Perfect Southern Fried Chicken + Buttermilk Biscuits | Kelly Leding | Skillshare
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Perfect Southern Fried Chicken + Buttermilk Biscuits

teacher avatar Kelly Leding, Private Chef/Blogger @BitingattheBits

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Crispy Fried Chicken Tutorial

      13:17

    • 2.

      Baking Fluffy Biscuits Tutorial

      11:25

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About This Class

Make The Best Southern Fried Chicken of Your Life

Learn how to easily recreate a genuinely authentic Southern favorite from start to finish. You'll learn from my southern roots having grown up eating fried chicken at least once a week, as well as my experience today as a private chef (this is still one of my most requested dishes). This class will change how you make fried chicken and includes a special secret technique to show you how to get the crispiest chicken (really). 

Areas covered will include:

  • Main Dish: make a perfectly crispy, yet juicy fried chicken (spicy optional, but recommended)
  • Savory Side: make tender, fluffy buttermilk biscuits the way southerners really do

You will leave this class with the knowledge and necessary skills to easily recreate your own Southern-inspired meal. And pretty soon, your friends might even start calling you, the Colonel. 

This class is solely taught online and is composed of 2 roughly 20-minute instructional cooking videos encompassing all dishes as outlined above. Resources will be provided for each of the 2 modules/projects that include recipes, tips/techniques, grocery/equipment lists, and approximate grocery costs.

Testimonials
“Kelly is a great teacher and I had so much fun learning to make fried chicken while sipping on champagne. Kelly is extremely knowledgeable and thoroughly explained everything we would ever need to know about making fried chicken. The class was very hands-on. And to top it off, the fried chicken was delicious. Seriously the best fried chicken I've ever had. I can't wait to make a batch at home!” -Amy Shu

“I can make great fried chicken! I learned so much from this cooking class. Kelly is a great teacher and she has amazing tidbits of knowledge that will be useful for many different dishes. I also love that she explains the reasons behind what she is doing. I really learned a lot and got to eat some delicious fried chicken.” -Jessie Startup

“What a fun and informative class, with an absolutely fantastic teacher. We definitely got our hands dirty (in a good way!), had a ton of laughs, and feasted on the crispiest, savoriest, fingerlickin'-est fried chicken ever to grace the five boroughs. Kelly was great at explaining things clearly and showing us how to work out the inevitable little kinks that pop up along the way. Plus, she sent us home with awesome written instructions, and a jar of her own house blend spice so I'm confident I can re-create the magic in my own kitchen. Fabulous!” -Katie Sullivan

Project
This class includes 2 separate modules:

  • Southern Fried Chicken (spicy optional)
  • Buttermilk Biscuits
  1. Students are provided with the recipes and instructions for how to recreate each of the dishes in the comfort of their own homes. For each dish, students will have the opportunity to follow recipes exactly as they are taught/outlined, but are highly encouraged to experiment with their own flavor/spice preferences and combinations to truly "make it their own" southern-inspired meal.

    We'd love to see how your chicken turns out! Each student is encouraged to submit photos/descriptions of each of their completed dishes and share their creative spin with other students. This is how we teach each other and stay inspired in the kitchen. I can't wait to see what you make❤️.

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Kelly Leding

Private Chef/Blogger @BitingattheBits

Teacher

Born and raised in the South, USA Kelly grew up vegetable gardening and canning/preserving everything from spicy pickles to strawberry jam.  She's lived and worked in NYC, opened a western-style cooking school for kids and adults in Chengdu China (Sichuan Province), and now lives in NE Italy where she's building her long-overdue food blog business Bitingatthebits.com. 


She left a career in advertising to pursue her passion for cooking and started Burnt Sugar NYC where she cooked privately for busy NYC career families, taught 1:1 private cooking lessons, and regularly conducted cooking demos and tested cooking equipment for The Broadway Panhandler.

