Northern Manitoban Fried Chicken. I should start my own chain.

Posted by Michael on Jun 16, 2009 in Recipes | 0 comments

I’m from a place that’s not very close to Kentucky.

In fact, Thompson, Manitoba isn’t even that close to Winnipeg.  It’s 750 kilometres north of the provincial capital and the coldest city in Canada’s 10 provinces.   Up there in the 1970s and 80s, we had little in the way of any national brands, chain restaurants and the like.  Except one – Kentucky Fried Chicken.

My dad worked at the Inco mine up there, a forklift driver, and our treat when he got off work every Friday was supper from KFC.   The fries and gravy were great, I ate the coleslaw by the bowlful and the chicken of course was simply magic.   I’ve only had the stuff a couple of times in the past 20 years, but for some reason it’s lost it’s appeal.  The last time I had it a couple of years ago, I found it really greasy and heavy.

I’ve never been to Kentucky but fried chicken is probably meant to be better than this (I say that with full knowledge that it should be much, much, much better than this).

Making good fried chicken is a process where many things can go wrong.  The chicken meat can be bland, the batter too thick, too thin, too brown, too greasy, too limp.    Overcoming those problems just takes a bit of care.  It’s not that hard, and no kittens will be killed.

Brining the chicken packs flavour into the meat, making sure it’s far from bland.   Keeping moisture to the bare minimum in the batter means the batter has a little body to it without being so big that it just steams off the chicken.   Deep frying can be tough but the easiest way to make it easy is to just use as much oil as possible in the biggest pot possible.   If you know what you’re doing, you can use less oil in a smaller pot but if you’ve had any trouble in the past, go big or go to KFC.

Hawk Fried Chicken

1 whole chicken, about 3-4 pounds, cut up
1/2 cup salt
water

Coating:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 bottle or can of beer
Hefty pinch each of chili powder, paprika, dried thyme, dried oregano, celery salt, fresh cracked black pepper
Pinch of cayenne powder or several squirts of hot sauce (optional)
Vegetable oil for frying, at least two litres

The brine:
Mix the salt and about a litre of water in a big bowl or pot. Stir to dissolve. Cut up the chicken and put the pieces in the brine. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least two hours but not more than four. Drain and rinse the chicken well, then pat dry and put on a couple of plates.

The batter:
In one large, high-sided plate (I use a couple of pasta plates which work well), place two tablespoons of flour and then dump the rest oft the flour in the other bowl. Add to the two tablespoons of flour the beer, chili powder, paprika, dried thyme, dried oregano, celery salt, cracked black pepper and cayenne or hot sauce, if using (I tend to cook with a three-year-old in mind so i had the hot stuff to my individual serving). Mix well. With each piece of chicken, roll it in the dry flour, then toss in the wet mix, then back in the dry flour. Place each back on the plate and let stand for 20 minutes to let the batter adhere well to the chicken.

Frying:
Heat the two litres of oil over medium heat (yes, just medium – I used the “5″ setting on my stove which goes from 1 to 10) for at least 10 minutes in a large pot (when deep frying, it’s good to have more head room than oil so have a big pot). The key is to have this much oil so that it doesn’t lose it’s temperature as you add the chicken. Add three or four pieces at a time and fry for 14 minutes (except more like 8 for the wings), turning the chicken with tongs once in a while and making sure they don’t sit on the bottom of the pot too long (they’ll start to float after a few minutes). Drain on a rack over paper towel. Season with a bit more salt if you like.

Notes:
- I just winged it (ha! get it?) with the spices for the chicken but I would say that the thyme and chili powder were especially good in this. They’re predominant flavours in the Southern U.S. where fried chicken is king so that makes sense.
- Feel free to make some french fries while you’re at it. You might as well get some use out of that oil.
- The chicken is fantastic hot or cold, so great for a picnic the next day.