Buttermilk Fried Chicken with Hot Honey

Poole's: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner

Making good fried chicken at home is often both messy and time consuming. Is the Poole's cookbook method any better?

You can find the recipe here: https://ac-restaurants.com/blog/recipe-buttermilk-fried-chicken-with-hot-honey/

Captions

[00:01]: [Music]
[00:03]: hi guys and welcome back to cooking the
[00:06]: books with header I decided this week
[00:09]: that it was finally time to make an
[00:11]: entree so I looked into the pools diner
[00:15]: cookbook and I found buttermilk fried
[00:19]: chicken with hot honey my kids love
[00:22]: fried chicken but I hardly ever make it
[00:25]: at home so I'm a little concerned about
[00:27]: it's usually messy it takes a while
[00:30]: compared to going out and getting fried
[00:33]: chicken and I can get great Fried
[00:34]: Chicken from a number of places near
[00:36]: here but I'm willing to try it so we're
[00:40]: gonna be doing that today the recipe
[00:42]: involves brining the chicken which
[00:44]: really helps it stay juicy after it's
[00:47]: cooked and not dry and then breading and
[00:51]: frying the chicken and then making some
[00:53]: hot honey which my children won't eat
[00:55]: but my husband and I will definitely try
[00:59]: so come along with me okay so the first
[01:06]: step for Ashley Christensen's buttermilk
[01:08]: fried chicken with hot honey is to make
[01:11]: the brine this is a really simple brine
[01:14]: it's just salt sugar and water no other
[01:18]: flavorings so I've got everything pre
[01:21]: measured here in my water and then we
[01:27]: stir until it dissolves this was it's a
[01:31]: lot of salt and sugar to dissolve in
[01:35]: four cups of water but hopefully it will
[01:37]: eventually dissolve this was
[01:39]: room-temperature water and then we're
[01:43]: gonna add some cold water
[01:45]: [Music]
[01:55]: all pretty well dissolved it's not
[01:58]: precipitating out when I we're about to
[02:02]: add more water so for this she wants you
[02:09]: to do it in a pot just like I guessed a
[02:13]: regular-sized pot that will hold your
[02:14]: chicken and eight cups of water I don't
[02:17]: want to risk sloshing chickeny water in
[02:21]: my so I have a large zip-top plastic bag
[02:29]: this is I think two and a half gallons
[02:33]: one gallon is probably not quite big
[02:36]: enough
[02:36]: for eight pieces of chicken plus eight
[02:39]: cups of water so go ahead and pour this
[02:42]: in here and then I've got to sort of
[02:51]: cool it down so the chicken doesn't get
[02:55]: too much bacterial bacterial growth and
[02:60]: then I've got one whole chicken that the
[03:08]: nice lady behind the butcher counter at
[03:11]: Whole Foods cut up for me I was looking
[03:12]: for a chicken that was not didn't have
[03:14]: huge breasts that was sort of you know
[03:17]: looked like a chicken interesting mix
[03:25]: here though so I've got a thigh my
[03:29]: breast the wings are oddly cut
[03:39]: separately so that's interesting but
[03:41]: fine instead of one whole wing it'll be
[03:45]: easier to fry that way because wings are
[03:47]: always kind of hard to get cooked
[03:49]: correctly so I guess that'll be good I
[03:51]: asked for eight pieces but this is what
[03:52]: I got that's cool
[03:55]: [Music]
[04:11]: likes to stick to the bag alright so
[04:23]: that is it for the brine I'm gonna zip
[04:29]: this up put it in the refrigerator and
[04:31]: wait 8 to 12 hours so I'm gonna cook
[04:33]: this tonight okay so the next step our
[04:37]: chicken has been brining for like nine
[04:41]: or ten hours now probably and the next
[04:44]: step is to fry the chicken first we have
[04:48]: to sort of batter it and fry it and then
[04:50]: we fry it I've got my oil in a cast-iron
[04:53]: pan heating up it's gonna take a little
[04:57]: bit to heat up I've got a infrared
[05:02]: thermometer here that I use to check the
[05:03]: oil temperature but first we have to
[05:05]: take the chicken out of the brine Pat it
[05:10]: dry oh and then put it in the buttermilk
[05:16]: and then we're gonna put it in this bag
[05:19]: of I've got a bag some flour and salt in
[05:26]: here this is what she suggests you do a
[05:30]: large bag a large grocery bag so I'm
[05:33]: going to Pat it dry with some paper
[05:36]: towels put it in buttermilk this is
[05:40]: again full fat buttermilk I had some
[05:42]: left over from the buttermilk biscuits
[05:57]: is a little unwieldy put it into the bag
