The buttermilk in this fried chicken recipe makes the chicken super tender and the use of Sriracha in the marinade adds a subtle heat kick. With American food, and fried chicken being very on-trend at the moment, we wanted to see what we could come up with at home. I think you’ll agree that this simple recipe really hits the spot.
Preparation Time: 35 minutes / Cooking Time: 15 minutes / Serves 6
Ingredients
- 1 kg chicken thighs
- 500ml buttermilk
- 4 tbsp (60ml) Sriracha
- 1/2 tsp (2.5g) dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp (2.5g) ground fennel seeds
- 1/2 tsp (2.5g) baking powder
- salt & pepper to season
- 1 large (56g) egg
- 1 cup (234g) plain flour
- Rice bran oil (quantity will depend on the size of your saucepan or deep fryer)
Method
- Place the chicken, buttermilk, Sriracha, thyme and fennel in a bowl and leave to marinate overnight.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade and retain 125ml of the marinating liquid.
- Heat up the oil to 250oC in a high walled saucepan or a deep fryer to 250C
- Add the egg, baking powder and half of the flour to the retained marinating liquid. This will form a thick batter.
- Dunk a piece of chicken in the batter and coat it with plain flour.
- Place the chicken in the oil for 12-15 minutes until the chicken is a deep golden brown colour.
- Drain the cooked chicken on some kitchen towel for a few minutes to remove the excess oil.
- Serve with a choice of sauces depending on what you like. We like to eat this chicken with a Sriracha and Kewpie mayonnaise sauce – 1 part Sriracha to 3 parts Kewpie, stirred together.
Notes
If you don’t have rice bran oil, you can use any oil that has a high smoke point like vegetable oil or sunflower oil. We like rice bran oil because of its very high smoke point and subtle flavour. As far as deep frying goes, it’s the “healthiest” option.
You can substitute chicken thighs for any other piece of the chicken however this will change the amount of frying time required. Breast will take longer to fry while drumsticks and wings will be quicker.
When developing this recipe we tried a variety of ways to coat it and found that the batter/flour combo was the best option. It gives the chicken a really nice crunch and is surprisingly light.