She also catered events (including for theawesome Skillshare HQ Team, the 85th ... See full profile

Level: Beginner

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Transcripts

1. Crispy Fried Chicken Tutorial: - very okay. - Hi, - everybody. - Welcome to fried Chicken One a one. - I'm going to show you how Teoh make the best fried chicken you've ever had. - You want super crunchy on the outside and you want super tender and juicy on the inside. - The three pillars are going to be your brining, - which is immersing the chicken into a liquid of sorts. - So it can either be a saltwater and, - er Brian, - it could be buttermilk and hot sauce, - which is what I prefer and what we're going to do today. - Or you can simply put it in milk and brining methods and times All very, - but I'm gonna show you a very quick way to do that. - The second thing is resting your chicken. - So once you get the flower coating on the chicken, - you want to let it rest and let it sort of area, - let air come through. - We're actually gonna use this little guy which is going to allow our chicken to rest, - and it's gonna allow it to let all the flour at here and really clean onto the chicken is - that you get a really nice crispy mouth feel on that. - And then also What it does is it brings the chicken up to almost room temperature close to - room temperature. - And what that's going to help is during the help with is during the frying process, - it's not gonna bring down the temperature of the oil too much. - One of you immerse it, - um, - which can leave you ending up with really soggy, - inedible chicken. - So let's get started. - What we're gonna do is start with the brining because we want to get the bird in its bath - as soon as possible. - We're gonna start with the crystal hot sauce, - which is my favorite. - You can use a Frank's or a pizza hot sauce. - Frank's red hot Tabasco. - I don't recommend it has a really vinegary flavour to it, - and you don't really want to impart that into the chicken. - You just want to pack in as much flavor as you can in a short amount of time, - and this will allow you to do that. - We're gonna have three eggs to the hot sauce, - and then we're gonna add, - and about 1/3 of a cup of butter milk to this whole mixture doesn't seem like a lot of - liquid. - But once we get the chicken sort of doused in the house seasoning that I'll talk about in - just a few minutes. - It will all be nice and immersed in there. - We're gonna add, - Like I said, - about 1/3 of a cup of buttermilk report in. - It's gonna turn this sort of orangey pink color, - and it's gonna smell like the hot sauce. - But don't be afraid, - because it's really going to just pack in a little bit of flavor. - A nice punch, - if you will, - because we're doing a very quick Brian, - which we don't have a lot of time. - I think in New York City, - most of us work. - We're all time starved, - and this is a really good way to get your chicken the next step. - What we're gonna dio is actually add the house seasoning, - which you have in your packet, - but basically it's a combination of garlic powder, - salt and pepper, - and it really does add in a very short amount of time, - a really nice punch of flavor. - Again. - It's about adding depth of flavor in a really short amount of time, - so essentially we're gonna douse the chicken really well. - And if you think that It looks like too much. - It's probably not okay. - And you just want to keep one hand on the raw chicken at all times and don't contaminate - your bottle of the house seasoning. - Just gonna lay it into the brine just like that. - And as soon as we get all of these pieces nice and covered, - we're gonna let this mixture hang out for about 30 minutes. - 45 minutes. - This is really simple, - you guys. - It's one of those things where I think if you just saw it, - which you're obviously taking the class now see how easy it is. - It's something that you would be more inclined to make it home on a regular basis. - Are gonna give your hands wash. - We're gonna cover the fried chicken and let it hang out. - No. - While we're letting this hang out, - we're gonna get the flour mixture together. - And essentially, - you want approximately three cups, - give or take. - It's OK. - You can just sort of do this with your knife. - We're gonna add 1.5 teaspoons of black pepper to this. - And I usually like to use a nice coarse black pepper because it really shows up better on - the chicken when you bite into it. - So 1.5 teaspoons Teoh, - the three cups of flour and, - well, - A That's essentially your mix. - So keep in mind that you've got the flavors of the garlic, - the black pepper and the salt already in the brine, - and you're just adding a little extra. - You want to get it nice and incorporated in here doesn't take just a couple of minutes a - couple seconds and what I like to do because I like mine spicy. - I love really, - really spicy chicken is to take the cayenne