Chicken again? This horse has been beaten so badly, it should be put down. Only horse slaughter is banned in the USA. Owners now leave their horses to starve, or they send them to Mexico where our friendly neighbors to the South dispatch the horses and sell the meat to Europe and Japan. Way to go, misguided activists.
So anyways….I cooked the Momofuku fried chicken. Chang brines the chicken, steams it, chills it, then fries it. Most certainly a fried chicken technique that is new to me. Another blog post and the full recipe can be found at a site I really like, Inuyaki.
I steamed it in my steamer basket + wok. Curious how to do this? Read Kenji’s article. Super easy. Those baskets can be found at Super H or Chinatown Market for just a few bucks.
After steaming the chicken, it chillaxed next to some icy American lagers for a few hours. Which reminds me to mention a rule of frying – never fry anything that’s already hot. The exterior texture will suck.
There is no flour dip, buttermilk dip, etc before frying. This chicken is going naked.
I chopped up the thighs into two pieces as instructed, but I didn’t really like the way the thigh bones gushed into the tossing bowl full of Octo-Vin, the eight ingredient vinaigrette sauce for the chicken.
Verdict: Mostly a pass. Chicken was crispy, but not any crispier than a regular fry; the steaming didn’t do much for me, except add a few steps. I think you’d get very similar results from air chilling totally raw chicken pieces prior to frying. I’d still like a single flour dip too.
The Octo sauce is awesome. I’ve used it on everything from brussel sprouts to pork belly. It would make a damn fine salad dressing too.
