Sherpat
Full Member
One of my guiltiest of guilty pleasures is my culinary obsession with KFC*. I would step over my mother's body to get a bucket of the Colonel's regular recipe thighs. But try as I might, despite all my years of training and wearing that big white hat, I have never been able to duplicate their combination of crispy-yet-weighty skin, which bards an interior exploding with juice and flavor like no other.
Until I bought a 1970's Wearever "Chicken Bucket" pressure fryer, that is.
It turns out it's not the recipe that makes KFC, KFC. It's the equipment. KFC chicken is KFC chicken because they're fried in pressurized oil. It's not the "secret blend of herbs and spices", it's not a buttermilk brine, it's not a 200 year old Griswold pan. It's oil under pressure. Period. That's pretty common knowledge now of course (thanks interwebs!), but way back when, I had no idea.
They don't really make pressure fryers for home use any more. Well, a few companies do. But they're hard to find, and very expensive. You're better off looking around on eBay, if you share my mania and want to start cranking out your own Buckets o' Clones. I picked mine up for $40, and it is still perhaps the best 40 dollars I ever spent other than my wife's engagement ring (don't tell her, k?)
One thing: you cannot pressure fry in a pressure COOKER. It must be a pressure fryer, a piece of seriously reinforced kit that's built to insure scalding oil does not turn you into a medieval Inquisition victim. Don't be tempted to do otherwise.
Anyway, I made a batch of thighs tonight since my wife is away and she tends to favor white meat (this thing makes the most amazing McNuggets clones). Under pressure the thighs only need to cook about 5 minutes per batch of four, 2 minutes for about a pound of breast strips. It's that easy.
I made 8 thighs, but this was all that was left after a half an hour when I suddenly remembered I owned a camera:
You can make great - I mean GREAT - fried chicken any number of ways. But this is the only way to go if you're looking to duplicate the Colonel's very specific characteristics.
*And any of the other chains that use KFC's method, like Popeye's, Broaster, etc. It's just that KFC was the only place around when I was growing up, so I use them as my reference.
Until I bought a 1970's Wearever "Chicken Bucket" pressure fryer, that is.
It turns out it's not the recipe that makes KFC, KFC. It's the equipment. KFC chicken is KFC chicken because they're fried in pressurized oil. It's not the "secret blend of herbs and spices", it's not a buttermilk brine, it's not a 200 year old Griswold pan. It's oil under pressure. Period. That's pretty common knowledge now of course (thanks interwebs!), but way back when, I had no idea.
They don't really make pressure fryers for home use any more. Well, a few companies do. But they're hard to find, and very expensive. You're better off looking around on eBay, if you share my mania and want to start cranking out your own Buckets o' Clones. I picked mine up for $40, and it is still perhaps the best 40 dollars I ever spent other than my wife's engagement ring (don't tell her, k?)
One thing: you cannot pressure fry in a pressure COOKER. It must be a pressure fryer, a piece of seriously reinforced kit that's built to insure scalding oil does not turn you into a medieval Inquisition victim. Don't be tempted to do otherwise.
Anyway, I made a batch of thighs tonight since my wife is away and she tends to favor white meat (this thing makes the most amazing McNuggets clones). Under pressure the thighs only need to cook about 5 minutes per batch of four, 2 minutes for about a pound of breast strips. It's that easy.
I made 8 thighs, but this was all that was left after a half an hour when I suddenly remembered I owned a camera:
You can make great - I mean GREAT - fried chicken any number of ways. But this is the only way to go if you're looking to duplicate the Colonel's very specific characteristics.
*And any of the other chains that use KFC's method, like Popeye's, Broaster, etc. It's just that KFC was the only place around when I was growing up, so I use them as my reference.
