1. Headline
  1. Headline

Video: Dinner tonight: Celebrate ‘National Fried Chicken Day’

TODAY recipes
updated 7/5/2012 3:38:44 PM ET 2012-07-05T19:38:44

Recipe: Fried chicken

Ingredients
  • Fried chicken
  • Fried chicken batter
  • 5 1/2 cups butter milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 whole chicken cut into 8 frying pieces
  • Fried Chicken flour
  • 1 pound pastry flour (will cook up crispier and lighter do to the lower gluten content)
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
Preparation

Season chicken to taste with salt and fine ground black pepper. Whisk 2 eggs very well in a large bowl. Whisk in the buttermilk at a medium pace, not too vigorously as you do not want to whip the milk. Sift all of the dry ingredients together in a seperate bowl. Heat frying oil to 325 degrees F. (A frying thermometer is a useful tool to have).

Place a piece of chicken inside the flour mixture and coat well, be careful to toss it gently. Next dip chicken in the milk and egg mixture. Let sit for 10 seconds to allow flour to absorb batter.

Take chicken out of the batter and gently lay in the flour mixture again. Toss the chicken genltly, but liberally coat with flour mix. Handling the chicken as gently as possible and without dusting off too much of the flour place chicken in the frying oil and watch the magic happen. Cooking usually takes about 8-10 min. for the leg and thigh pieces, a bit less for the breast and wing.

Serving

Serving tip: Serve with a handful of good quality arugala dressed with a bit of good olive oil and fresh lemon! (This will provide a nice bitter acidic bite to counter the richness of fried chicken.)

Recipe: Waffle batter

Ingredients
  • 20 ounces all-purpose (AP) flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 3 cups milk (room temp)
  • 8 ounces melted butter
  • For meringue
  • 6 egg whites
  • 2 ounces sugar
Preparation

For bacon option: 4 slices of precooked bacon to your liking, be it crispy or slightly chewy. Thin sliced is preferable for this recipe.

Warm up waffle iron. Sift together dry ingredients. Whisk together egg yolks, milk, and melted butter. Fold together wet and dry ingredients, being careful not to stir too much to avoid gluten development. Beat egg whites and sugar to create a meringue with soft peaks.

Fold meringue into batter. Add half of the waffle batter to the hot iron. Layer in bacon or other internal garnish depending on your mood! Ladle other half of batter into iron to cover bacon. Spread liberally with plugra or other french butter.

Dress with good quality maple syrup.

Discuss: What did you think of this recipe?

How many stars would you give the dish? If you made changes, tell us how you customized it.

Discussion comments

,

More on TODAY.com

None
  1. Barry Wetcher / AP file

    'Sopranos' star James Gandolfini dies at 51

    6/20/2013 9:40:49 AM +00:00 2013-06-20T09:40:49
None
  1. Google: 'We're not in cahoots with the NSA'

    Google’s chief legal officer tries to reassure customers that their gmail and Internet browsing history are safe from government prying.

    6/19/2013 6:49:04 PM +00:00 2013-06-19T18:49:04
None
  1. Guinea pig fans go extreme: $22,000 outfit, 'pignics'

    6/19/2013 9:56:44 PM +00:00 2013-06-19T21:56:44
None
  1. Tyler Golden / NBC

    Blake's favorite 'Voice' moment? Meeting Cher

    6/19/2013 10:39:17 PM +00:00 2013-06-19T22:39:17
None
  1. Say it ain't so! Cap'N Crunch not really a captain?

    Everyone knows Cap’N Crunch for its deliciously sweet corn taste and lovable nautical mascot, but an eagle-eyed cereal lover has just uncovered a potentially shocking secret.

    6/19/2013 9:00:39 PM +00:00 2013-06-19T21:00:39
  2. capncrunch.com