13th Dish Buttermilk Fried Chicken from Australia.

If you want to know how NOT to cook Buttermilk Fried Chicken then follow what I did, otherwise I recommend you stick the instructions as listed below. 

They say 13 is an unlucky number, for those of you have read my earlier post will know what I don't believe in luck. However there were a lot of misfortunes with this dish. 

Lets start at the beginning, my daughter Kavita chose the recipe from an Australian website and as I had very little time to prepare a proper cooked meal, this seemed an easy option. (My first mistake)

Looking at the recipe I realised that I needed Buttermilk, not having very seem this, let alone cook with it. I didn't know where to get some from. However checking various website it soom became clear that I could make my own or simple make a Buttermilk subsitute. I read that to make a Buttermilk subsitute you simply add Lemon juice to milk and disregard the solids and use the liquid; OR, if you have heavy cream then if you simply whisk it until it get thick and then it starts to separate. We had some double cream in the fridge so we opted to try that. (Second mistake).

We whisked the cream until it became a solid lump of cream!

At this point the problem solver in me came to the fore and I thought the best thing to do would be to add milk to my lump of cream and thin it out. (Third mistake)

Once I’d thinned the cream I then proceeded to add lemon juice to see if I could seprate the Buttermilk.

No joy!

As time was running short, I simply added the chicken legs to the concoction. (Fourth mistake)

The instructions said leave the chicken in the Buttermilk for at least an hour, as I didn't have that much time I only left them in there for about 20 mins. (Fifth mistake)

I then didn’t allow enough of the Cream, Milk and Lemon mixture to drain away of the chicken and proceeded to coat the chickens with the flour mix. (Sixth mistake)

For the flour mix, I didn’t have enough plain flour so I added self raising flour to make up the quantity. (Seventh mistake)

I’m sure those of you who cook will instantly realise what happened next, for the rest I’ll be happy to explain. 

As soon as the flour coated chickens were dropped into the hot oil, the flour coating came off and I was left with naked chicken legs.  

 Ingredients

 

4 chicken marylands (preferably free-range)
1 cup (250ml) buttermilk (see Notes)
1 3/4 cups (265g) plain flour
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
Sunflower oil, to shallow-fry






 Method

Cut the chicken marylands through the joint to separate the drumsticks and the thighs. Wash the chicken pieces, then dry well with paper towel. Toss the chicken in the buttermilk, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 200C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Place the flour, cayenne pepper, paprika, ground cumin and 1 teaspoon salt in a zip-lock bag or plastic bag. Add the drained chicken, 2 pieces at a time, shaking well to coat in the spice mixture. Remove and shake off any excess, then repeat with remaining chicken pieces until they are all coated.
Heat 1cm oil in a large heavy-based frypan over medium-high heat to 180C (a cube of bread will turn golden in 30 seconds when the oil is hot enough).
Cook the chicken pieces, in batches of 4, for 4-5 minutes until well-browned.
Turn and cook on the other side for 1 minute until golden, then transfer the chicken to the lined baking tray.
Bake the chicken in the oven for 15 minutes or until cooked through, then remove from the oven and allow to cool. Serve the chicken pieces at room temperature.

Even with all these mistakes, the fried chickens tasted remarkable good.

We as a family gave it a 7 out of 10. 

I owe all the folks down under to cook this again properly to ensure I give this dish justice.

Ammo