry chicken again, I’ll try to variate the frying and see how it goes. Maybe you have your own methods you’d like to share….
I have to also note that eating too much fried food is not good for you, actually…I’ve always said that too much of anything is not good for you, even if it was good for you in the first place. So, eat fried foods…but in moderation.
SPICY BUTTERMILK FRIED CHICKEN RECIPE
Ingredients;
6 pieces of chicken drumsticks with skins on
Pre-seasoned flour for dusting
Italian herbs mix
Marinade
3 cups buttermilk
Dried rosemary
Dried oregano
2 tablespoons chilli powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 onion, grated
2 teaspoon salt
Black Pepper
Steps;
1. Mix the marinade together and put it in a ziploc bag. Place the chicken drumsticks into the bag and leave it to sit in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight.
2. Mix the pre-seasoned flour with some Italian herb seasonings in a separate bag.
3. Dredge the chicken drumsticks inside the flour bag by shaking the bag, making sure the chicken is coated all over with the flour.
4. Heat oil to a semi-frying temp. Take out the drumsticks and shake off the excess flour. Drop the drumsticks in, in batches. Fry the chicken as described above.
5. Fry until they’re golden brown and the skin is crispy, drain them on a rack.
6. Eat plain or drizzled with some lime.
Enjoy!
wendyywy says
3 cups of buttermilk for 6 drumsticks? That’s a lot and pretty pricy to use
:O
I think I’ll be too kiamsap to try this out.
Sharon says
i had about that much leftover from the tea party. There were 6 drums altogether so give or take. But yeah, it’s not an everyday or even often thing cos buttermilk’s not cheap/
Sharon says
i think it was just a little under 600ml so maybe 2 and 1/4 cups…..