Southern Fried Chicken
“My love for juicy chicken coated in a crisp crust knows no bounds. Whether it’s a thick crunchy coating with eleven secret herbs and spices or paper-thin crackling skin that unites with the flesh underneath to achieve that cosmic oneness so coveted by friend chicken aficionados like myself, there is nothing — I mean nothing — I’d rather be doing in this sweet, fair world right now than sinking my teeth into a golden brown thigh, feeling the snap of the skin against my lips, the salty golden juices dripping down my chin. If you’d let me, I’d eat fried chicken for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and several meals in between.” - J. Kenji López-Alt
Until now, nothing could describe my personal feelings about fried chicken like this excerpt above. Just like Arafat’s personal vice is a big juicy cheeseburger, mine is a piece of crispy spicy fried chicken. Without any rhyme or reason, fried chicken is something I will randomly crave at 1 am at night. My go to munchie food? You bet it’s spicy fried chicken. In a way that someone converts to Judaism or becomes a Hare Krishna, I belong to the church of fried chicken. Yes, I am an avid altar acolyte of the yardbird. And today I am going to share with y’all my divine truth.
Ps. I have a lot to say about Southern Fried Chicken. So either pour yourself a cup of tea or a glass of wine and pull up a chair for this story. If you are here just for the recipe, use the link below to skip right through to the ingredients and directions.
The Immigrant Experience
Like many millennials, my introduction to fried chicken came from one particular place: those grease stained buckets with the Colonels face. Sadly, overtime the quality at KFC did take a backseat and every visit has resulted in disappointment and disillusionment. That being said, my parents did insist on eating halal and our family favorite fried chicken spot was always Popeyes. Some of you may not know this but all Popeyes restaurants in Ontario, Canada serve hand-slaughtered Halal chicken.
My love for fried chicken might be something I have inherited from my father, which has always been his guilty pleasure food. Growing up, whenever dad wanted to treat us or we got tired of eating home cooked food, fried chicken was our family favorite takeout. I didn’t realize how much I loved it or was conditioned eating it until I moved away. One day, I had a sudden intense craving for Popeye’s fried chicken and their Cajun fries. Initially, Arafat didn’t understand why I didn’t want to go to Gus’s or Roscoe’s and why it only had to be Popeye’s. Of course, this was before he had tried their famous spicy chicken and Cajun fries himself. Side note, if you have never had these fries, you are missing out my friend! In the culinary world, they talk about how McDonald’s has perfected French fries, but Popeye’s here takes it to a whole another level with their flavorful and spicy Cajun seasoning. Side note, if you want to learn how to make great French fries (even better than McDonald’s) recipe, check out my Poutine recipe.
Alright enough about fries and more about fried chimkin...I mean chicken. In my recipe, I tried to capture those first fleeting childhood tastes of fried chicken - the deep chicken flavor, juicy, tender meat and the crispy, spicy coating. And if you are serving up southern fried chicken for a Sunday brunch, I always like to include thick and fluffy buttermilk waffles. I also make a spicy honey butter sauce but just swap the honey for maple syrup and you have a spicy maple syrup perfect for drizzling. Today I am going to share the recipes for all three - my favorite southern fried chicken, fluffy buttermilk waffles and spicy honey butter. Before we get down to the recipe, it is important to learn and acknowledge the complicated history and legacy of fried chicken in America.
As American as Fried Chicken
The dish, like the nation that popularized it, has a complicated, often contradictory history. The origin of fried chicken in the southern states of America has been traced to precedents in Scottish and West African cuisine. While we can no longer be sure whether it was African slaves or Southerners of European descent who first decided to bread and fry these stringy yardbirds, we do know that West Africans have a tradition of frying food in hot oil, and that fried chicken as we know it today originated in the South from the African-American community. Although acknowledged positively as "soul food" today, the affinity that African-American culture has for fried chicken has been considered a delicate, often pejorative issue due to decades (more like centuries) of racial divisiveness and stereotyping.
For at least a hundred and fifty years, people have been cooking and selling fried chicken in America. Though their culinary contributions went uncredited for centuries, African and African-American cooks were largely responsible for creating what Americans now know as Southern food. From the mid-eighteenth century through Emancipation, dishes like fried chicken were developed and prepared by enslaved cooks, who combined West African culinary traditions with those of indigenous North American peoples and European colonialists. The earliest were black women, newly freed from slavery after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. These entrepreneurial cooks, known as “waiter carriers,” brought their skills and their chicken to markets and train stations to sell to travelers passing through towns. They sold chicken to support themselves and their families, because that was the work that was available to them.
Why the stereotypes?
