Each month I Evernote-file dozens of recipes and ideas to try, I purchase a handful of cookbooks a year, yet half my cooking is incited by my love of comforting fatty foods, grilled things, and fried stuff, especially chicken parts.
If I see a fried chicken recipe with a minor twist, I must add it to my repertoire. I recently tried two chicken recipes from the Bon Appetit Best New Restaurant edition – the pickle brined fried chicken from Rose’s Luxury in DC and the crab fat caramel wings from Hot Joy in Houston.
The pickle brine adds a nice flavor, and the addition of so much vinegar provides a very short brine period, otherwise the chicken will get quite mushy. They go for a buttermilk dip, with a flour dredge using wet buttermilk fingers, so that the batter picks up craggly bits, a method I’ve read that Chik-Fil-A popularized, though they allegedly use pickle juice.
The fry is low and slow, creating a crackly crisp shell that will retain superb crunch through the next day in the fridge, if it makes it that long. It’s quite good. Not sure it will become go-to method or anything, but it’s a nice move to have in your pocket. Oh, and when I made the pickle brine I used some to make cucumber pickle spears, and they came out great. Bonus.
I added a hit of hot chicken spices to a few pieces, including this one below, and while yes, it was very vibrant looking, a bit of this neon effect is from Instagram and I deleted the original photo on accident.
Below are the crab fat wings. A breaded wing, the sticky sweet sauce is made by first heavily reducing fish sauce, which I smartly did at someone else’s home, though I don’t think I endeared myself to my brother and sister in-law. They are tasty, but a bit too sweet for my taste, and the crab paste (easily found at BHFM) didn’t really come through. I’d prefer making the pok pok wings if you want to go for a similar profile.
Next up – burgers. I ground a couple pounds of beef after I decided I had a hankering for green chile cheese burgers. This one is two smashed 4oz patties with cumin and homemade chile powder mixed into the patty, topped with green chiles, jack cheese, and a chile powder mayo on a potato bun. The seasoning was an idea from Saveur and I would not repeat it. Salt and pepper is all the beef needs and there is plenty of spice in the mayo.
The next day I grilled a monster burger, lots of salt and pepper, sriracha mayo from Sir Kensington, green habanero sauce, green chiles, and cheddar.
Seared both sides for a few minutes then dropped the temp very low and let it come to mid-rare. It was fabulous.
Later that night I did a smash style but with a thicker patty, maybe six ounces, so it was cooked to a medium on the pink side, but had a great crunch on the one pressed side. It may have been my favorite of the three – smash with substance. Man, I love a good burger, even three meals in a row. If you don’t grind your own, you really need to get on board that train.