Curry Fried Chicken

It's about time!

 Ready for your next favorite fried chicken recipe? This one is loaded with curry and spice and everything nice. Not to mention the fact that it's hella easy. No need for any eggs or milk, just the seasoned chicken, flour, cornstarch, and oil, then you will be speeding down the highway to crispy, juicy, and flavorful fried chicken perfection.

But first…let’s try this again. This is my third attempt at establishing a blogging and youtube routine and I think I’ve finally got it. I decided that I must know my limits. Gone are the days of two to three posts a week.  Content creation for brands and dealing with Elizabeth have totally eclipsed my ability to post frequently to the blog like I could have done 6 years ago when life was simple. Mondays are now the new posting days. And it's going to be a video post (Gods willing) every Monday. I already have next week's recipe filmed and ready, yay me.

Now back to the chicken. It is funny how I hate frying chicken, yet I am constantly doing it. The real problem is I love eating fried chicken. And it is my belief that you should be able to cook whatever it is you love to eat. So, in a bid to satisfy my cravings for it, I am always trying new ways to fry the chicken to see if I can get it better than the last. After all my years of failed and successful attempts, I think I have FINALLY found my method, no milk, no eggs, just flour and corn starch.

The Last time I had a fried chicken seasoned with curry, was KFC's curry crunch that they introduced a few years back, and by a few, I mean 14 years ago! They tried it here in Jamaica and it did not work at all. Most in part because they got rid of hot and spicy and gave us a crispy fried chicken that had a very faint curry flavor in its place. Do not expect this to taste like curry chicken. This chicken was really good, juicy seasoned to the bone meat (thanks to the brine) lovely spicy mild curry flavor under the super crispy skin.

You may be wondering about the no egg and milk dipping. Well, in the past I’ve done my chicken with egg and milk and they come out crispy yes, but its more like there is a coating on the skin instead of the skin becoming "the crisp". And everyone says moisture is the enemy of crispy skin. So, it got me thinking why should I “wet up di chicken” with egg and milk if my goal is to get super crispy skin?  I dipped it in the flour mixture and set it down for the flour to absorb a bit onto the skin then I dipped it again to get an even thicker layer coated on. let that sit for a bit then into the hot oil. It was perfectly crispy, and the chicken flavor was on point!

 

Greedy tips:

• Fry in batches so your oil maintains the heat, I fry at 350 in batches of 5, if you have a deep fryer or a bigger pot then you can do more, its all about maintaining a constant temp. too much chicken will drop the temp of the oil
• try to fry similar sized and types of pieces so they finish at the same time
• Brining is optional but I do recommend spending the extra time to do this. Makes the chicken juicy and the flavor penetrates right to the bone.
• I used drumsticks and wings. Drumsticks and thighs take around 15 to 20 minutes to cook wings take about 10 minutes and breast around 12 minutes. Juices should run clear and internal temp should be at least 165
• If you are not deep frying where the chicken, it totally submerged make sure to turn for an even color and even cooking.
• I was trying out the Maggie chicken seasoning, but if you don’t want to use that use any bouillon cube or seasoning salt you prefer.

 

Ingredients (Printable recipe)

15 chicken pieces

For the brine

¾  cup salt

½ cup sugar

10 cups water

For the rub

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon curry powder

1 tablespoon Maggie chicken seasoning

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoon ground allspice

Frying the chicken

3 cup flour

1 cup cornstarch

2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

oil for deep frying

Instructions

 For the brine

• dissolve the salt and sugar in the water, place chicken in the brine in a sealable container and set aside in the refrigerator for at least 3 to 4 hours
• After the time has passed, discard brine, wash and thoroughly dry the chicken

For the rub

• combine all the dry rub ingredients and add this to the dry chicken making sure to really massage it in and get the seasoning under the skin

To fry the chicken

• Mix salt, black pepper and cornstarch in the flour
• coat each chicken part in the seasoned flour and set aside. Let it sit for about 6 minutes.
• Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture a second time and set aside for another 10 minutes.
• Once they are set (and you will know because even though its coated in flour the fine lines in the skin show clearly) fry in batches of 5 at 350f until golden and crispy

XOXO Greedygirl