The downside of fried chicken becoming so identifiably southern is that it gave people license to create ugly, fried chicken-related stereotypes connected the South's largest racial minority which were the African Americans. Even though, it was the African Americans who perfected this dish under inhumane conditions, they were continuously subjected to repugnant stereotypes about their affinity for fried chicken. After being forced through servitude to cook for landowners for centuries, and then relegated by circumstance to sell fried chicken for a living, African Americans were depicted in advertisements, postcards, newspapers, and flyers as chicken thieves and animalistic consumers of fried chicken. It was part of a concerted effort during the 19th century to de-humanize the newly-freed African Americans as unworthy of the citizenship rights recently conferred upon them. It’s why many black people in America still refuse to eat fried chicken in public, carrying the stigma with them.
In spite of these indignities, fried chicken didn’t disappear within black communities. In fact, it spread even farther as part of the six-decades-long Great Migration, during which at least six million African Americans fled a turbulent and segregated South to start anew in northern and western cities. These men, women, and children were prohibited from using most train accommodations along their trip, so they prepared fried chicken from recipes designed to withstand the long journey, boxed it up cold, and carried it on board for sustenance. When they arrived in their new homes, fried chicken was a special Sunday meal after church — a place it occupied for much of the early twentieth century.
Then, decades later, after World War II, a certain Harland Sanders bleached his beard white and dressed up in a white suit with a bolo tie in order to sell his own fried chicken, capitalizing on racist nostalgia for the old plantation-era South. By marketing his restaurants using his symbolic status as a nonmilitary “Colonel,” along with a heavy dose of imagery that evoked slavery-era plantations, he grew Kentucky Fried Chicken into a multimillion-dollar company. Later, after Sanders had mostly stepped away from the business, KFC would swell into the world’s second largest restaurant brand, with locations in more than one hundred countries. KFC’s success, along with that of Church’s and Popeyes brought a version of Southern fried chicken to a global audience.
At various periods throughout American history, fried chicken has been craved, rejected, heralded, excoriated, belittled, honored, and exploited — often all at once. Today, fried chicken offers a key to the American dream for immigrants from around the world, all of whom put their own spin on the bird. A quick survey of the food world reveals that practically every culture that eats chicken has come up with a way to crisp birds in hot oil, which brings me to my next point.
Going Global + Repatriation
The Americans gave the world Southern Fried Chicken and the world gave back in innumerable ways. Now we have so many delicious derivatives and variations in nearly every corner of the globe. Different methods to fry the birds from around the world have flapped back to the US in recent decades, as new generations of entrepreneurial immigrants have arrived.
Boneless chicken breast, marinated in Chinese spices and dredged in potato starch, which gives a particularly thin, delicate crust and serve it alongside a pastel glass of bubble tea, you get the intoxicating Xiang Ji Pai, better known as Taiwanese Fried Chicken.
If you marinate the chicken first in citrus juices and Latin spices which gives the chicken a deep, earthy flavor and reddish hue, you’ve got the Central American fried chicken or as they call it Pollo Frito.
Bathe it in soy sauce, ginger and garlic; dredge it in potato starch and pack it in a bento box and we have the Japanese Karaage.
A sticky shellac of fish sauce, sugar, and garlic and wok seared with the salt-sweet lacquer, that would be Vietnamese fries chicken, Gà Chiên
Marinate the chicken in lemon, chili and onion and serve it over rice, we have the national dish of Senegal, Yassa Poulet.
Leave the bones in, fry it twice and then coat it in a thick, sweetened gochujang for Yangnyeom Dak, more commonly known as Korean fried chicken.
Add an intensely spicy cayenne pepper paste, which boasts not only a cult following but a citywide festival, and you’ve got Nashville Hot Chicken.
Prepare it in a marinade of garlic, turmeric and lemongrass fried in coconut oil, and now we have the Indonesian Ayam Goreng.
If you want to learn more about the origin and globalization of the Southern Fried Chicken, here is an illustrated guide by First We Feast.
Recipe — Southern Fried Chicken & Buttermilk Waffles with Spicy Honey Butter
Serves: 4
Homemade fried chicken and fluffy buttermilk waffles is a true soul food brunch dish that everyone loves. A lot of people think chicken and waffles are a Southern dish because it uses fried chicken. Chicken and waffles didn't become popular until the Harlem Renaissance in Harlem, New York in the 1930s at the Wells Supper Club owned by Joseph T. Wells. Musicians leaving work late at night or extremely early in the morning would fill Wells Supper Club and this sweet and savory, breakfast-and-dinner combo kept every belly satisfied. During the 1970s, chicken and waffles have gained popularity in Los Angeles due to the fame of former Harlem resident Herb Hudson's restaurant Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles, which has become known as a favorite of some Hollywood celebrities and been referenced in several movies. Alright y’all get ready for the recipe now.
Marinating the Chicken
This part has to be done one day ahead because the chicken pieces need to be marinated overnight.
Paprika - 2 tbsp
Black Pepper - 2 tbsp
Garlic Powder - 1 tsp
Onion Powder - 1 tsp
Dried Oregano - 2 tsp
Dry Mustard Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Msg - 1 tbsp
Combine all of the above ingredients in a small bowl, mix thoroughly and set aside. This is going to be our spice mix we will use throughout the recipe.