pepper, - and you can add as much or as little as you want. - And I will tell you, - if you like things spicy, - I go with, - like the 4 to 5 tablespoons range. - Some people really don't like that much, - so you can go a little bit easier with it. - But I like my flour mixture to be a little bit pink from the pepper. - And again, - this is where you have students get to add your own unique experiences, - your own flavor profiles, - whatever it is that you really like. - This is your opportunity to do that, - so if you want to have an Indian flavor. - Add some curry at some yellow curry if you want just color and you don't really want it to - taste like much at some paprika. - You can do really whatever you want here, - but a word of caution. - And, - he added, - In fresh herbs, - you really want to do that in the brining portion. - Not here, - because they'll burn as they're frying. - Those things tend to burn first. - And then how many of you have ever eaten Popeye's fried chicken or Kentucky Fried Chicken? - Which has? - I'm gonna know that they're kind of awful. - But they're amazing. - The nice, - crispy, - crunchy pieces, - the really large pieces that are on the chicken, - the way that we're gonna cheat, - that the way that we're going to achieve that is to do a little trick where you put in - about six tablespoons of butter milk and you want to start doing like this and running the - flower through your fingers to break it up a little bit and create those nice, - crunchy what will be those nice, - crunchy pieces you don't want to large of the pieces or they'll be really sort of gummy. - You just want to break it up a little bit. - So essentially, - this is what it's gonna look like. - You're gonna have pieces that are pretty even fairly even on that's gonna be ready. - As soon as the chicken is done brining it's gonna be ready for the coating. - Okay, - So after we've brined and we've made our coating mixture, - we're actually ready now to go ahead and get the chicken in their one little trick that - I've learned and sometimes abide by. - But not always is if you work with one hand for the wet ingredients and the new flower with - another hand so that basically, - you don't end up with clumps of stuff on your fingers. - So basically, - I'm gonna put the wet in like that. - I'm gonna use this hand to coat. - But listen, - if this is your first time or even your first several times and making the chicken, - that's easier for you. - Just to get in there with both hands, - do it. - Whatever makes it easier for you and any way we can all wash your hands. - This one is a big daddy. - I think it needs another coding. - Toss it around, - give it a nice little toss again. - Don't be afraid. - Don't be timid. - Whenever you're using this, - whenever you're you're applying the flower coating and again it's the resting games. - We're just gonna let it hang out for a little bit. - 30 minutes is sufficient 30 to 45 minutes. - You can even do it up to an hour and 1/2. - That kind of sounds a little bit crazy. - But again, - on some of these larger pieces, - you really don't want them to be cold in the middle because they're not gonna cook as - wealthy outsides gonna cook faster than the inside's gonna cook. - Just remember that. - So it's really important that we let it rest. - So this brings us to the last of the three pillars We had the brining. - We had the resting. - And now we have the frying. - I really do prefer to use the peanut oil a little bit more expensive, - but the flavor is really a lot better to me than anything. - But you know, - if you don't want to spend the money, - you can always do a vegetable oil. - Crisco is fine. - Cast iron is king. - Whenever you're frying, - it maintains a heat throughout the entire pan. - So it really does help you with your oil temperatures, - not fluctuating too much. - You can also use a stainless steel skillet. - Um, - you can also use aluminum. - It's up to You mean I've even one of the families that I cooked privately for. - They have a walk, - and I use the walk to fry the chicken. - But I prefer cast iron. - We're going to stick with this one because it's a little more shallow and shallow frying is - a little bit better. - Bet that you're not gonna undercooked the chicken. - So essentially, - what that means is that you're going to immerse the chicken once the oil gets hot enough - and it's only gonna come about halfway up one side of the chicken. - So then you're gonna slip halfway through. - If you guys don't own a thermometer, - you can do a quick little trick that always helps me know whenever the oil's gonna be ready - . - You just take some of that flour mixture that you had, - and if you drop it in and that piece automatically starts to float like this, - then your oil is pretty much ready. - Okay, - so I just want to remove that and let's get to frying some chicken. - You can see there's like a nice light fry going on here. - That's really what