Fried Chicken

I started frying chicken breaded in flour, salt, and pepper in a ten inch, black iron skillet. After some practice, it turned out okay, which means it wasn't burned on the outside and raw on the inside, but there wasn't anything special about the flavor. A dutch oven, where a thermometer could be used to help regulate the temperature helped, but a "signature" flavor was still lacking.

A reprint of an article on frying chicken by the original Heloise helped a lot. She pointed out the importance of letting the chicken pieces rest for at least a half-hour after breading. This does make a difference. Although she recommended adding no salt to the flour mixture but rather salting the chicken after frying, I do not agree. There has to be a certain amount of salt in the breading for the chicken to come out "right".

 So, at this point, I feel like I have a master's degree in chicken prep & cooking, but a preschool certificate in good flavor. I tried adding small amounts (at different times) of paprika, garlic powder, etc., but never could get the proportions right for a "can we have this again" response. Maybe the Colonel could help.

Since I enjoyed Kentucky Fried Chicken as a kid, I thought it was worth a shot to try and duplicate the flavor of the Colonel's eleven herbs and spices. So, with the help of Deja News, I rounded up four or five different versions of "original" recipe and started cooking. In short, I can't believe anyone would mistake any of the chicken made from these recipes with KFC. While not inedible…uh…this was not the flavor I was looking for.

So I researched Harlan Sanders and his famous recipe. His secret, as you probably know, is the use of a pressure cooker. Specifically, a certain amount of chicken in a certain size pot. Nowadays, KFC has specially made chicken cookers designed to be operated by people with very little training, but when the Colonel started his business, he was selling a modified stovetop pressure cooker and seasoned flour to his franchisees. Several newsgroup posts seemed to seemed to agree that one heats the oil to 400 degF, puts chicken in cooker, and cooks chicken 12-1/2 minutes after the jiggler, uh, jiggles.

In the name of safety, I did other searches to see if my stainless steel Innova pressure cooker was suitable for the task. No, it was not. In fact, unless one is willing to cough up some serious bucks for a certain model Fagor pressure fryer, frying under pressure cannot be done at home. But, throwing caution to the wind, I decided to try it anyway figuring that I would probably just ruin the seal. Hey – I'm a guy – I'm expected to do stupid things on occasion.

So, one Saturday, I prepped some chicken thighs (my favorite piece) and heated up some peanut oil to 400 degF. After the chicken was in and the pressure came up, I salivated for 12-1/2 minutes then vented the pressure cooker. I was back at square one – the chicken was burnt to a somewhat greasy crisp. And, I ruined the seal.

For the next year or so I continued my pursuit of a good fried chicken breading, but limited my cooking vessels to cast iron. Then, my wife and I went on the "World's Longest Yardsale", an event that starts in Alabama, and runs through Georgia, Tennessee, and Ohio. Much to my surprise I found a genuine Kentucky Fried Chicken stove top pressure cooker in someone's yard. I know because it has metal label riveted to the lid attesting to the fact. It is a 16 quart Mirro pressure cooker with two safety valves and an undetachable jiggler. There was also a plugged up, threaded hole in the lid.

What made the find even better was the process patent number that protected the Colonel's novel way of cooking chicken from being used by others was also on the metal label. While the patent did not reveal the secret herbs and spices, it explained the theory of cooking chicken under pressure. In case you were wondering, the plugged up hole is where the "chef" could hook up an air hose to bring the cooker to pressure faster.

The cooker did not appear to have been used in some time. There were signs that it's previous use had been for canning. But all in all, the unit seemed in pretty good shape. After boiling water in it a few times to make sure everything was okay, I set aside another Saturday afternoon to fry some chicken.

This thing is so big I decided to cook outside on a propane fueled burner. Figuring I had a learning curve ahead, I breaded up two batches of chicken. It was really impressive watching the jiggler move when the cooker came up to pressure. It did not go, "hiss hiss hiss" real fast, it went, "whooooooooosh whoooooosh whooooooosh" real slow, and this impressive amount of steam would escape with each whoosh, "I am OZ!!!".

The first batch came out a little on the burned side. So, with the second batch, and all batches I've made since then, I am real careful to keep "whooshing" to a minimum. I like the consistency of the chicken this cooker produces (remember when "finger licking good" was good marketing?) but am still in search of the perfect recipe. Using the same breading, pressured fried chicken does taste different than deep fat fried chicken.

I posted the bulk of the above text in a couple of food related newsgroups and got some really neat responses from places stretching from New Zealand to Canada.  Several different people and I exchanged cooking tips which have really helped in my pursuit of good fried chicken.  With their help, I believe I have found the flavor I was looking for (but I'm still fine tuning ).

à Update ß

On a subsequent yard sale expedition, I found a Wearever Chicken Bucket, new in the box, with manual & everything for eight bucks. These pressure cookers were apparently quite popular until one too many people got hurt by apparently misusing them.

Even though it cooks at a lower pressure than my KFC cooker, it makes really good chicken. The batches are kind of small though – I have to cook two batches to feed four people. Now I know how Goldilocks must have felt – One cooker is too big for a family of four, and one cooker is too small…

If you are interested in the Chicken Bucket’s manual, and have Adobe Reader, you can click here to read it. Its another public service from Colonel Tom!