World's Greatest Fried Chicken

We recently purchased a deep fryer, breaking down after years of healthy-eating objections.  I've used it a couple of times so far and I must say it really is handy.  It's great to have so much more control over the oil temperature, along with the added benefit of being inherintly safer than a pot of scorching hot oil on the stovetop.  I've made some terrific french fries and potato chips with it, but I felt it was time to try something a little more complicated.  I settled on Buttermilk Fried Chicken, from Thomas Keller's "Ad Hoc" cookbook.  According to Keller, if there is a better recipe for fried chicken he hasn't tried it, which is good enough for me.

First to find a suitable chicken.  I've been buying whole chickens from Maple and Ewe Farm for a little over a year and I'm convinced it's the best chicken in Nova Scotia.  The chickens are lovingly raised outdoors in the Annapolis Valley, foraging for their food and eating a chicken's natural diet of grubs, worms and seeds.  I buy them from LeRoy Little of Highview Farms, who sells his product at the old Halifax Farmer's Market. 

The first step is to cut the bird into it's 10 pieces (two backs, two drumsticks, four half breasts and two wings).  This was the first time I had ever cut up a whole chicken, and it made me feel pretty dumb for buying just breasts or drumsticks for all those years.  Teach yourself to cut up a whole chicken and you'll save yourself a lot of money over the years by not paying someone else to do it for you.

The next step is to brine the chicken.

Even the recipes from this cookbook, which are intended to be informal, casual cooking, are still more complicated than most.  This chicken brine, for instance; simply salt and water isn't good enough, this one calls for lemons, bay leaves, honey, garlic, peppercorns, thyme and parsley.  I guess my definition of casual differs from Thomas Keller's.

Once the chicken is brined, it's time for the buttermilk batter.  

The chicken pieces are first dredged in seasoned flour, then dipped in buttermilk, then dredged a second time in the seasoned flour, then into the deep fryer.

The recipe says to fry the chicken 11 to 12 minutes, but I found it very subject to the size of the pieces.  My instant read thermometer came in handy, since it's really tricky to gauge whether the chicken is fully cooked in this preparation.  I ended up frying my chicken more like 16 minutes per piece.

The finished product, Thomas Keller's Buttermilk Fried Chicken.

The verdict?  Unbelievably good.  Having only eaten the Colonel's fried chicken up to this point, I had no idea that fried chicken could be so delicious.  You'd better buy a deep fryer.