you want. - You don't want Greece splattering all over everything because that probably means that your - oil temperature is too high. - You can actually take the lid. - And this is something that my mother, - my brilliant mother does is she covers her chicken at this point, - so it's steaming the chicken, - which means that it's gonna be cooked all the way through. - If you have any doubts about whether or not you're gonna end up with bloody chicken, - which is the worst thing ever, - then you can always cover it for a few minutes. - Set your timer in the kitchen for 15 minutes and that way you have some sort of reference - frame of reference for how long are actually frying. - So we're gonna dio you see what's going on is we're gonna take the lid off and actually, - you can start to smell the chicken at this point, - and it really does start to smell really amazing. - You can start to notice couple of the smaller pieces like a nice little golden brown. - Don't want to play with it too much, - but you don't want to let it get to round on anyone side, - so if you need to give it a little clip, - you can do that. - You have a gas range. - It's really better to keep it on. - About five usually turn it up as far as the temperature of the gas goes on six to get it - nice and going. - And then, - as soon as I sort of do that little test with the flower to eat, - it's ready to fry. - I'll turn it down to five in between five and six, - and it's a really good medium high temperature to cook on. - You want to use tongues for the chicken that's raw and to take it out, - you want to use a fresh pair of tongues because you don't want to contaminate and end up - with sick, - sick guests on the medium to large pieces. - You want to fry them anywhere between 8 to 10 minutes apiece on either side. - You could go a little bit longer 12 minutes. - If it's a really large breast on the smaller pieces, - you'll notice get done much, - much quicker. - So it really depends again on the side of the chicken. - But a good rule with some is to give your chicken a good 13 minutes on the smaller pieces - and a good 18 to 19 minutes on the really large pieces. - And listen, - the last thing that you want to do is serve raw him. - I've actually had the temperature of sea high on the oil before. - Um, - been a while since I've done that, - but it has happened before, - and then you end up with really nice, - beautiful looking chicken on the outside, - but on the inside, - it doesn't run clear. - The juices don't run here, - there's blood. - So what, - you can dio you know, - it's not all lost at this point. - You just basically would go to the oven at that point, - and you would let it bake around 3 50 for about 20 minutes. - And then you still maintain that crunchy texture. - But you have alleviated the problem, - having bloody chicken on the inside, - so we're ready to take out some of the smaller pieces and again, - I'm gonna switch Tom because you really want to have fresh, - clean tongues, - and that's really it really easy. - And I think anybody that's watching this can understand that, - um, - this can be made in your own kitchen, - no matter how big or how small, - you know, - And I think what better way to entertain at home was something that people love so much. 2. Baking Fluffy Biscuits Tutorial: - So for this particular class, - I think a really perfect side is a buttermilk biscuit light, - fluffy, - tender If it's done well and I'm gonna show you all the ways to do that and to achieve - really that nice, - tender, - flaky biscuit. - Um, - again, - I think it's one of these items that can be intimidating to some people. - But if you follow what I'm doing, - I'm gonna show you exactly how to achieve it. - This is where there's a little bit less experimentation. - Certainly, - you can add your own items. - If you want to have cheddar cheese or you want at Old Bay seasoning or chives, - you can do that. - So there is room for a lot of experimentation. - But as far as the basic technique, - it's important that people follow that pretty much to A T. - So for this segment, - we're gonna be doing the buttermilk biscuits. - It's one of my favorite things to do with fried chicken. - Um, - you could make a little sandwich out of it the next day and have it with eggs, - bacon, - egg and cheese biscuits. - Really, - really delicious, - and it's really simple to make. - There's a couple of key things to to know before you get started about the biscuits, - you never want to use a rolling pin ever. - Whenever you roll out the dough, - you want a pat it with your hands. - And the reason why is because using the rolling pan is gonna form too much gluten, - which is gonna make a really, - really chewy texture dough. - It's not gonna give you that light, - tinder flaky biscuit that you're looking for. - Um, - the other thing that's a really, - really paramount importance is just basically put all of your measured ingredients, - including