[4 - 6] [Music] after a night soak the acid and sugars
[6 - 8] after a night soak the acid and sugars in the buttermilk have actually invaded
[8 - 9] the chicken meat which is going to give
[9 - 11] it a nice tangy flavor now the
[11 - 13] buttermilk itself has formed a kind of
[14 - 16] thick batter that's what viscosity buys
[16 - 18] you you can't pull that off with regular
[19 - 22] milk this is a poultry shake and everybody
[22 - 24] this is a poultry shake and everybody ought to have one my shake is two
[24 - 26] tablespoons each kosher salt and
[26 - 28] hungarian paprika two teaspoons of
[28 - 31] garlic powder and 1 teaspoon cayenne
[31 - 33] pepper i just spin said shake with a
[33 - 35] buck 50 pizzeria shaker by the way to
[35 - 37] keep this fresh in between shakings a
[37 - 39] piece of wax paper under the cap does
[39 - 41] the job just don't forget to take it out
[41 - 44] before you shake now liberal seasoning
[44 - 46] is advised not only are you seasoning
[46 - 48] the meat but the crust that will soon be
[48 - 57] forming on top so go for the gusto
[60 - 60] now a quick dredge and all-purpose
[62 - 63] flour now you could augment this with anything
[63 - 65] now you could augment this with anything from cornmeal to corn flakes but this is
[66 - 68] tradition for a reason
[68 - 70] it's good now a lot of cooks would
[70 - 72] season this flour but i don't like to do
[72 - 74] that i've got two good reasons one you
[74 - 77] waste a lot of seasonings and two spices
[77 - 80] like paprika burn by stashing them under
[80 - 83] the crust they'll be protected now this
[83 - 85] may be the most important point you want
[85 - 87] to get as much of the extra dredge off
[87 - 89] as possible any excess will fall off in
[89 - 92] the pan and burn that's not good eats
[92 - 94] a lot of recipes including this one
[94 - 97] recommend a post edge rest period to let
[97 - 98] the coating set but i don't give it more
[98 - 100] than a couple of minutes because set is
[100 - 103] exactly what this cousin of library
[103 - 105] paste will do i can see by the little
[105 - 107] wisps of smoke starting to form on the
[107 - 109] surface of the shortening this is ready
[109 - 110] to go and indeed the thermometer
[110 - 114] confirms temperature of 352 degrees now
[114 - 116] remember it's got a low smoke point and
[116 - 117] about 360 it's going to start smoking
[118 - 119] heavily and that means that it's
[119 - 120] chemically breaking down and that's
[120 - 122] going to smell bad and it's going to
[122 - 123] taste bad so we've got to get this stuff
[123 - 125] in the pan but we can't just chuck it in
[125 - 128] willy-nilly i mean cast iron is a
[128 - 129] righteous conductor but there's still
[129 - 131] going to be a hot spot right here right
[132 - 133] in the center never the burner is but we
[133 - 136] can take advantage of this here's how
[136 - 138] take the faster cooking pieces the
[138 - 139] breasts we're going to put them skin
[141 - 143] at ten o'clock
[144 - 146] and two o'clock away from the hottest part
[146 - 148] two o'clock away from the hottest part of the pan now the drumsticks take a
[148 - 150] long time to cook but they're small so
[150 - 151] we'll put them at
[151 - 153] seven o'clock
[153 - 155] and five o'clock that's going to leave
[155 - 156] the hottest part right here in the
[156 - 159] center available for the longest cooking
[159 - 161] pieces the thighs
[161 - 163] put them down right in the middle so
[163 - 165] they're not touching anything
[165 - 167] you want to cook this until it's golden
[167 - 169] brown and delicious on side a and you
[169 - 171] see a lot of moisture pushing up on side
[171 - 173] b it's going to take about 12 minutes
[173 - 175] depending on the size of the pieces
[175 - 177] 12 minutes is up and all looks well
[177 - 179] first we have tail tail little pools of
[180 - 181] moisture here some of that's probably
[181 - 183] accumulated steam but most of it pushed
[183 - 185] up from inside the meat then of course
[186 - 188] the golden brown crust with the nice
[188 - 190] little dark areas that's from sitting on
[190 - 192] the bottom of the pan that stuff tastes
[192 - 194] good so roll everything
[194 - 196] right where it is
[196 - 198] now since we're about to introduce a
[198 - 201] whole new cold surface to the oil we're
[201 - 202] going to get a little bit of a
[202 - 204] temperature drop so before we leave
[204 - 207] we're going to turn the heat up again to
[207 - 209] medium high just for a few minutes to
[209 - 211] help compensate remember the pans
[211 - 212] holding on to a huge amount of heat so
[212 - 214] it's going to do most of the work for
[214 - 216] you check in a couple of minutes
[216 - 218] by the way this little baby here is the
[218 - 221] best 15 you will ever spend unless
[221 - 223] cleaning every horizontal surface in the
[223 - 225] kitchen sounds fun
[231 - 231] well another 12 minutes of rush by here
[231 - 234] in tv land and if we've controlled our
[234 - 236] fat temperature properly side b should
[236 - 239] be just a little bit darker than side a
[239 - 241] that's because there's more stuff
[241 - 242] floating around in the shorting on the
[242 - 245] second pass most importantly the inside
[245 - 246] should be done only one way to know for
[246 - 250] sure 183 fine
[250 - 253] 183 fine i usually don't advocate taking dark
[253 - 256] meat beyond 175 or light meat beyond 165
[256 - 259] but i find that another 10 degrees makes
[259 - 260] a big difference in how the crust
[260 - 263] adheres to the meat post pan and since
[263 - 266] fried chicken must try some more yes
[266 - 268] must be eaten with the fingers
[268 - 271] slightly firmer meat will be a plus now
[271 - 272] let's review shall we
[272 - 274] for perfect pan fried chicken start with
[274 - 277] a broiler fryer cut it up yourself soak
[277 - 279] it overnight in low fat buttermilk then
[279 - 282] drain it season it liberally with a
[282 - 284] shake of your own design then dredge it
[284 - 286] an all-purpose flour and fry it in a
[286 - 288] cast iron skillet containing a mere
[288 - 290] third of an inch of shortening
[290 - 292] maintained in an average temperature of
[292 - 295] 325 degrees turn it one time and one
[295 - 297] time only then drain it and eat it
[297 - 299] i might add that
[299 - 304] there is no bad time for fried chicken