[06:04]: with the five and we do this with all of
[06:08]: the pieces before we shake it up so go
[06:13]: ahead and Pat some dry put it in
[06:16]: buttermilk
[06:17]: so can do it kind of more than one at a
[06:20]: time even though the suggestion is one
[06:23]: at a time I'm gonna do it some of the
[06:30]: smaller pieces in there
[06:42]: I'm trying not to get my hands all
[06:44]: chickeny but I don't think that I'm
[06:45]: going to be very successful with that so
[06:55]: I've got three pieces in there now
[07:05]: feel like grocery bags used to not be
[07:09]: quite as large as they are now the paper
[07:11]: ones this one just seems very big but
[07:14]: this is what my mom used to do when she
[07:16]: bread was breading stuff my mom is not
[07:18]: southern and we didn't make fried
[07:21]: chicken that often at home but I know
[07:25]: that we did a similar paper bag
[07:28]: technique for something at home because
[07:30]: it was very familiar breast here okay
[07:42]: get all of our pieces in here
[07:55]: there's really just flour and salt in
[08:01]: the bag no other seasonings she says
[08:05]: she's a fried chicken purist so and the
[08:11]: chicken itself has been seasoned pretty
[08:13]: well with the brine a leak gonna leak so
[09:02]: that's super fun but the chicken is well
[09:04]: coated so I think what I'm going to get
[09:11]: out and we've made a huge mess check the
[09:18]: temperature here I think we're looking
[09:21]: for we're looking for a three an oil
[09:28]: temperature of 325 so just turning the
[09:33]: heat up and gonna wait a little bit for
[09:35]: that to heat up but the chickens ready
[09:37]: to go in okay so my oil is up to
[09:44]: temperature I'm using a neutral
[09:45]: vegetable oil which is what she calls
[09:49]: for what I've what I usually use is
[09:52]: grapeseed oils so that's what I have
[09:54]: here we're about 335 but it'll go down
[09:59]: some when I add the chicken so
[10:03]: I'm just gonna shake off the excess
[10:07]: flour put some chicken in don't want to
[10:14]: crowd the pan too much so we probably
[10:18]: will do a couple of batches here at
[10:20]: least and she says that thighs and
[10:35]: breasts will take about 11 or 12 minutes
[10:40]: legs and wings
[11:00]: so we'll just let that fry and when it's
[11:04]: golden-brown and and done you can use
[11:07]: the thermometer to check the temperature
[11:09]: if you're fine ashore but I think it
[11:12]: needs to be 165 Brown and lovely and
[11:30]: done so I'm gonna go ahead and take
[11:31]: those out the thighs don't quite look
[11:36]: done yet so I've got a baking sheet
[11:43]: lined with paper towels here to put them
[11:46]: on when they're done
[11:55]: [Music]
[12:10]: these is kind of more like a deep fry
[12:13]: they're so thin
[12:30]: I'm gonna rinse these off
[12:35]: just had a bunch of flour step on them
[12:39]: bunch of the batter and you can probably
[12:42]: see this is why I don't fry chicken at
[12:46]: home very often because everything kinda
[12:50]: gets free see around me round the
[12:53]: kitchen it right around these are your
[12:55]: fine
[13:03]: there's a bit an extra couple of minutes
[13:10]: take those out and go ahead and put in
[13:14]: our last two pieces if I can pick the
[13:18]: most effective probably the breath
[13:29]: move those wings because around a little
[13:31]: bit first
[13:36]: picking up quite a bit of room I don't
[13:39]: think these wing pieces like state very
[13:41]: long at all because they are just
[13:47]: they're separated so
[14:01]: oh it's great
[14:09]: almost overflowing here now
[14:23]: is done
[14:35]: all right I think we're
[14:41]: all right just have to wait another nine
[14:45]: or ten minutes so I'm gonna clean this
[14:46]: up a little bit while I wait these are
[14:49]: just about up temperature we're looking
[14:53]: for 1:55 on white meat and 165 go we
[15:19]: have our fried chicken the breasts got
[15:26]: quite a bit darker on the outside but
[15:28]: they were a lot thicker to get through
[15:30]: to cook through okay so actually
[15:34]: Christensen serves her buttermilk fried
[15:37]: chicken with hot honey I've got some
[15:40]: honey here we're going to put it in the
[15:45]: pan you warm this with some herbs and
[15:49]: spices for about five minutes I'm gonna
[15:52]: go ahead and get that yarning over low
[15:55]: heat I'm gonna go for a three anyway and
[15:60]: to this we add some thyme some rosemary
[16:07]: and three of these little tiny Pekin