Chicken - 3-4 pounds, that’s about 8-10 pieces thighs and drumsticks
Buttermilk - 1 cup
Egg - 1
Hot Sauce, Louisiana Style - 1/4 cup, I like this brand.
Spice Mix - 2 tbsp
Salt - 2 tsp
Whisk all of the above ingredients in a large bowl. Add the chicken pieces and toss and turn to coat. Transfer the contents of the bowl to a gallon-sized zipper-lock freezer bag and refrigerate overnight or 8-12 hours, flipping the bag occasionally to redistribute the contents and coat the chicken evenly.
Frying the Chicken
AP Flour - 1 1/2 cups
Cornstarch - 1/2 cup
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Whisk together all the ingredients above and the remaining spice mixture in a large bowl. Add 3-4 tablespoons of the marinade from the chicken and work it into the flour with your fingertips. Remove one piece of chicken from the bag, allowing excess buttermilk to drip off, drop the chicken into the flour mixture, and toss to coat. Continue adding chicken pieces to the flour mixture one at a time until they are all in the bowl. Toss the chicken until every piece is thoroughly coated, pressing with your hands to get the flour to adhere in a thick layer.
Peanut Oil - 4 cups or more for frying
Equipment Needed - Cast Iron Wok or a Deep Fryer or a Dutch Oven or any type of deep frying dish you have which retains heat very well. You will also need a Candy Thermometer.
Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F. Heat the oil to 425°F in the fryer or a large wok/Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Adjust the heat as necessary to maintain the temperature, being careful not to let the fat get any hotter.
One piece at a time, transfer the coated chicken to a fine-mesh strainer and shake to remove excess flour. Transfer to a wire rack set on a rimmed baking sheet. Once all the chicken pieces are coated, place skin side down in the pan. The temperature should drop to 300°F; adjust the heat to maintain the temperature at 300°F for the duration of the cooking. Fry the chicken until it’s a deep golden brown on the first side, about 6 minutes; do not move the chicken or start checking for doneness until it has fried for at least 3 minutes, or you may knock off the coating. Now carefully flip the chicken pieces with tongs and cook until the second side is golden brown, about 4 minutes longer.
Note: I suggest against crowding the frying pan or fryer. If you overcrowd the pan, even if the temperature is initially optimal, you many cause the temperature of the oil to dip too low, thus impeding the browning and crisping. To avoid that from happening, I usually fry 4 pieces at a time.
Transfer the chicken to a clean wire rack set on a rimmed baking sheet and place in the oven. Cook until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast registers 150°F and the legs register 165°F, 5 to 10 minutes; remove the chicken pieces to a second rack or a paper-towel-lined plate as they reach their final temperature. You can stop here and season with salt and serve.
…or if you want to make your chicken extra extra crunchy!
Place the plate of cooked chicken in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, and up to overnight. When ready to serve, reheat the oil to 400°F. Add the chicken pieces and cook, flipping them once halfway through cooking, until completely crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack set on a rimmed baking sheet to drain. Season with salt and then serve immediately.
Buttermilk Waffles
AP Flour - 2 cups
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Eggs - 3
Buttermilk - 2 cups
Unsalted Butter - 5 tbsp
In a large bowl (if you really want to make your life easier, use one with a pour spout), whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, and butter.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Starting in the center of the well and gradually moving towards the edges of the bowl, gently and steadily whisk the wet and dry ingredients together.
Note: You don't want lumps, which you'll get if you move too quickly, but you also don't want to over-mix the batter—once you do this the first time, you'll get the hang of it.
Heat a Belgian waffle maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. I use the medium-high heat setting on mine. Once it's hot, brush both the sides of the waffle iron lightly with vegetable oil. Pour about a cup of batter into the center of the iron and use a heatproof spatula to spread it gently towards the edges before closing the iron. By pre-spreading it helps prevent overflow. Follow the instruction that came with the waffle maker to know when the waffles are ready
Spicy Honey Butter
Unsalted Butter - 2 oz
Honey or Maple Syrup - 1/4 cup
Hot Sauce - 1/4 cup. I like this one
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the butter is foaming, stir through the honey or maple syrup and hot sauce. Simmer for another minute or until thick and glossy. Then remove from heat and set aside. When ready to serve, just reheat gently on the stovetop.
It’s Time!
Serve the chicken on top of the waffles, then drizzle generously with the spicy honey butter. Everything about the dish may be complicated, but biting into that hot juicy drumstick is pleasure that is pure and simple.
And there you have it folks! The perfect Sunday brunch….or brinner (is that even a thing?). So what y’all waiting for? Start salivating and get fryin! I promise it’s finger lickin’ good!
If you do recreate our recipe
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