My Mom grew up on a farm in the Florida panhandle, and no matter how sophisticated my tastes get, there will always be a part of me that sometimes still craves fried chicken, pot roast, vegetables steamed to mushiness, and a bathtub full of gravy. My mother's fried chicken, in particular, is great. I've watched her make it many, many times, though not recently. There's just something so appealing about the crispy skin and the tender, juicy meat inside.
Growing up, there were three main chicken dishes that were staples of the Barzelay household: fried chicken (my brother's favorite), broiled chicken with gravy (my favorite), and barbecued chicken (my Dad's favorite). We would each advocate for our preferred cooking method each time, and we ended up having to institute a system of alternating choices that could be ignored only with the consent of the other parties (well, and for birthday meals, of course). In addition, no matter which way it was cooked, we each had our own favorite piece of chicken. Except that, for all of us, it was the breast. This created a big problem, because we each wanted a breast, we each wanted the biggest breast, and there were one too few breasts to go around.
In fact, I was quite picky with my pieces of chicken while growing up. I refused to eat anything but white meat. It made for some awkward situations at friends' houses and potlucks and such. Now I've gotten over pretty much all of those immature food idiosyncracies, and love every succulent part of the chicken, for every part exists but to pleasure my tongue and belly.
Last week the Chicago Tribune ran an article about fried chicken, where they polled experts, and eventually formulated a recipe for The Perfect Fried Chicken. Reading it got me craving fried chicken, which I haven't ever made away from home. So I decided to make it. I ended up using a hybrid of my mother's method and The Perfect method. It turns out that my mother was mostly spot on with the perfect method. She used fewer flavorings and seasonings, keeping the chicken's taste more pure. I did the same. My mother didn't have time for the long iterations of brining, bathing in buttermilk, and setting the batter that The Perfect recipe prescribes. I don't have half a day like they ask for, but I do have a bit more time than my mom did, so I went halfsies on those suggestions. I brined for about 2 hours instead of their "no less than 3," and bathed in buttermilk for about 45 minutes instead of their "between 1 and 8 hours." Everything else was pretty much the same.
I must agree that The Perfect recipe is truly outstanding. The pieces came out crispier, but juicier and more tender than my mom's did. I'm not sure there was enough of a difference to warrant the four additional hours of (mostly inactive) prep time, but still... I've slightly improved my mother's recipe. Only trouble was that I didn't have a kitchen thermometer for the grease, and, based on the color of the resulting chicken, I'd say it was a tad too hot. Anyway, check out the article whenever you're in the mood for fried chicken.
Also, what's your favorite fried chicken restaurant chain? Where's the best fried chicken in D.C.? Personally, I can gobble about four chickens worth of Popeye's Spicy Fried Chicken, and love every second of it, while I've always found KFC to be disgusting. What say you?
Posted by Barzelay on 2006/07/04 @ 7:21 | Comments (14) | Poultry
Comments
I demand that Mrs. Barzelay be a contributor to the site!
Posted by: Chris Santoro at July 4, 2006 10:38 AM
Ditto on the Popeye's vs. KFC debate, but I've also heard tell that a southern chain called Bojangles is spectacular.
Posted by: Tim at July 4, 2006 11:37 AM
I have eaten Bojangles one time... when I was about five. It was when we were visiting my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins in Jacksonville. I remember liking the fries, but that they were very thick. I do not remember the chicken.
Church's chicken is also very good, by the way. The trouble with KFC is that it uses too many herbs and spices, and then fails to put out as crispy a product as Popeye's. Who needs 11 herbs and spices for fried chicken? But to be fair, KFC's popcorn chicken is quite delicious.
Posted by: Barzelay at July 4, 2006 3:22 PM
I also agree that popeye's chicken is significantly better than KFC's. Its not just the crispiness factor that KFC loses out on, its also the grease factor. KFC chicken is by far the greasiest chicken ive ever had. Its just soaking in the stuff.
For us down here in the south I highly recommend Publix's fried chicken. Its quite crispy and the chicken itself seems to be of higher quality than the chains. Even better are the chicken tenders
Posted by: Adam Rugg at July 4, 2006 4:03 PM
Does the Colonel MSG count as an herb or a spice?
Posted by: Chris Santoro at July 4, 2006 10:31 PM
*Er, 'Does the Colonel count....'*
Posted by: Chris Santoro at July 4, 2006 10:31 PM
Hi David . . . cool site. Sadly, I can safely say that this northerner has never experienced real southern fried chicken [other than KFC that is], can anyone recommend a place where I can get the real deal? I have to say, I have been craving it, and your pictures [David] didn't help any!
Posted by: Carolyn at July 7, 2006 11:26 AM
I don't know of any DC places. Except... well... Popeye's. And again, the consensus seems to be that Popeye's is great. So, I'd say give that a shot. There is no "real Southern fried chicken," because everyone has his or her own recipe anyway.
Posted by: Barzelay at July 8, 2006 12:32 AM
You are absolutely right about popeyes vs kfc. You couldn't pay me to eat KFC!! BTW u rock & inspire me, I'll be cooking very soon thanks to you!!!
Posted by: liz at October 13, 2007 4:13 PM
hi there, i realy want you all to try this fried chicken, is it simply the best, it is comming from saudi arabia, from Jeddah, there web albaik dot com, yes, i tried all around, nothing like it.
hope u all do.
Posted by: sameer ahmed at January 29, 2008 4:19 AM
I think KFC chicken comes out so greasy because they pressure cook the chicken in oil. I don't know if they have it on the menu anymore but I'd always order their rotisserie chicken as kid when my family would eat there. I live in Hawaii and one of the places that makes really good fried chicken is Zippy's restaurant. Karaage style fried chicken is also really popular and most places serve some version of it. Its small chunks of boneless soy sauce marinaded chicken fried until very crisp. Badly done karaage is chewy and dry. However, really good karaage is moist flavorful meat encased in a crisp lacy batter.
Anyway, I choose popeyes over kfc. I tried Church's while I was in the South and thought it tasted like popeyes. If I remember correctly Church's is a little cheaper and their biscuits have a honey glaze.
Posted by: KC at May 12, 2008 2:39 AM
I'm from the south and Bojangles is the best--even better than my mom's!! My little town's opinion on KFC vs. Bojangles was easy to rate--we had 4 Bojangles to 1 KFC that never had any customers!! This recipe is close to how I remember Bo's fried chicken. http://greensboring.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=549
Posted by: GM at February 14, 2009 3:37 PM
Hey, I tried to find that Perfect recipe no longer online.
Could you mail it to me?
Thanx.
justaddcream@gmail.com
Posted by: Rachel at August 19, 2010 6:27 AM
Rachel, I don't have the article anymore.
Posted by: Barzelay at August 19, 2010 11:04 PM