Grainstore Fried Chicken
Now let’s face it, we are all missing a cheeky takeaway or drive through at the moment, so we thought we would give you our take on a classic, Grainstore Fried Chicken or GFC as we are going to call it from now on!
To get maximum flavour into your chicken before cooking, we suggest you brine your selected cuts for a minimum of fours hours, up to around eight as a maximum, so make your brine in the morning ready for cooking in the evening.
Indulge yourself with some of the ingredients that you would not normally use, such as lard and the volume of salt in the coating and remember it’s all about the flavour – just don’t eat it every day!
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1.5kg free range chicken, cut into eight pieces or 8 skin on chicken thighs
For the brine:
- 700ml hand-hot water
- 1/2 teaspoon medium hot sauce
- 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 3g fine sea salt
- 7g smoked salt
- 1 fresh red chilli, roughly chopped
- 500ml well chilled strong sweet ale (Ten Fifty)
- 300ml cold buttermilk
- 1 medium egg, whisked
*keeping the beer and buttermilk chilled makes sure you don’t waste time waiting for the brine to cool
For the coating:
- 500g plain flour
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
- 250g cornflour
- 1 teaspoon icing sugar
For frying:
- 1 litre any neutral oil, groundnut or grapeseed
- 300g lard
For the seasoning:
- 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
- 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt
Method
To make the brine, add all the ingredients to a non metallic bowl, except the beer, buttermilk and egg, and stir until the salt is dissolved. Add the chilled beer and buttermilk and stir well and finally add in the whisked egg (it may not look very pretty at this point but don’t panic, it’s all fine).
Put the chicken pieces in a large sealable bag, add the brine, seal and leave in the fridge for at least four hours, up to eight. If you don’t have a sealable bag, leave them in a covered bowl and turn them every 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to around 80 Celsius or it’s lowest setting, cover a baking tray with a paper towel and put it in the oven.
Mix all the ingredients for the coating together and set aside.
Get a large deep flat frying pan and add the oil and lard. It should come about 4cm up the side, or about halfway up the thickest chicken pieces and put it on a medium heat. Be cautious with the heat as you don’t want to burn the coating before cooking the chicken!
Remove the chicken from the fridge and coat it in the flour mix, 2 pieces at a time pressing it firmly in the mix. Then re dip it in the brine and repeat the flour coating, making sure all the nooks and crannies are coated.
Lower the chicken into the hot oil – it should sizzle gently, but not spit everywhere.
Repeat the coating and brine dipping with the remaining pieces and add them to the pan without crowding it. Fry the chicken in several batches if necessary, allowing the cooked ones to rest in the oven on the lined tray as you go.
Blitz together the ingredients for the seasoning and sprinkle over the chicken. Serve with any side you like, but for inspiration try a light summary chutney featuring mint. It’s a great combo.