the butter, - the baking powder, - the baking soda, - the salt and the flower into the freezer. - Prior Teoh about 30 minutes prior to actually mixing up the biscuits. - Um, - what that's gonna dio the colder that everything is is gonna allow that butter to stay nice - and cold in the dough. - So the completed dough and what that's gonna do is it's gonna give you these nice, - tinder flaky pockets of butter that when it's in the oven and it starts to bake, - it's gonna rise. - It's gonna create those little air pockets. - That's where you get your you're flakiness from, - so it's really important to have cold ingredients. - I've just measured out two cups of flour. - Um, - there's only five more ingredients. - It really couldn't be easier to take one teaspoon of salt. - I'm gonna add that to the mix. - I'm gonna take one tablespoon of baking powder. - This is baking powder and you want to go with aluminum free baking powder. - You end up with a much better biscuit, - and then you have the baking soda. - A lot of people get these two mixed up, - but the baking soda you just need 1/4 teaspoon. - It's important to be accurate. - So when I'm measuring out the flower, - I'm not saying Oh, - maybe this looks like a cup and it's kind of heaping, - really. - Take a butter knife and scrape the top of your flower like this to make sure that you have - exactly two cups. - It's really important in making to be accurate. - Where is in the fried chicken? - You don't have to be so much. - We're gonna take a whisk, - and you're just gonna basically whisk all of these together. - So all you're trying to do is just get all of the baking powder baking soda salt - distributed evenly in the flower. - Next, - you're gonna take your butter that's been chilled, - and what I typically do is I'll take the six tablespoons and I'll give it a nice little - rough chop. - So about half inch pieces. - Throw it in the freezer with everything else, - get really nice and cold, - and then I'm going to use one of these. - A little dough cutter. - Very inexpensive. - You could get it for $5. - Um, - and then I'm going to work it into the flour mixture. - You can put all of these ingredients in the food processor. - Give it a few pulses and it's done. - And now I do like to use the food processor when I'm making a double batch of this. - Just because the less opportunity that you have to put warms in contact with your - ingredients, - the more flake that you're going to end up with in the final biscuit. - So food processor, - you're not touching anything. - It's just the blade going around and around and shopping everything. - The way that you needed to be done. - The other way is if you don't have either of these items in your kitchen, - which not everybody does is you basically want to use to butter knives. - Everybody has thes and you would go like this, - cutting the butter back and force the pulling the knives into two different directions. - And essentially, - you want to end up with pea sized little green pea size pockets of butter throughout the - flowers. - This is a really easy way to do. - It takes a little longer than if you're gonna use this guy. - Um, - but it works all the same. - I'm gonna go around like this, - and I'm just gonna make sure old butter has the flower coating on it so that when a restart - mixing like this, - you really don't have to too much. - That's gonna tend to stick on this little guy right here. - And if you do, - if you have butter that sticks there, - just take it off. - Don't be afraid to touch it. - It's OK if you do add a little bit of warmth to it. - I mean, - the coldness is really what we're looking for, - but don't be afraid to touch it. - You want little pea sized pockets of butter? - Something like this is actually perfect. - So at this point, - I think I've got my butter kind of where I need it the size that I want it it's going to - take a quick feel, - and I really think that's perfect. - You want to keep these little pieces of butter flex in there so that you can see them - whenever you are finished and you have the dough ready to cut because again, - that's gonna give your rise your flaky, - tender pockets. - It's buttermilk biscuits. - So, - of course, - we're gonna add butter, - milk, - one cup, - all the way around. - Usually give it a whirl, - and it's basically going to give us that tang that we're looking for in the fried Chicken - is. - Well, - there's just something about buttermilk that really can't be replicated with anything else - . - I'm gonna take a fork, - and I'm just gonna make sure that all of these ingredients are really well incorporated, - right? - I'm just gonna give it a stir. - This should be a really wet dough. - It should not be dry at all. - But if you follow these measurements to a T, - you should be fine before you actually roll out your dough. - So essentially, - we're gonna gather this in a ball. - But before we do that, - before we put it on the table to