One of our sons brought his girlfriend over for dinner last night and requested my fried chicken. Oh happy days! I love having an excuse to make fried chicken! I made some buttermilk biscuits to go with it. The biscuits were their normal huge success. The chicken ... well ... hmmm.
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| Golden brown and crispy on the outside ... some of them were still pink on the inside. How mortifying! |
Fried chicken is such an art form. It's also an art form I've not yet mastered. You need to walk a fine line between cooking the chicken all the way through on the one side and burning the crust on the other side. I made 10 pieces and probably 4 were underdone. Seriously, it was embarrassing even if no one thought it was a big deal save me.
Having said that, a good time was still had by all. One thing led to another and all of our flown chicks ended up coming back home for the night to have dinner together. The house was full of love and laughter and the smell of Southern food frying in oil. What a joy.
I've had this kind of trouble too, mainly when I use a big baking sheet like that. I think that when the sheet covers more than about 3/4 of the width of the oven, it impedes air mixing and produces cold spots. When I use smaller baking sheets, the problem largely goes away.
ReplyDeleteThis is clearly an excuse to get a thermal imaging camera to check for uniform temperatures.
The chicken does look good, though.
They were fried in oil in a large skillet. The problem is that the oil isn't maintained at a constant temperature. It varies from 250-350. You get it to 350, put the chicken in and it drops to about 250. It then rises again. Since I use a gas stove, I don't have a thermostat on it and can't control the temp. That's why I get uneven results.
ReplyDeleteI've done oven-fried chicken. I get more consistent results, but nothing beats real oil frying.