ANDREW CARMELLINI'S FRIED CHICKEN

ANDREW CARMELLINI'S FRIED CHICKEN image

Yield 4 servings

Number Of Ingredients 21

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Ingredients

For the buttermilk marinade:
1 quart (4 cups) buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce
2 tablespoons honey
For the chicken:
2 chickens (2 pounds each-you don't want huge chickens for this), cut up into pieces
2 quarts corn oil
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons ground celery seed
4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

Steps:

To make buttermilk marinade: whisk buttermilk with the cayenne, Old Bay, salt, pepper, Tabasco, and honey. Put chicken pieces in mixing bowl and submerge them in the buttermilk marinade. Cover with plastic wrap, put it in the fridge, and let marinate for at least 12 hours. To bread and fry chicken: Pull chicken out of fridge and let it come to room temperature, still in marinade (about 45 minutes). Preheat the oven to 200°F. Heat the oil in a deep pot or a deep-fryer over high heat. The oil should be 3 inches deep, and it should be so hot that it starts popping (about 350°F). A good rule of thumb: if you drop a pinch of flour into the oil and it fries up immediately, you're good to go. While the oil is heating, combine the paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, Old Bay, cayenne pepper, celery seed, salt, and pepper in a large mixing bowl. Mix things around with your hands so everything is distributed evenly. Pour half of the mixture into a small bowl and set it aside. Add the remaining half of the spice mix to flour to the large bowl and mix well. When the oil is hot, pull a piece of chicken out of the marinade. Put it right into the dredging flour bowl and heap flour on top of it; flip it around until the chicken is completely coated. Do the same with each piece until there's no more space in the bowl. Pick up apiece of chicken, give it light shake to get rid of really loose bits of flour, and drop it into the fry pot. Let chicken fry for about 8 minutes, until it's golden brown. Pull chicken pieces out of fryer put on arack set on a baking sheet. Sprinkle chicken with the seasoning mixture, using tongs to turn piece so it's coated on all sides. Put baking sheet in oven. Chicken pieces should rest in the oven at least 10 minutes, so that the cooking process finishes. Meanwhile, fry up next batch of chicken. Hold the fried chicken in the oven until all the pieces are fried.