chadzilla

fried chicken memories

I've been slowly peeling through many of my old blog posts (5 years going now & over 700 posts), and realizing that I have definitely payed my share of homage to the act of frying chicken.  So while I sit here eating left-over fried chicken for breakfast on this beautiful weather Sunday (while the northern east coast is being 'pounded' by a hurricane), here are a few of those old posts revisited...

Frying chicken on the balcony of our first south Florida apartment (I'm still using the same fryer today, and it has served me well).  I love the picture of Chef Mike in this post.  Funny how much has changed in 5 years.  To all out there who have had the pleasure of being around Mike and eating his New Orlean's specialties, just know that he's doing well now.  3 fights with cancer and 3 surgeries later, this man is invincible.  He put himself off of the chemo, and since then seems to have given his body the edge it needs to stay physically and spiritually lifted.

Taiwanese fried chicken is pretty awesome in itself.  The spices are a bit different, and it was through experimenting with the recipe that I first discovered how sweet potato flour makes the most incredible chicken crust.

More playing with sweet potato starch among other things.

Trying out the Momofuku chicken wing recipe.  The glorious factor of this recipe is the 'octo vinaigrette' sauce the wings are tossed in (worth the book price alone).

A riff on buffalo wings inspired by Food Party's Thu Tran.  A little meat glue and some other fun here.  I was hoping for a chance to meet Thu after that dish, but it never happened.  

It wasn't fully chicken, but these fried catfish wings had chicken skin.  Damn, I need to make these again.

What was I thinking here?  Frying a chicken wing with skin made of buffalo hot sauce.  Not fully successful, but not too bad.

Fried chicken ice cream... I sort of had forgotten about this one, but it definitely should be archived here.

And of course chicken-frying doesn't always involve the traditional pieces of chicken... here is a post on fried chicken livers by Chef Mike and fried tripe.

Keep frying!

sweet potato sweet dough

Here is the recipe for the sweet potato sweet dough.  I've had this recipe for many years and cannot remember when or how I came about it.  It's old, however, and there is some vagueness to it.

Mix the following together:

• 3 each     eggs
• 1/2 Cup    sugar
• 1/2 Cup    margarine (melted) ok, I've actually been using butter or lard for this instead
• 2 Cups    milk (scalded)
• 3/4 tsp    salt

Then mix in 1 Cup of roasted sweet potato purée.

Next, add in 1 Tbsp dry active yeast (during recent executions of this, I think this amount is a little high... try cutting it in half)

The remaining instructions called for adding enough flour to make a soft dough.  This is really vague, so I roughly measured this to be in the vicinity of 6 Cups.  The dough will be soft and somewhat sticky.

Adding cinnamon or other 'apple pie type spices' will push the sweet potato a little more.

Mix together with a dough hook, then let proof, degas, and go wherever you want from there.

sweet dough (doh)

I tweeted a few pic's yesterday of things I made from a sweet potato sweet dough.  Why?  Well, I'm off for a week, and I had been waiting for the opportunity to work with this old recipe again.  Expect more random nonsensical stuff.

Actually, this was sparked by a little more than that.  My very first ever cooking job (meaning that I was actually dealing with and making things that people could eat and put into their bodies) was as an overnight baker in a suburban New Orleans supermarket.  Supermarket bakeries are strangely typical of each other and I would not have lasted more than a week in it had it not been for my 12am to 8am shift where I didn't have to deal with other employees or customers.  My regular routine would be to leave work and wait for the Rally's across the street to open at 9am, order 2 burgers and some seasoned fries, eat them, then go to sleep.  My palate was really refined during this time... obviously not... definite low point food-wise.  But despite this, it was an exciting time because I was learning to work with dough, and although some of the 'from scratch' elements were removed I still got to experience the feeling of making bread.  From then, I eventually got hired on as a pizza maker in an Italian restaurant Uptown and the rest is a blurry memory.

