Kettle fried chicken


 
Originally posted by Al Ramirez III:
That looks awesome! I think I'm going to make some more tonight! You guys are making me hungry
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You started it Al!
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Great idea.

I did this tonight with drumsticks on my Weber gas grill. Cooked indirect for the most part, and then kicked up the flames at the end to grill it and crisp it.

Very good!
 
Did this a second time and it came out MUCH better.

Here is my batter recipe.

Equal parts flour and cornstarch (I cup)
Baking POWDER (1 TBSP)
Season the way you like 1 TBSP of Salt, Peper, Paprika
Add enough water so that its the consistancy of a nice bisque (when the chicken is dipped in it it should be runny and very wet and appear to not be enough).

Place on grate with 400-450 degree fire.
After 15 minutes spray with pam/oil/etc...

Come back in about 30-45 minutes and pull your fried chicken off the grill.

Lots of room for tweaking, but this chicken was so good the kids were fighting over who was going to get to take the last piece to lunch. (of couse the cook won that battle).

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Jay
 
"Here is my batter recipe.

Equal parts flour and cornstarch (I cup)
Baking POWDER (1 TBSP)
Season the way you like 1 TBSP of Salt, Peper, Paprika"

Did you mean cornmeal or is cornstarch correct?
 
Made this tonight and it was DELICIOUS! Everybody loved it, even the kids visiting loved it. Will definitely be making this again.

Thanks for the ingenious idea Al.
 
Wow this really took off I love it! Got to give credit where credit is due though. This actually came from a friend of mine Gordon who gave me the original idea. He made a homemade batter which some of you have already done. I even crusted a boneless thigh with panko and cooked it the same way. The possibilities are endless really. If you can fry it I think you can batter it or bread it and cook it in the kettle.
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Al, I just ordered the LCF batter from their website. This will make for a great Super Bowl Sunday addition! You may have to come up with a name for this one.......

Walter
 
This is a great recipe Al. I tried this with some boneless/skinless chicken breasts and then dipped them in some homemade wing sauce. It makes for a nice sandwich.

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-Don
 
I gave this a shot last week and had so-so results. My drumstick hanging rack doesn't fit well in the WSM so I used my Charbroil RED gasser instead. I marinated the chicken in buttermilk with some paprika and a little salt, then used the Louisiana chicken fry per the box instructions. With the drumsticks hanging over indirect heat it seemed to take forever to begin to brown, even with a good spray of canola oil about 15 minutes in. Finally I switched on the other burner to go direct heat at around 450 and it finally started to brown and crisp up. The chicken was nice and moist but I was disappointed in the breading. It's hard to describe, but it wasn't what I would call crunchy like you expect with traditional fried chicken...it was more of a hard shell texture. Definitely good but it didn't wow me like I was hoping. I never give up on a project though and next time will go with direct heat much sooner in the process (perhaps being an infrared grill has something to do with it) and then maybe I'll give it a shot using the WSM as a charcoal grill.
 
Al,

I used the Louisiana Fry on some boneless/skinless breasts in the oven during last week's snowstorm. They were real good, but like Chris I also found that it made a hard shell. I will cook some bone in pieces today on the kettle and will season first before dipping in the batter. When I try again in the oven, I may also use panko instead of the batter mix for the final dry coat and see how that works. All good!

Enjoy
 
I have done this a couple times once with a whole chicken broken down with the skin on and once with a whole chicken broken down with skin off and sprayed with pam a couple times. I found that it definitely worked better with the skin on from all of the fat. With the skin off it turned out like most people have mentioned, hard and crunchy. Still pretty good but it was much better with the skin on.

Great method Al!
 
Originally posted by Al Silverman:
Any reason why this wouldn't work in a 450° oven?

Thanks

Al
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It worked "fair" in my oven. You need to turn the chicken to get it to cook the batter on all sides. At the end, I hit the broiler to brown and crisp it up.

Next time, I may actually fry it.
 
I've made this recipe three times. The first time it was perfect. The second time, I had the "hard shell" problem. The latest, which was a couple days ago, seemed to be a mix of the two.

I have a theory that two factors may be making the batter into a heavy shell. First, if you're battering to heavily. Second, if you don't spray enough oil on the chicken during cooking.

I'm thinking, as an experiment, of adding a little bit of oil into the batter next time around. I think that may be the trick to preventing the components of the batter from bonding into a shell. Plus, it provides a more even distribution of oil (and I don't have to open the lid during cooking, letting out precious heat in the process).
 
Sean,

I was thinking of trying that as well. I have not had the crust issue, but I keep trying to remove steps in all of my cooking. Although opening the grill and basting with a little oil is not that time consuming, that time could be better spent elsewhere and I don't have to clean a brush.

My worry was I was putting the oil on after it had been on the grill for a bit and I am not sure I would get the same benefit from having it on there from the start.

I will get around to it, but if you give it a try let us know how it worked.
 
Originally posted by JSMcdowell:
Sean,

I was thinking of trying that as well. I have not had the crust issue, but I keep trying to remove steps in all of my cooking. Although opening the grill and basting with a little oil is not that time consuming, that time could be better spent elsewhere and I don't have to clean a brush.

My worry was I was putting the oil on after it had been on the grill for a bit and I am not sure I would get the same benefit from having it on there from the start.

I will get around to it, but if you give it a try let us know how it worked.
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I'm thinking part of the purpose of applying oil after the chicken had been on the grill a little was simply to make it easier to brush on, and to prevent batter from coming off the chicken when you inevitably have to turn the pieces over.

After thinking about it, I think oiling the batter may work. When you cook in a deep fryer, you have oil mixing with your breading from the start of the process through the end. It would seem logical that having an oil in the batter would better simulate that process.

Then again, maybe I'll just end up with a batch of chicken with a burnt, hard carapace. I'm thinking of trying it out this week, so whether it is great success or epic failure I'll be sure to report my findings.
 
I have been having good luck by not getting to much of the dry flour on top of the batter. If it does not "wet out" the flour, that is when I was getting the hard shell. Also I use spray oil when I turn the chicken, Pam olive oil or whatever you like. It's easy and quick.
 
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