[16:16]: peppers dried chili peppers I found
[16:23]: these at Walmart actually in my area
[16:27]: where
[16:28]: we've got a lot of Hispanic people in
[16:31]: the area and so Walmart actually usually
[16:35]: carries a bunch of that stuff if you
[16:37]: don't you might need to try a Mexican
[16:40]: grocery store if you have one of those
[16:41]: we do but if you're not in that area you
[16:44]: might not but I did see that you can buy
[16:46]: them on Amazon and since they're dried
[16:47]: they'll ship very well so probably any
[16:52]: other pepper would work as well dried
[16:54]: chili pepper these are relatively spicy
[16:58]: and then we have one crushed clove of
[17:02]: garlic and so I'm gonna go ahead and
[17:05]: [Music]
[17:07]: just heat it for five minutes over low
[17:10]: heat mmm let it with the honey thin out
[17:14]: and let the herbs and the garlic and the
[17:18]: pepper infuse into the honey and then
[17:22]: she doesn't even strain it when she's
[17:24]: done she just drills drizzles it over
[17:26]: the chicken mm-hmm with the herbs and
[17:30]: everything in it my children probably
[17:34]: won't be eating that part because they
[17:37]: do not like anything spicy but my
[17:40]: husband and I will certainly try it so
[17:43]: we let this go for five minutes and then
[17:45]: we swirl in some butter unsalted butter
[17:53]: so
[17:55]: just gonna let that go okay my timer
[17:58]: went off I don't think it's I wouldn't
[18:02]: say it's foaming so what I'm gonna do is
[18:07]: turn it up a little bit to about medium
[18:10]: and see if it foams and once it does
[18:13]: then I'll add the butter
[18:15]: it certainly has gotten much more
[18:18]: viscous less thick more viscous less
[18:23]: viscous neither one sounds right right
[18:27]: now but anyway it's less thick than it
[18:29]: was before the honey is so we'll see if
[18:36]: it phones now I could certainly smell
[18:39]: the herbs in it it looks like it might
[18:47]: be starting to get foamy bubble up a
[18:51]: little bit now that I turn the heat up
[18:56]: smell that rosemary
[19:01]: okay now that it's gotten bubbly I'm
[19:05]: gonna go ahead and add in the butter and
[19:09]: swirl it until it melts
[19:39]: mmm there we go that's the hot honey
[19:48]: doesn't have too much spice to it right
[19:50]: now
[19:54]: [Music]
[20:03]: hey guys we just made the buttermilk
[20:07]: fried chicken with hot honey beautiful
[20:11]: from the pool steiner cookbook and i
[20:15]: have to tell you it's been a long day if
[20:18]: you've been noticing i'm wearing the
[20:21]: same clothes on this one as i was when
[20:24]: we made the deviled eggs it's been a
[20:25]: really long day we shot two recipes
[20:27]: today and fried chicken it's just a lot
[20:31]: of work when you make it at home it's a
[20:33]: lot of mess second time we're running
[20:38]: the dishwasher today
[20:40]: had to clean up all the oil off the
[20:42]: stove it's just not worth it now the
[20:51]: chicken was very good the brine
[20:52]: certainly helped everything was tasty I
[20:55]: felt like the skin the crispy bits were
[20:60]: not as good as as they could have been I
[21:04]: think it needed more salt if you didn't
[21:07]: have the honey with it with the honey it
[21:11]: was all it was very tasty if you had the
[21:13]: honey on the skin on the on the crispy
[21:15]: outside it was delicious
[21:18]: my kids however didn't want the honey on
[21:21]: it and my daughter who loves chicken
[21:24]: skin just didn't eat the skin which is
[21:29]: kind of crazy so also the hot honey it
[21:36]: was warm but I did not get any heat from
[21:40]: the from the chilies in it the there was
[21:45]: certainly very herbaceous he could taste
[21:47]: the rosemary and the thyme maybe a
[21:50]: little bit of the garlic I would
[21:51]: probably cut it up a little bit finer
[21:52]: next time if I were gonna try to infuse
[21:55]: more flavor into it but it was really
[21:57]: good all together but it was a lot of
[22:00]: work and there's a lot of mess and I'm
[22:06]: probably going to go down the street to
[22:10]: the drive-thru and get fried chicken the
[22:13]: next time I want it now I might I'm
[22:15]: put the honey might put honey on my
[22:17]: fried chicken that I buy from somewhere
[22:20]: else next time but really sadly not
[22:28]: worth it in the long run but thanks for
[22:31]: joining us with at cooking the books
[22:33]: with Heather we hope you will subscribe
[22:36]: and continue following us thanks for
[22:39]: watching
[22:41]: [Music]