One of our regular prep items overnight was making a huge batch of sweet dough that would ultimately end up as half of the items we had for sale.  The versatility of some recipes (like sweet dough) make them indispensible as chef tools.  Think about all of those Top Chef episodes where they break out the dreaded 'pastry challenge.'  All the cheftestants roll their eyes up and put on looks of surprise and fear... c'mon, they break this out every season and it's still a surprise.  You do not have to be a pastry chef, but simply memorizing and learning how to work with a handful of solid recipes one could fly through this challenge like some sort of Super Mr. Superhero (alright, that link has nothing to do with anything here, but it's super cool).  Point being that by learning to make one thing, you can easily convert it into much coolness.

The donut... this one is easy, but does require frying.  The cool part is that you can use a left-over set of take-out chopsticks to flip them like the pros... and it's fun.  No point and shoot pic of the sweet potato donut, but I tweeted one here.  These are easy.  Just roll out the dough to a half-inch or less, cut the rings, let proof then fry.  A donut cutter makes it easier, but you can wing it.  If you want them glazed, a simple solution of a little bit of water (or milk) and powdered sugar works well.

The beignet... basically a donut, right?  Sort of, but not.  These are fried up like little puffed pillows then dusted with enough powdered sugar to reenact the last scene from Scarface.  Same procedure, roll out thin, cut into rectangles or diamond shapes, drop and fry.  Great with cafe au lait.

Cinnamon buns (or any variation thereof)... A little more complex, but just roll out the dough fairly thin, brush with melted butter, sprinkle on brown sugar and cinnamon, roll up, cut, proof, bake, glaze.  Try snickerdoodles by adding nuts and baking them in muffin pans.

Fritters... back to the frying.  What to do with the scraps from cutting all of those donuts?  Chop them into pieces and add in pieces of your cut fruit of choice (these are sweet potato peach fritters... pretty Southern sounding).  Shape them like the picture above, chopping and shaping with a bench knife.  Allow to lightly proof, then fry.

Versatility.  I'm sure there are countless other variations of things you can make with sweet dough, but that currently fulfills my pastry quota for the year.

the pork-ing

What does pork really love... salt, sugar, smoke.  That's about it... well, at least it's the most important part of it.  We've run the gammit of ingredients to layer over pork throughout the years in brines and marinades, but I keep coming back to the simplicity of these 3 major elements (a 4th could be considered water, since it is in the brine but isn't water in just about everything?).

I have found a simple pride in people's reactions after tasting pork coming off of my grill.  Most of the time it is either the butt or spareribs (much better than baby backs IMO, and closer to the belly which makes them all the more loveable).  In either case, the greatness of pork shines through.  So much to the point in fact that I hardly almost never add anything further.  My process, a simple brine of water, kosher salt, and brown sugar.  I took quick comparative measurements for volume based on a 5% brine.  For these I typically add half that amount in brown sugar, so about 2.5% there.  This has come to be known as my 5-4-3 brine... 5 Cups water, 4 Tablespoons kosher salt, and 3 Tablespoons brown sugar.  Sounds simple enough to do everyday, and it is.

The process, get your tap water running as hot as it will.  Put 3 cups of that hot water into your mixing bowl.  Add in the 4 Tbsp salt and 3 Tbsp sugar.  Stir with a whisk until the solids are completely dissolved.  Measure out 2 more cups of cold tap water mixed with ice cubes.  Stir these in and whisk until the ice dissolves.  The brine is now cool to lukewarm.  It's basically ready to go.  I am amazed at how fast and easy this is.  Yes, I know that if a health inspector walked into your home, your brine would not be outside of the Temperature Danger Zone and you would be busted... but in reality just submerge your meat in it and refrigerate immediately and I can pretty much assure you everything will be fine barring some mutant circumstance that you would have probably been defenseless against anyway.  And also, yes I know that by measuring ice displaced in your water your water volume will be slightly off due to the increased volume of water's crystal lattice when it freezes, but relax.  It's science (sort of), not rocket science.

