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2013 Cooking Club Week 1: Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Spiced Up Mac & Cheese
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11-01-2013 10:26am#1Welcome to the 2013 Cooking Club! Given it's January and everyone is back on the proverbial wagon, I did toy with the idea of doing a healthy recipe this week. And then I thought "Screw it, January is miserable enough", and went with pure comfort food - so, ladies and gents, I give you Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Spiced Up Mac & Cheese
I pretty much always serve these two dishes together, but the chicken would also be great with green beans & mash, or sweet potato fries. Likewise, the mac & cheese is more than hearty enough to stand alone as a main.
Buttermilk Fried Chicken - serves 4
4 large or 6 small chicken fillets
350ml buttermilk
1 stick celery, roughly chopped
1 small onion, quartered
4 cloves garlic, halved lengthways
1 red chilli, roughly chopped
Tbs fresh thyme leaves
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp paprika
100g flour
Salt & pepper.
1. In a large bowl, mix the buttermilk, celery, onion, garlic, chili, a teaspoon each of the paprika & cayenne and plenty of salt & pepper. Add the chicken, give it a good stir, then cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for as long as you have - overnight is best, but certainly no less than four hours. Give it another stir every so often.
(The more eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've used a habanero rather than a red chilli in the pic - this is actually a great way to use up the random scotch bonnets and habaneros you always end up with at the end of those multi-packs of chillies. Just leave it whole and score it rather than chopping it if you are using one of these, as they're really hot.)
2. In a large, shallow dish, mix the flour with the rest of the paprika & cayenne and more salt & pepper. Remove the chicken from the milk with a tongs, shake off any excess liquid and dredge through the seasoned flour until completely covered - give it a good shove with the tongs to make sure you get into all the nooks & crannies. Don't worry if there's any thyme leaves or big lumps of pepper stuck to the chicken, it all adds to the flavour.
3. Heat a couple of inches of sunflower oil (don't use olive, it's too strong and with too low a smoke-point) in a large, deep pan until piping hot. Fry the chicken two or three pieces at a time, allowing about 6 minutes per side. Handle very carefully when removing from the pan so that you don't knock off all your lovely, crispy coating. Leave to rest on a warmed platter lined with kitchen towels while you're cooking the other pieces.
Spiced Up Mac & Cheese - serves 4
300g pasta
250g grated strong cheese such as a really mature Cheddar, Leicester or Gloucester
30g flour
30g butter
600ml milk
3 tbs Frank's Red Hot Sauce
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp chilli powder
0.5 tsp garlic granules
Salt & pepper
1. Cook the pasta until just slightly underdone & drain. Stick the same pot back on the heat, allow to dry, then make a roux by melting the butter, then adding the flour and cooking for a good 5 minutes, stirring all the time. (I usually just nick 30g of the seasoned flour that I'm going to use for the chicken.)
2. In a jug or bowl, mix the milk, cayenne, chili powder, hot sauce, garlic granules and salt & pepper. Whisk into the roux a little at a time, then bring to the boil, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese.
3. Stir the pasta back into the sauce (add a little of the cooking water if your sauce is too thick), pour into a shallow dish & bake in an oven preheated to 200C until golden & bubbling - about 30 minutes.
Serve with the chicken and a spinach & coriander salad.
I hope this is a worthy kick-off to the 2013 Cooking Club - all feedback is welcome - good, bad or indifferent!83
Comments
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I want to eat this now! This is almost the same as my mac and cheese recipe except without the hot sauce
I don't usually deep/shallow fry stuff in oil either, as I hate the smell in the house for days after :rolleyes: It looks delicious though.0 -
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faith wrote:I'd love to make the mac and cheese but my OH absolutely hates cheese
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Divorce! It's the only way. :pac:
Sounds scrumptious. Will defo try. However will make the small adjustment of loading even more cheese on top of the pasta before baking.0 -
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We had the chicken with baked potatoes and coleslaw. It was delicious, everyone loved it, and I'll be making the mac and cheese one of these days!
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Had this for dinner on Saturday and Sunday night. Went with mashed potato on Saturday but made the whole lot on Sunday. Absolutely delicious. The chicken breasts are so tender and juicy. Bit of a kick off the M&C, even though I only used the cayenne (no chilli), but it was still beautiful.
