SOUTHERN FRIED CHICKEN SEASONING
Nothing else shows just how powerful marketing can be than the mystery surrounding a certain fast food restaurants recipe for fried chicken. In reality, any chef with knowledge of spice blends will tell you that the origins of this type of recipe are many decades old and it's not just the ingredients that give this particular fast food chain their distinctive taste but also the method they use to cook their food (pressure fryer). In reality, using a pressure fryer is way beond the pockets of most domestic cooks but all is not lost.
Using DA MALAT's Southern Fried Chicken Seasoning and the recipe method below will give you in my opinion, a better tasting fried chicken that is moist, flavourful and far less greasy than a fast food outlets offering.
Southern States Fried Chicken:
This will serve 4 - 6 people
1kg chicken pieces (skin on but trimmed)
175g plain flour
25g DA MALAT Southern Fried Chicken Seasoning
2 x medium egg, whisked with 50ml milk
Oil for frying
Method:
Dust the chicken pieces all over with a little of the DA MALAT Southern Fried Chicken Seasoning. Place into a plastic bag and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours but preferably overnight.
When ready to coat the chicken, mix half tsp DA MALAT Southern Fried Chicken Seasoning into the egg/ milk mixture and blend. With the remaining Seasoning, mix into the plain flour.
Take a piece of chicken from the plastic bag and coat with the egg mixture, then into the flour making sure the chicken is evenly coated. repeat this for a second time then place the coated chicken on a tray and continue with this same method for all of the chicken pieces.
When all of the chicken is coated, heat 2 - 3 cm of oil in a wok or large frying pan and when 170 degrees C has been reached, fry the chicken in batches making sure the oil is not too hot. The chicken should be fried for 20 minutes then placed onto an oven proof dish or tray. Continue to cook the chicken in a pre heated oven (180 degrees C) for 15 - 20 minutes to ensure large pieces such as legs are cooked all the way through.
Using old oil for cooking will result in the coating of the chicken becoming very dark. This will not detract from the flavour but visually will not be as good as the fast food chains product.