Sans pressure-cooker-fryer, I think you’d lose more of that particular KFC magic than you would by having followed an older guesstimate-recipe that had half-again too much paprika.
AKA, I kinda want to try it (on good, bone-free chicken breast tenders, of course!), but I also don’t want to die in a horrible grease fire by misusing my pressure cooker as a deep fryer, sooo :(
Chicken shallow-fried in a cast-iron pan is better anyway. It just takes (much) longer.
I’ve got nothing against KFC, but both Ezell’s and Heaven Sent Fried Chicken have locations that are closer to where I live, and I don’t there’s any way I’d pass up either for KFC.
Certainly so, but “better” isn’t always what you want, ya know? I recognize that Blue Bell–err, less the listeria, I suppose–is better, functionally, than the white ooze Dairy Queen outputs, but when I want a Reese’s Cup Blizzard, whatever I can assemble out of Blue Bell’s French Vanilla, some milk, a blender, some Reese’s Cups, and even malt and/or extra vanilla!, will be fundamentally different from what the Blizzard I so crave would give me.
I. . . really like fast food >.>
I totally read your comment as, “I’m reasonably sure their chicken is brined before being beheaded” and I was horrified.
You misspelled Popeyes is the best fast food ever…
Popeyes is incredible, but the surprising quality of their shrimp and red beans thankfully put them into a separate category from Canes, which offers a purer (or perhaps more limited) menu.
Which is good, because choosing between the two would be like deciding which John from TMBG is more vital!
Sounds like a “slightly too honest” brochure for a Tyson factory farm. . .
“Then, after enjoying a three-day, no-feed vacation in the 140F Brine Sauna, the product is sent through the Defeatherinator Complex before being moved to Beheadings, headed up by Sharon here. Sharon, tell these folks about your work!”
Yeah, probably a third to half of the random chicken joints in London are better than KFC, and the chains like Chicken Cottage and the “fancy” places like Chick ‘n’ Sours are much better.
I haven’t tried Caines (none in NYC and I am a classic NYC elitist) but I agree Popeyes is the best of the national chains by far.
@Armando: I get what you’re saying with the appeal of fast food, and I love a McDonald’s cheeseburger or chicken nuggets on occasion, but I just don’t think KFC is all that tasty. I can get delivery from a couple of very high quality southern-style fried chicken places to my door, Bobwhite is particularly great if you’re ever in NYC, and that satisfies my fried chicken urges.
Speaking of, have you guys tried Korean fried chicken? The Koreans have perfected the art of frying chicken. They fry it twice and glaze with a sweet spicy sauce. And it comes with pickled daikon radish slaw and little sweet rolls. It’s amazing!
We have a Korean fried chicken place here in Chicago called Crisp. It’s wonderful. A little shop offering Nashville hot fried chicken called The Budlong opened up on the very same block, and it is also wonderful. There is new a block of Broadway that is paradise for fried chicken in the city.
OH FUCK YES.
There’s a joint locally, Soo Cafe, that’s really affordable (all things considered), and they offer both bone-in and also boneless tender-based Korean fried chicken in a variety of sauces. Their SoGa (Soy-Garlic) toss is almost certainly infused with crack cocaine. My gf and I fiend for it.
Hmmm. . . I bet I can sell her on that as a celebration spot if she winds up landing the job she interviewed for yesterday :-D
We used to have a Korean chicken place called BBQ Chicken for Best of the Best Quality Chicken. /shrug
It was great stuff, especially the volcanic chicken. Imagine that spicy sweet sauce dialed up to 11 in terms of heat. I could barely eat it but it was so good I did, and then learned what goes in must come out.
I just ate at Raising Cane today, hasn’t been open more than a month here. It was good but not awesome. Just in terms of the chicken I prefer KFC drumsticks & thighs, and even Chick-fil-a. Surprisingly everything else there was great. Though all that amounts to is just the fries, sauce, and Texas toast. Man do I love me some Texas toast.
The sauce is very reminiscent of a pub sauce for burgers I found over at Cook’s Illustrated. Good, good stuff.
As the microscopic, bioactive Canes Particles (scientific name: the 2-De-L-Ic-I-Ou-S molecule) begin to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and attach themselves to your serotonin receptors, the Cravings will begin. I suggest you keep gas in your car and cash in your pocket, lest you find yourself sprinting across highways to knock over your new local Raising Cane’s at 2 in the afternoon.
The thing with Cane’s is, the sauce. Outside of the sauce Cane’s is just generic fried chicken tenders. Everywhere has them. The sauce though, it’s awesome.
Popeye’s is great. I love the shit out of their spicy gravy.
I’d never heard of Korean fried chicken. I just searched for it here in Kansas City, and there was only one place. It had good reviews, but the reviews are all from 9 to 12 months ago, and the place is listed as Permanently closed on Google maps. Oh well. Your recommendation was a year late. I blame stusser.
Well, around these parts, KFC is the ONLY fried chicken available (if you don’t include McDonalds / Burger King style nuggets). The only other option is roast chicken that a few places offer, which can be quite tasty.
Ok, gonna give it a crack tonight.
Going to follow the Chicago Tribune instructions mostly, soaking breast pieces in buttermilk but substituting the egg with an alternative on account of my son’s allergy, then air frying instead of deep frying on account of my wife not being all that keen on deep fried food and my deep fryer being cheap and crap anyway.
Breaded and ready to go:
Cooked and sliced:
Now, I am not a child of 70’s KFC, or even the 80’s, really, but there is definite similarities to what I experience with KFC locally today. But it seemed a little spicier heat wise than I would have expected and it was indeed quite salty. Both could be a by-product of air-frying as opposed to deep-frying, and also consider local spice I used (Celery salt in particular) may vary by region.
Overall not too bad. I’ve not really done fried chicken at home anyway, so in that regard it was a success. I have left over, so I’ll try it deep-fried as well and see if there is a difference. Otherwise next batch I’d definitely go a bit easier on the salt content.
Nice one @sharaleo!
My girlfriend, a friend and I eat a fair amount of KFC (perhaps 2-3 a month). There may be the odd time when it’s a little soggy but generally our local one is spot on – crispy and succulent. I swear I could eat mountains of the stuff, especially with the gravy sauce but, alas, I have restraint. I’ve not eaten much at other fried chicken joints because there aren’t a great deal around where I live.
That all said, I’d like to try this recipe out of curiosity.
Yeah, fast food depends a lot on staff. When you have the usual sullen underpaid crew at a hole-in-the-wall shop that the owner rarely visits because they own a dozen franchises, you get bad food, regardless of the franchise. A family-run franchise will typically be much better, or one with a hands-on manager-owner who has some pride in their establishment. Because they are more likely to keep everything clean and change the oil frequently and not reuse moldy old food and so on.
