Ginger and Garlic Brined Spicy Fried Chicken

Spicy fried chicken and beer makes everything better

Let me say that again to re-iterate my point- spicy fried chicken and beer makes everything better.  After a couple of bites and a swig of lager, you will no longer be on the verge of a breakdown.  Maybe even smiling or even perhaps a little hopeful about tomorrow.   Now I’m not saying we should all drown our sorrows in fried chicken and beer whenever we are feeling down.  However, I do encourage you to meditate on the healing properties of spicy fried chicken, pickled daikon and a good cold beer consumed with friends.  Especially this fried chicken which hits all the right spots: salty, sweet, spicy, crunchy, juicy.  Just looking at it makes me feel a whole lot better.

What’s the secret to juicy chicken?

I am a BIG believer in brining.  Brining your poultry overnight will solve all if not most of your dry chicken problems.  It’s not that difficult or time-consuming to throw together a brine making it a less work-intensive method to achieving juicy, tender chicken no matter what method of cooking-broiling, roasting, frying, stir-fry, etc. You name it, brining works.

What’s the secret to a crispy coating?

In terms of fried chicken, I have found that a combination of seasoned flour and cornstarch does the trick.  A little bit of baking powder sprinkled on the skin of the chicken will also help the skin crisp up nicely.  If you are looking for an authentic Korean crispy crunch, put a little vodka into your coating mixture.  Vodka has a lower boiling point than water, so when heated up it evaporates quickly leaving less moisture behind.

But more importantly, you MUST have that oil hot if you are going to fry anything.  Be it chicken, onion rings, or french fries, the oil must be at the proper temperature. To determine if your oil is hot enough without using a thermometer, just add a little batter or the end of a wooden chopstick or spoon.  If you get a fair amount of bubbling, you’re ready to cook.  However, be careful of the rapid bubbling.  This means the oil is too hot and you run the risk of burning the outside while undercooking the inside.

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Ginger and Garlic Brined Spicy Fried Chicken

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• Author: Spicepaw
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: Serves 3-4 1x

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Description

Spicy fried chicken brined in garlic, ginger, lemon & red pepper then fried to crispy perfection and tossed in an addictive honey Sriracha sauce. #chicken #fried #garlic #honey #sriracha

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

Brine:

5–7 cm (2–3 inch) ginger (sliced)

1 head of garlic

2 tsp red chili flakes

100 g (about 1/2 cup) salt

100 g (about 1/2 cup) sugar

1 lemon (grated and juice)

2–3 liters (8-12.5 cups) of water

Chicken:

A whole chicken cut into legs, thighs, wings, breasts or whatever combination that you prefer

1 1/2 cup (180 g in weight) flour

1 1/2 cup (180 g in weight) cornstarch

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp sea salt

a heavy sprinkling of freshly cracked black pepper

2 eggs (beaten with 2 tbsp water)

Sauce

1/4 cup (60 ml) Sriracha

1/4 cup (60 ml) honey

6 garlic cloves (minced)

1/4 cup (60 ml) soy sauce

1/2 c (120 ml) water

2 tbsp minced ginger

sesame seeds (optional)

Chopped scallions (optional)

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Instructions

Prep

1. Grate the zest of one lemon and add it to a large pot along with the juice.
2. Add salt, sugar, crushed garlic cloves, red pepper flakes, sliced ginger and 1 L of water and bring to a boil over high heat.
3. Boil for 10 minutes, making sure the brine mixture does not boil over onto the stovetop.
4. After 10 min, remove from heat and let cool.
5. Once room temperature, add the remaining 1.5 liters of water.  The mixture should taste like a salty soup.  If you find it to be too salty, add a mug or two of water but not much more as you don’t want to dilute the brine too much.
6. Add poultry to room temperature brine and let soak overnight or up to 2 days in the refrigerator.
7. When ready to cook, remove poultry from brine, pat dry and remove any debris that might remain on the meat.
8. Discard brine once poultry has touched it and do not reuse.

Frying

1. Remove chicken from brine and discard any debris sticking to it.  Let it warm up to room temperature (it’s really important that it doesn’t go straight from the fridge to the hot oil).
2. Mix together flour, cornstarch, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper.
3. When the chicken is at room temperature dredge chicken pieces in flour mixture, then the egg bath and finally dredge in flour mixture once more.
4. Heat a generous amount of oil in a deep pot, frying pan or wok.
5. When the oil is hot, add the chicken and cook for roughly 10-15 minutes (about 5-6 minutes on each side at 350 F/175 C).  Cook until crispy and brown on the outside with an internal temperature of at least 165 F/75 C

Sauce

1. Combine Sriracha, honey, garlic, soy sauce, water and ginger together in a large saucepan or wok.
2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 5 minutes in order to let all the flavors marry together and for the sauce to slightly thicken.
3. When chicken is finished cooking, gently toss the pieces of fried chicken with the sauce in a pan or wok.
4. Toss until everything is evenly coated.
5. Garnish with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and fresh chopped scallions.  Serve hot with a cold beer.

Notes

1. If you are like me and want an easy cleanup and/or … (actually, who likes mess), put the flour mixture into either a sturdy paper or ziplock bag then shake it up.  This makes for even coverage and some pretty efficient and easy dredging.
2. Meat always tastes better on the bone.  If you can, fry chicken with the bones in.  Sure, it’s a recipe for sticky fingers, but that’s why all Korean fried chicken joints give customers disposable plastic gloves and wet wipes.
3. Don’t crowd the pan!  For deep and pan-frying it’s really important to make sure that you fry in stages – adding a large amount of food at once causes the oil temperature to drop and the more food that goes in, the longer it takes to get back to normal.  For most of us who don’t have industrial gas hobs, this makes it much more difficult to estimate cooking time.  So, cook in evenly sized batches for best results.

• Prep Time: 30
• Cook Time: 30 min
• Category: Chicken
• Method: Frying
• Cuisine: Asian

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