I love fried chicken. I really do. As an illustration of my love, I offer the fact that at the age of 24 I had my first ever kebab only a few short weeks ago.
It wasn't as good as the chicken. For me, it's a texture thing as much as a flavour thing. Crispy chicken skin taken to the nth degree. Plus, I get to feel all caveman eating this hunk of meat. It's overseasoned, crunchy and juicy and it always drips down my arms and face. It's delicious and disgusting in about equal measure.
Fried chicken is what I eat when I've been drinking and just need to have a little something on the roll home. Fried chicken is what I eat on the rare (I promise it is rare) occasions I get fast food, at an airport or motorway service station. Fried chicken, however, is not something I eat at home. Ever.
The reasons are twofold:
a) I'm not going to make it
b) There is no where near me that makes it in any form I'm willing to munch on sober.
It's a sad state of affairs, let me tell you.
My mission (and, oh yes, I do choose to accept it) is to make something that brings together my love for 3am-on-saturday gobbets of fried madness and my love of functioning coronary arteries.
Lightened up fried chicken.
Straight away, I knew i had to lose the 'fried' element. Again, I can offer you reasoning in twofold:
a) Monday chicken is not fried. It defeats the point of wanted to make chicken I can make myself and still feel awesome about it
b) I don't like deep frying. I've done it (see here!) but it's not a habit I'm in. It's not so much the danger, I'm all for avoiding danger- those people who say danger is their middle name = not me.
My middle name might be something closer to 'Feed-me-cake'. Or, you know, Louise. The reason I'm no happy fryer is simpler- it makes my hair (+house) smell weird. I am truly that shallow.
I began where all endeavours begin, the internet. Google told me that oven fried chicken is indeed a thing, people make it and it involves cornflakes.
Ew. No.
I do see where the invisible denizens of the internet were going with this, a crispy coating that gives that same textural contrast. But my monday chicken includes neither breadcrumbs nor cereal.
I could describe how I came across a recipe for batter that was the very light crispy coating I wanted, but why bother when someone else already did all the testing and tasting bad chicken for me?
A combination of the Food Lab's Korean fried chicken and General Tso's chicken recipes gave me a few odd ingredients for lovely oven fried chicken, namely baking powder for lightness and bubbles in your batter and vodka, for crispness that lasts for more than a few minutes after you're done cooking and cornstarch, which browns better than flour.
Adding together the combined wisdom of both articles (seriously, go read both articles) this is my recipe
Monday Chicken
0) Preheat oven to 180 degrees. (I know, I know, my first point is number 0. But I forgot the preheating and didn't want to renumber everything).
1) Pull the skin off 8 chicken thighs/drumsticks. I like to use all thighs or all drumsticks so the pieces cook at the same rate. The oven times below are for thighs. If you use drumsticks, you'll need to knock 5 minutes off the cooking time.
2) Prepare the wet coating. I used an egg white based batter, as suggested in the articles. To one egg white add;
2 tablespoons of vodka (use the nasty, cheap studenty stuff I know you've got hidden somewhere)
3 tablespoons of cornstarch to thicken
a quarter of a teaspoon of baking powder (I know it's a tiny amount. Use it anyway. Don't even think about using more, baking powder is nasty to taste in your food later on)
A splash of soy sauce (for that mysterious umami flavour)
Smoked paprika, cayenne and lots of black pepper.
3) Siphon off about a third of this bowl of happiness into a cup/bowl/vessel for later
4) Plop your thighs in the 2/3 remaining and splash them around until they're coated.
4) Make your dry coating from half a cup of flour, half a cup of cornstarch, another half teaspoon of baking powder and your chosen seasoning weapons. For me, fried chicken is a salty affair. However, according to my palate, a salty affair can be achieved with the barest whisper of actual salt. I know I'm a funny sort of fish though, so salt to your personal heart's content, though err on the side of a little more salt. I add more paprika, cayenne and pepper here, because my feelings on pepper are almost the polar opposite to my feelings on salt (more, lots, all the time).
5) Pour the reserved wet coating into the dry coating and whisk it in, forming lumpy little nuggets batter amongst the flour.
6) Dredge your chicken pieces in flour and put on a wire rack over a baking tray. Wire rack is important to allow even(ish) browning top and bottom. Spray with cooking oil. I love the olive oil you can get in a spray mister bottle, but anything will do. Even a light drizzle will do in a pinch.
7) Pop the chicken in the oven for 30 mins. In the last ten minutes, preheat grill to medium-high.
8) Once your oven timer has made a noise, put the whole tray/wire/chicken affair under the grill. This isn't totally necessary but should get rid of any residual powdery floury coating, and adding a last burst of crispness. Do it for 10 mins total, turning regularly, or at least once halfway through. If you're not doing this, the chicken will need another 15 mins in the oven.
9) Leave to cool a little, pick up with your hands and enjoy. You should probably serve this with accompaniments. I recommend leafy greens and coleslaw! I made homemade coleslaw here because I like a heartily high ratio of vegetables to mayo, so shop bought ones are always too creamy-saucy.
If anyone is in any doubt as to the juiciness of my oven fried monday chicken, wonder no more...
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