Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Whether we owe the beginnings of fried chicken to Scotsmen, who deep fried chicken in lard, or West Africans, who preferred palm oil, all we know is that we're in someone's serious culinary debt. Fried chicken in all its glory is a crispy, crunchy bite of juicy, tender meat that explodes in your mouth, ignited by a hot sauce or spice rub if you're doing it right. And while it may have been a certain Harland Sanders, with his secret blend of 11 herbs and spices, who's responsible for introducing the great American fried chicken to the world at large, there're others in the South who are vehemently reclaiming it from food chains all over. Lucky for us, they're not taking their secrets to the grave.

Fried Chicken, Coleslaw, and House-fermented Hot Sauce

Fried Chicken, Coleslaw, and House-fermented Hot Sauce

Chef Peter McCall of Kitchen Notes at the Omni - Nashville, TN

On our search for what makes fried chicken "finger lickin' good," we pulled off exit 29 on I-75, and found our way to the original home of Colonel Sanders. A couple of drumsticks and mashed potatoes later, and let's just say, we're glad that we finally found Peter McCall. As chef de cuisine at Kitchen Notes at the Omni Nashville Hotel, he's taking Southern comfort foods like meatloaf and deviled eggs, and is refining them with high-quality ingredients, impeccable technique, and precise execution. It was only a matter of time before he got to fried chicken. His sweet-tea brined, buttermilk-soaked fried bird is a veritable revelation. "There are as many chicken recipes as there are Grandmothers in the South," says McCall. "But our sweet tea brine followed by the buttermilk soak is key to the flavor we achieve in the final product."

McCall, who grew up in Nashville, knows a thing or two about frying. He starts with breaking the chicken down into eight cuts—two wings, two legs, two thighs, and two breasts. Next, he brines the chicken with sweet tea for 24 hours. He follows that up by covering the brined and drained chicken with buttermilk and letting it marinate for at least one hour. Next, the buttermilk-soaked chicken is dredged in a flour mixture, seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. The White Lily flour that McCall uses has a lower protein content than most flours, which makes the outer layer of final crust crisp and keeps the layer just underneath extra tender and chewy. The coated chicken is placed on wire racks and ignored for close to 10 minutes. This ensures that the flour adheres properly and gives the chicken its craggy texture and ideal crunch. It also allows the buttermilk to soak into the flour and the chicken to absorb all the spices. Finally, the chicken is fried at 280ºF in soy bean oil—a clean tasting oil that does not distract from the delicate flavor of the sweet tea brine—until the internal temperature reaches 165ºF.

For McCall, it's the initial brine that's the key to a truly satisfying fried chicken. "This ensures that the chicken is seasoned all the way through and stays nice and juicy." He's also got a Nashville Hot version where the fried chicken is dunked into a mixture of bacon fat, paprika, and cayenne pepper, and is served with a slice of white bread and house-made bread and butter pickles! Just in case fried chicken is not your thing (Really? Who are you?), he also fries green tomatoes in a buttermilk, flour, and cornmeal breading, giving it a great texture, reminiscent of the fried chicken experience.

And at the end of it all, when you take the sweet-tea brined, buttermilk soaked fried chicken, schmear it with some of McCall's house-made coleslaw, dunk it into his house-fermented smoked poblano hot sauce, and sink your teeth into all the succulent, crackling  deliciousness, you truly do feel like a winner … with an honest-to-god, to-die-for chicken dinner.

A Winning Fried Chicken Technique

1. Break the chicken down into 8 cuts: 2 wings, 2 legs, 2 thighs, and 2 breasts.
2. Brine the chicken for 24 hours in a sweet tea brine.
3. Drain the chicken, cover it with buttermilk, and marinate at least 1 hour.
4. Take the buttermilk soaked chicken and dredge the pieces in a White Lily flour mixture seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.
5. Place the breaded chicken on wire racks and let sit for about 10 minutes so the buttermilk soaks into the flour and becomes slightly tacky.
6. Fry the chicken at 280ºF until the internal temperature reaches 165ºF.
7. Drain and serve with slaw and hot sauce.

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