Fried chicken, French fries, sautéed red chard and a buttermilk biscuit: a delicious and surprisingly quick meal. And not quite as unhealthy as it looks, too.
Fried chickenIt's actually kind of difficult to fry chicken in a pan or deep fryer and cook it through without overcooking the outside or making it excessively greasy. One solution employed by fast food chicken chains is to use a pressure fryer, but this is what I do:
Season chicken parts with
dry rub, vacuum seal, and refrigerate for 2 days. I made skinless chicken parts to make it a little healthier and let the seasoning penetrate into the chicken parts better, but it works with the skin on as well.
Sous vide the chicken for 2 hours at 160°F then rapidly chill, and refrigerate. It will keep this way for a few days, or you could even remove the chicken from the vacuum bag, dry it off, and vacuum seal in a new bag and freeze it. This is my seasoned chicken base which is good for fried chicken or barbecued chicken.
When ready to make the fried chicken, wipe it dry, dredge in flour, dip in buttermilk, then dredge in flour again. Deep fry for 2 minutes at 360°F. Remember, it's already cooked through, so you only need to brown it and warm it through.
French friesNormally I'd make my
homemade hand-cut French fries, but in this case I just cooked frozen French fries for 2 minutes at 360°F. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.
Sautéed chard (or kale)Remove the hard stems from chard or kale and cut or rip in to reasonably sized pieces.
Heat oil in a sauté pan over medium heat.
Add the chard or kale and cook until wilted. Add salt, pepper, a dash of sherry (or other) vinegar. Serve.
Buttermilk biscuitI basically made
Alton Brown's recipe. I didn't have any shortening so I used coconut oil instead. They turned out great, though mine were a little thicker and I only got 8 instead of a dozen. And my oven runs a little hot so it only took 15 minutes to cook them.