Typically, I let this brine go overnight (which is sort of like saying 24 hours in recipe-speak).  Remove the meat from the brine and rinse thoroughly (if you do not rinse, the pellicle will be too salty).  There is usually a drying period involved with brining, but honestly this can be bypassed.  If you do have time though, lay the meat out on a tray after rinsing and patting with paper towels.  Do not wrap it, and set it in your refrigerator until ready to grill.  You can basically grill these in your usual manner (unless your usual manner sucks), just as long as you're blessing that pig with a sauna of smoke.  Normally, I use mesquite or hickory chunks (or combination of) and keep a supply of smaller chips nearby to pump up the smoke when I need it.  Keep a water pan down over the heat somewhere as well... wet smoke is far better than dry smoke.  This is just to keep the humidity level in your grill where it should be.  It's futile to get into a discussion on how to regulate the smoke or use wood since this would take a lot of time and probably start a whole mess of debates.  The important thing is to try out some techniques and in the end, just do what works best for you.

Homemade Pancetta (from a Michael Ruhlman recipe)- almost perfectly balanced in saltiness and made even better by the kiss of smoke.

Bacon- It's what's for dinner.  This was a simple cure brine for 2 weeks, followed by some light smoking.  Not bad.

Smoked Chicken in Alabama-style White BBQ sauce (chickens love brine too)- Although I was apprehensive of this sauce at first, the concept of creamy bbq makes all of the sense in the world.  Saveur recently featured it in their BBQ Issue, but we've just been using the Amazingribs.com recipe.  To take this dish over the top, smoke the chicken then pull it into chunks then toss with the sauce then cook it again for a short time.  The extra cooking dampens the acidity and somehow cooks the egg in the mayo making the flavor and texture completely addicting... I'm serious.  I'm eating some right now.  Sure the sauce is good without cooking it, but it's like crack when it's cooked.

smoke de la sol

We've been wanting to acquire a smoker of some sort since last year, but it wasn't until Chef K recently came up with 'the most ideal solution for our needs' that we were able to make this happen.  There are lots of considerations when buying/building a smoker.  The first big question is the fuel:  wood, charcoal, electric, gas, or any combination thereof.  There are good arguments on all sides of this equation, and none of these will ever reach full consensus by all.  The point is that personal needs should be carefully assessed before making the decision.  Our first thoughts had us pushing towards one of the Weber style upright smokers.  The capacity to get true great flavor from pure wood smoke is a given, but there's also the loss of consistency and ease.  There are arguments against electric when it comes to getting that classic smoke bark in the end.  Does combustion really make all of the difference?  Meathead at Amazingribs.com has strong opinions on these subjects, and his incredible website became the ground zero of all of our research.  If you're going to seriously dive into this site, give yourself about a week (at least) to fully digest it all.  We've been perusing his writings for about a year now.

Without re-documenting the entire process, we ended up deciding on a Bradley Smoke Generator.  This decision was strongly enforced by the capacity to accurately control temperature (which is super super important to us and the many needs we need to be met by a smoker) and the steady stream of smoke it provided.  This was determined after weeks of web-research by Chef K visiting threads, reading customer reviews (often the best reference for purchase decisions, so please go online and rate your purchases), and many conversation/debates between the both of us over beers.  The only problem with the Bradley Smokers is the size vs. price.  The revelation came when Chef K decided we could buy the Smoke Generator and hook it up to a large box (a used Cres-Cor being the first thought, and we found one fairly quickly from a local chef with equipment in storage that he was trying to liquidate).  This box is actually large enough to supply a restaurant with a variety of smoked foods.  Another great advantage of the Bradley Generator is the added ability to cold smoke items.  The greatest advantage is that we would end up with a smoker with hell of a lot of room for smoking items for the same price as one less than half it's size.  Since the Bradley generator was reputed to produce enough smoke to maintain a small smokehouse, this seemed like the way to go.

So, how to actually go about this process.  After getting the Cres-Cor home, we needed to add holes to attach the smoke generator and the chimney.

Step #1:  Cut a Hole in the Box

Taking a cue from Justin Timberlake and the Lonely Island crew, we used a hole cutter for a drill to put a 6" hole on the side and up on top.  The generator port and 'muffler' was attached and sealed using FireBlock heat-proof caulk.  Once the caulk is dried, the generator can be hooked up (a nice advantage to this is that the generator can be removed when not in use, or when travelling).

