Use as many pieces of chicken as you like, I prefer whole legs meaning the thigh/drum all as one large piece, but drums alone work well too. I also do wings sometimes but they have more hanging bits that tend to burn. I have never tried the recipe with white meat since I don't like white meat and even Alton Brown agrees it is an abomination lacking flavor.
- All-purpose flour
- Yellow mustard, plenty of it, cheapest available (1-2 bottles)
- Old Bay Seasoning (Must be Old Bay original seasoning, can be bought at Wal-mart grocers)
- Kosher Salt (yes, Morton's Kosher salt, don't use something else)
- Black Pepper (Any type)
- Good high temperature oil of your choice, I normally use half sunflower seed oil and half regular olive oil just for reasons of availability at my home and price. Some people swear by different types of oil but I have yet to see a discernable difference in the few experiments I have done
- Chicken, lots of it because if you are going through the trouble to do this right you should make extra
- 2 large casserole pans or similar shaped holding recepticals
- Wire rack to dry fried chicken on, keeps chicken from pooling oil on bottom
- Cookie sheet to put under wire rack for drippings
- Oil thermometer
- or wired barbeque meat thermometer mounted so that it stands upright in oil, I use two clothespins to accomplish this on mine
- or deep fryer with regulated temperature for keeping temperature of oil steady
- Handheld Meat Thermometer for checking chicken internal temperature
- Cast-iron dutch oven
- or best/heaviest-weight large pot you have for holding temp
- or a deep fryer that regulates temp
- 2-3 tongs
- To fry great chicken you must keep the temperature of the oil at a steady temperature, too low a temp you get oily heavy chicken (below 325), too high you get burned outside, dry and/or undercooked inside (above 350). So when we fry we need to ensure our oil temp stays within a range of 325-350 as much as possible. We need to monitor oil temp with our oil thermometer or whatever tool you have chosen throughout the cooking process. Also account for the fact when you see the thermometer hit a temp it can raise/lower as much as 10 degrees past that even after you drop/remove a piece of chicken. You may need to adjust the burner slightly from time to time as well.
- Adjusting the temperature of oil can seem hard at first, but the thing you have to understand is that for every piece of chicken you drop into the oil the temperature will drop, the more you put in the lower the temp drops, chicken that is close to cooking completion or cooked through will cause the temp to rise. So it is a balancing act between adding pieces to drop the temp and removing pieces, that are cooked, to raise the temp.
- Drying on a wire rack is key to keeping the bottom side of fried chicken from becoming caked in oil
- Fried chicken needs a binder to help coat the chicken and impart flavor. You could use almost anything and a lot of people dredge through eggs, buttermilk, or other similar methods. However, we are using yellow mustard, it sounds weird and you might have the idea you would taste it in the cooked chicken but you don't, people can never tell what was used. It gives great flavor while being nice and tacky to help hold onto spices and flour for the crust.
- You might want to use a separate set of tongs for each task otherwise they get really caked with flour and such
- Start your oil on a medium-high burner and set oil thermometer in place. Attempt to raise temperature to about 350, no higher. When you hit 340-ish you will want to be ready to drop your first piece of chicken. There should be enough oil to deep-fry, usually I fill up the dutch oven up to 2 inches of the top of the pan. It is a lot of oil but I usually clean and re-use unless I am doing a lot of chicken then it gets too dirty and I have to throw it out.
- While the oil is heating put chicken in a large casserole pan and squirt mustard all over the chicken pieces, use some tongs to mix them around and cover every part. Be liberal, hard to do too much but just be sure to have a decent amount of covering on everything
- Sprinkle an even amount of Old Bay Seasoning across all the chicken being sure to get an even coating on each piece without any overspiced spots. The Old Bay should be visible as an even sprinkling on the mustard, but don't overdo it or you risk it coming out too salty. Do the same with salt and pepper again careful not to overdo it, kosher salt goes a lot further than pink Himalayan or similar. Flip each piece and repeat the seasoning/salt/pepper so that all sides are coated. I usually have enough chicken that I have to stack chicken on one side of pan and lay a few flat for each round of seasoning.
- Put flour in the second casserole pan, 1 to 2 cups should be enough to start, add more as needed. Move pieces of chicken over to the flour to cover all sides with flour. Use tongs to flip over and scoop up flour and pour on top of chicken until it is nicely covered.
- Pick up a piece of chicken from the flour pan and lightly shake off excess flour then slowly place into the oil, being sure temperature is up before the drop. I usually put it in thick meaty side down first then flip about halfway through the cook time, you will get the idea as you do a few.
- Repeat these steps being sure not to overcrowd the pot and waiting a few minutes between dropping each piece since temperature can be adversely effected by dropping too many at once.
- When you see the outside of the chicken getting golden brown it is about time to check the chicken's internal temp. Use tongs to lift the first piece of chicken you dropped out of the oil and poke with a meat-thermometer. The target temp for dark meat is 180, white meat would be 161 if you like that crap. If you overcook too much it will be dry and burned but dark meat can be pretty forgiving so just be sure it makes it to a minimum of 180. Otherwise you risk it being slightly pink (although it is technically cooked through by 161 from my memory), stringy, and possibly bloody. Dark meat tends to be a little more bloody and that is why you need to reach 180. If temp too low just drop back in for a bit.
- When internal temp of chicken is right remove from oil and place on wire rack with cookie sheet underneath to let it cool down and allow any oil to drain off.
- After a few minutes or once cool enough, dig in! Enjoy the best Fried Chicken ever!