Thanks OP
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I love buttermilk fried chicken, I've been cooking a version of that recipe for a few years now, but I never put the aromatics in the buttermilk like that, I'll definitely be trying that. I do find though that if you're going to do the shallow-fried versions (which isn't a tablespoon of oil in the pan for anyone who's not done this before, it's enough oil to come about half to two-thirds of the way up the chicken; it's better than deep-frying because the excess water vapour has a way to get away and the crust adheres to the chicken better as a result), and especially if you hate the smell of oil and frying in the house, use shortening instead of a liquid oil. It's a lot more refined so you don't get the smell as bad, and it's still as tasty - just let it melt down from its usual solid state to liquid at a low-medium heat, then increase the heat to do the frying (instead of just throwing large blocks of shortening into a searing hot pan, which would burn the shortening too fast).
Oh, and this is not the KFC recipe -- not because they have secret herbs or spices (they don't, it's all the same as we use here - salt, pepper, thyme, sage, parsey, etc, etc), but because they have a bit of cooking equipment that most homes don't have (and which I don't think you can even buy unless you're a restaurant), namely a pressure frier (a cross between a pressure cooker and a deep fat frier). Honestly though? This recipe's tastier The marinade on the chicken and the spices in the coating make it a lot tastier than KFC (pressure cooking anything, and pressure frying too, dulls the flavours of the food).
edit: Oh, and if you don't eat all of this at once (and that's very rare), store it in the fridge in a paper cup or on a paper plate or in a paper bag. The paper wicks away any excess oil and keeps it crunchier for longer. And it's lovely cold too 0 -
Forgot to take a picture until it was almost completely finished
The above shows three contrasting pieces. This was my first time cooking anything this way, so was really unsure about what setting to use on my cooker. The one that looks burned was the tastiest, whereas the one with the skin falling off was put in when I thought the oil for burned one was too hot, so turned it down.
Made it for my two housemates and all enjoyed it0 -
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Second attempt at the mac and cheese is now in the oven. I don't know what I did wrong first time, but it ended up lumpy And I'm usually good at making sauces! Second time worked perfectly though and it smells lovely. Saving the chicken to try another time. 0
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Made this last night, was too hungry to stop and take photos though It went down an absolute storm! I found cooking the chicken a little bit tricky, it took some trial and error but was definitely worth the effort.
The spiced mac and cheese recipe will come in handy next time I'm feeling lazy and in need an easy store-cupboard type dinner.
Top marks for the first Cooking Club recipe of the year, cheers honey-ec!0 -
Made the mac 'n cheese last night. The spice does lift up the dish, especially the vinegary hot sauce. I didn't have cayenne pepper but used this sweet ground spice mix I got from a Turkish bazaar. I had an oak smoked mature cheddar in hand, and mixed that with some Parmesan. I might have made the sauce slightly too thick as I didn't really measure the butter and flour for the roux.
This is seriously good. Everyone enjoyed it, even my 2 year old son and he wasn't a bit bothered by the spice (I taught him early). I'll definitely make this again, next time along with the buttermilk fried chicken.
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Made the mac and cheese last night too, but with reallyrose's lime and chilli chicken burgers. Leftovers for lunch today it was gorgeous, but I halved all quantities except for the spices and hot sauce by accident...had to have a crazy amount of milk with it to calm the burning!
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Oh, man... Nomnom!!! The mac and.cheese is to die for, and the chicken is beautiful. I think the cheese sauce is amazing. I used 200g of cheddar and 50g of blue cheese becauee it goes so well with Franks!
Will be makin the cheese sauce for nachos from now on! 0 -
Tried the fried chicken tonight and think it was a little 'over-done'...
Certainly doesn't look as good as others but it was really tasty Had it with homemade wedges and salad, yum!
I did check the chicken before it got so char-coaled but it wasn't cooked on the inside - by the time the chicken was cooked, the outside was burnt
Any advice?? I think maybe the oil was too hot - we have gas so it was really piping hot!0 -
illgetthere wrote: »Tried the fried chicken tonight and think it was a little 'over-done'...
Certainly doesn't look as good as others but it was really tasty Had it with homemade wedges and salad, yum!
I did check the chicken before it got so char-coaled but it wasn't cooked on the inside - by the time the chicken was cooked, the outside was burnt
Any advice?? I think maybe the oil was too hot - we have gas so it was really piping hot!
Yep, your oil was too hot. Sorry, I know I was very vague about what temp it should be in my post, but I kind of judge all my cooking by sight & instinct, so I kinda struggle to write actual recipes, and this was one of the things that I really had no idea how to be prescriptive about!0 -
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Thanks guys! It didn't occur to me to put it in the oven
I find it hard to judge temp when cooking with gas anyways, plus it's the first time I've cooked with so much oil (not sure if an inch or two counts as shallow or deep frying!)
Will definitely be trying this again OP, cheers 0 -
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