The chimney was attached by sliding it snugly into the 6" hole we made in the back right corner and using the heat proof caulk to seal it both on top and underneath.  Chef K went vintage with the chimney which is designed to look like an old wood stove cast-iron damper.

Creating a steady flow of smoke is important for getting that essential smoke flavor.  Smoke that is stagnant will produce a sooty carbon-like flavor... not good.  With our generator set as low to the bottom as possible and the chimney installed on the opposite corner up top, we were set to create an up-flow of awesomeness (not to mention also that heat will rise as well hopefully creating a fairly uniform temperature throughout the box... which was confirmed later with thermometers).

So, the next move before firing it up was to seal all other areas that smoke might escape prematurely.  For this, we again used heat-proof caulk.  The ridges along the sides of our box seemed like they would suffer much smoke loss, so we plugged these up.  Since many Cres-Cor style boxes and proofers are designed differently, I would suggest studying all areas of yours over a beer and closing up any gaps.

Done and done.

Chefs and power tools... always interesting.  Here's Chef K with his caulk in his hand.

Step #2:  Put your pig in that box.

Well, some pig (for us ribs sprinkled with Magic Dust and some experimental bacon slabs) and also some chicken thighs and beer-brined catfish.

Yessss!!!!  Rock & Roll!!!!!  If any style of food could be compared to pure unadulterated rock and roll, it would be BBQ...  it's unmatched in it's simplicity, boldness, heavy metal and fire, and massive cult following.  We are still drawn to the fire.

But... any foray into a cooking experiment would be seriously boring if not for some snags.  Our main issue here... the temperature.  It seems that our research fell short of discovering that the Bradley Smoke Generator does not produce a significant amount of heat.  Since most porcine applications require a slow driving temperature of 140ºF (60ºC), we were falling short of that mark.  After 4 hours of smoking, we basically had only raw food with an infusion of smokiness.  Oh well, no problem with the Weber sitting right next to the smoker.  We simply finished the meats on the grill (except the bacon slabs which were finished in the oven and temped to 140ºF).

Here is a nice side item to run on the grill.  Instead of roasting potatoes in the oven, try cooking them on your grill with some smoke.  These potatoes tossed with that nicely smoked piece of pancetta on the back (actually this is a Michael Ruhlman pancetta recipe that I have to say that although it's not traditional or authentic to smoke after curing and drying, it is pretty damn good), and some lemony garlic mayo for a kick-ass potato salad.

I know that there are some jackasses out there who dispell cooking with gas all together, but in my defense I have run my little Weber Spirit 2 or 3 times a week over the past year and it's amazing what wonders can be worked with gas control, a smoke can made from a #5 squat tuna can, and a water pan.  My pork is good, and more on that later (this post is getting long).  Yes, I get all the arguments that wood is good and gas is fast and all that BS, but I'm just saying my pork is damn good.  The best way to smoke is with your brain, and mine has smoke in it.  Is gas easy?  No, not if you're constantly tweaking it and working with it (it took me a full year to learn my grill well enough to get the results I want).  So, I refute the comment that gas grills are a sign of American laziness... no, laziness would be sitting at your computer writing about BBQ instead of actually going through the ritual so much that you smell like a pig on a spit.

Back to the Bradley...  since some Bradley generators are controlled using PID devices, we decided to hook one up just to see if we could get more heat rise (a long shot, but just in case).  This did not work, and the temp got up to 37ºC at the most.  Although good for some nice cold fish, cheese, or vegetable smoking, not good for ribs.

Although the temperature probe wire was only long enough to slip into this vent on the bottom, a couple of oven thermometers set throughout the box confirmed that our temperature was pretty consistent within.

So, now what?  Chef K researched a bit again and discovered a digital hot plate that many smokers out there used in conjunction with the Bradley generator.  It will allow us to cook with substantially more heat and it's also capable of plugging right into the generator and running fairly accurate temperatures.  And so, it is on order and soon we will be making yet another hole in the box.  

One thing remains clear is that this year's Sol Sunday menus will be heavy on the smoke.