pat it down and then cutter biscuits this is a really good - place for you guys to go off on your own and add your own unique flavors. - You can do chives and cheddar cheese. - You can do Old Bay seasoning. - You can dio really pretty much anything that you want at this point. - Be creative. - If you want ham and cheese, - add little chunks of cooked tam. - Make sure that it's cooked before but adul of that end and do the same thing that we're - about to do the next step you just perceive to the next step and listen. - One of my favorite things is a little bit of Old bay, - a little bit of cheddar cheese, - a white cheddar cheese and some ham. - Some good old country ham cubed up bacon is also really delicious. - Think who doesn't love bacon? - So you want to get to this point where you sort of make sure that all of this is combined. - You don't want to lay it out yet. - You just want to sort of go like this. - Given a little pat, - you can start to see if you look that there are some little flecks of butter. - So here in here, - pretty much everywhere. - That's really What you're looking for? - A nice sticky dough and lots of butter flex. - So when ready to actually roll out the dough, - you want to make sure that your surfaces I got a little bit of flour on it because the - dough again, - the whole mixture is gonna be a little bit wet. - That's really the way that you want it. - Just running around on the table. - Take your little ball over here. - We're gonna gather this up, - We're gonna patted down, - and we're gonna turn it like this, - Okay? - You could feel it all comes together at this point and turn it again. - We're gonna go in one more time. - Essentially, - what you're doing here is that you're going to be creating little air pockets. - It's sort of like if you were making a puff pastry, - you're making the turns so that you then get these little layers. - If you need a little extra flour, - just give it a little dust. - Sue the out that way. - It doesn't stick to anything if you feel like you can't see any of those pockets Butter, - take your dough, - put it in the refrigerator 5 10 minutes and go from there. - okay, - that's gonna allow that butter to harden again. - So does pan out. - Don't be afraid of it, - but have a light light Enough touch. - Okay. - Very important rule of family making biscuits. - Most people, - I think, - naturally have a tendency to push down and twist so that you can release the biscuit from - the cutter. - Don't ever do that because what that's going to do is shrink and close those layers. - You just want to give it a nice little cut up and down just like that. - Sort of like if you've ever seen a Grand's Biscuit or Pillsbury biscuit ones in the camp, - they have those little lines on the side, - a little layers. - You don't want to mess that up. - You want to continue to keep that. - So I'm just gonna place the's on the she trade. - Now, - if you want really super fluffy biscuits, - um that are a little more fluffy on the outside. - You would just put them together like this, - nuzzle them all together on the sheet trade. - If you want the sides to be a little more crunchy, - then you would do the exact opposite of that. - So basically this tender fluffy on the outside, - and this is gonna give you nice and crunchy on the outside. - It's all preference. - I eat them both ways. - Whatever you want. - I'll even throw on a couple of these little pieces. - I don't want to disturb them too much, - so I'm just gonna put them on legs. - Ists there still just as delicious as the regular one. - We've already preheated the oven 24 50 basically you're in a set. - Your timer 10 to 12 minutes is really the assured baking time. - What I typically do is all set the timer for 10 minutes. - That way, - if I look at it at around the 10 minute mark and some part is browning a little bit more - quickly than the other parts, - I'll give it a quick turn. - Most of us live in these small New York City apartments. - If you're somewhere else in the world, - you live in an urban area. - You can totally understand that. - So the kitchen's a really small. - Sometimes the appliances don't work as well. - Um, - are they just have little quirks. - We have corky appliances here, - and so you know, - if that's the case, - start checking your biscuits in around five minutes, - six minutes. - And if you need to turn it, - give it 1/4 turn. - Just turn the sheet tray. - Um, - be quick about it. - Just do it really fast. - And that way you have a little more control over the biscuits and the doneness. - So I just want to thank everybody for signing up for the glass. - And I really hope that you learn something, - Um, - and see now and understand just how easy it is to really entertain at home. - I think it's a lost art that's coming back slowly. - And what better way than to do it with the fried chicken and biscuits. - So thank you so much. - And good luck. - I can't wait to see your projects.