“Fried chicken tends to make you feel better about life”.

Fried chicken- tender juicy chicken covered with a golden crispy crust.

Fried chicken is one of the most favourite and popular dishes of America, in fact all over the world – there is not a single person who does not like it . With the children so conscious of what they eat today, fried chicken is very rarely made at home these days. Having said that, during the weekends if and when there is a plate of fried chicken put on the table, the first thing everyone stretches out to is the fried chicken. This is real comfort food and is delicious.

There are different ways to prepare fried chicken, some cook the chicken lightly before breading the chicken to fry, others, to avoid the oil place the breaded chicken in the oven to bake till golden brown.

The temperature of the oil in which the chicken has to be fried should be around 175deg.c and a cast iron skillet is the best pan to use to fry the chicken till golden brown.

Sharing with you a favourite recipe of mine, it’s tasty and I would say it’s a very, very simple recipe to follow: Enjoy.

Ingredients:

• Chicken – 4-5 chicken legs – 500 grams ( tender chicken of 1 kg)
• Egg- 1 big
• Milk -1 and a 1/2 cups
• Flour-1 and a half cups
• Salt
• Sugar- a pinch
• Oregano- 1 tsp
• Parsley -1tsp
• Basil- 1/2 tsp
• Mustard powder -1 tsp
• Kashmiri chilli powder- 3 tsp
• Pepper powder -2 tsp
• Ginger- garlic paste – 1 tbsp

Method:

• Pat dry the chicken pieces and soak in a mixture of beaten egg and milk for 10 minutes.
• Add all the spices to the flour mixture including the ginger- garlic paste, run it in the mixie for a couple of seconds till the spices are well distributed .( No water to be added)
• Remove the Chicken pieces from the egg- milk mixture and coat in the seasoned flour.
• Repeat the process and keep aside for 15-20 minutes.
• In hot oil, place the chicken legs and brown both sides.
• Lower the heat, cover the pan and cook for 10-15 minutes.
• By now the chicken is cooked but NOT crispy.
• Turn the heat on high, remove the cover and deep fry till crisp and brown.
• Remove onto a tissue paper to drain any oil if present.
• Serve hot with sauce of your choice.

Chefs tips:

• The chicken should be tender and should weigh around a kilo.
• Once coated with flour , the chicken has to rest for 15-20 minutes so that the flour gets sticky and pasty and sticks to the chicken.
• The temperature of the oil should be 175 deg.c and with the help of tongs the chicken pieces should be placed carefully in the oil.
• Do not overcrowd the pan as this could result in the lowering of temperature of the oil.
• When the chicken is fried and golden brown, a food thermometer placed in the piece of chicken should read 165 deg.c.
• Fried chicken could be kept in an oven heated to 200 deg.c till it’s time to serve.
• This serves 2-3.

Hope you try this out and let me know.

Till my next post,

Cheers

Rose