Perfect Southern Fried Chicken + Buttermilk Biscuits

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.