Smallgree's musings

Here's one for you scientists out there. I'm not real sure what all of this means, but it has to be something that the Colonel discovered. I entered a chili cookoff Saturday. I cooked Friday night, refrigerated overnight, then reheated in an actual "Crock Pot" Saturday. At that time I took 3 chicken thighs and dry brined them using salt, sugar, msg, baking powder, and just pinches of all of the most recent ingredients from my last recipe. No measurements. These yahoos at the cookoff let that chili sit for at least 4 hours before they were consumed. A saboteur moved my Crock Pot setting from warm, to cook. My chili turned to mush, but the other contestant's chili sat too long. To make a long story short, I got food poisoning from the pot of chili next to mine. Here's what resulted.

I left those chicken thighs in the frig for 3 and 1/2 days. I was just too sick to cook them. Yesterday, thinking that that Crock Pot got hotter than I thought, and reading on the net how to fry chicken in a Crock Pot, I took those thighs, didn't rinse them, then put them straight into seasoning flour and into the Crock Pot, on foil, skin up, turning twice, then cooked them until they reached 170 degrees fahrenheit. They were extremely salty, but extremely delicious. I actually licked my fingers over and over, as they were quite tender and sticky.

What's the point? Regardless of what ingredients I used, this was as good as, or better than any KFC chicken I've ever eaten. I realized that concentrating too much on texture, color, minute measurements, etc., we are wandering away from what we all have been seeking, "finger licking" good chicken.

I believe that when CHS experimented with his project, he just threw stuff in willy-nilly because he was concentrating on a finished product, not on any particular line-up of ingredients. He had a basic recipe that he used, to achieve that tenderness, then used commercial mixes to experiment with impregnating flavor into his already tender and juicy chicken. When he shifted to pressure frying, he altered his recipe to attain that same sticky, tender result. He selected what he liked from those mixes. That's why his daughter told him to stop at a certain combination of ingredients and run with what he had.

There are probably hundreds of variations that would have done the trick. When he hit the taste that paralleled his tender product, he stuck with it. Even KFC said the recipe was unimportant, only CHS's persona. And the times KFC changed the recipe are probably quite numerous. It's the process. What I did, permeated the meat and made it tender and sticky and delicious. Didn't really matter what I used to flavor the chicken, but only how I cooked it. Everything makes sense. The damp holding cabinet; The temperature fluctuations; The numbered turns and pats. The goal is tender, juicy, sticky flavorful chicken. If you aren't getting that, then muntok pepper, star anise, shifting quantities of this and that around, won't work. My next chicken will be lightly browned in a skillet, then placed into a crock pot to tenderize. Takes longer, but, I licked the browed residue on the foil. Gravy?

I had a friend over, and he raved about the skin. So, just what happened, scientists?

When I pulled this chicken from the frig., there was a small amount of pinkish fluid on the bottom of the bowl. I'm sure that it was part blood, but the meat also had a pinkish tint. And I did not use any oil. So the stickiness was not oil. It had to be the cured meat and the sugar in the brine, and of course the collagen that broke down from the skin. I think the Colonel figured this out and had two goals. Quicken the cooking process, and giving the chicken a breaded crust, as this is what people expected.

one needs 2 Stage Heat, while cooking the Bird

Browning High Heat and then stage 2 turned down to cook. Not a one set temperature set it and forget it type cooking.

CHS even said his Mother Poured water down the edge of the Cast Iron which made steam yes but also cooled the Oil to slow cook the Bird at the end.

The problem with Open Top Deep fryers Commercial especially is they are quick recovery BTU machines and the Heat which lowers upon dropping items in Started to reheat immediately to Fast recover the Heat loss. NOT IDEAL for cooking a 2 stage chicken unless you control the Temp. Even Counter Top deep Fryers Home use Do the same thing BUT not a rapid re-heat.

We have NO ISSUE with Browning the chicken pulling it our of a Deep Fryer and letting temp Drop then adding the Chicken back into the Hot Shortening which ever used. Obviously this method will have a more crispy chicken.

CHS even said that once Browned in Deep Fryer it could be baked in a Oven also BUT took more time then a Deep Fryer, Skillet, or Pressure Cooker.
Resting the Chicken was ALSO critical to make a More juicy Chicken and NOT LAVA BURN your mouth

Cooking it without Deep Frying was the Version Grille Chicken KFC put out and Todd Wilbur recreated


Kentucky (fc) Grilled Chicken

Brine:
8 cups water
1/4 cup salt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brush with the following mixture:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp. liquid smoke
1/4 tsp. soy sauce

Dry Rub Seasoning:
2 tsp. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 chicken bouillon cube, crushed
1/4 tsp. coarse grind black pepper
1/4 tsp. crushed dried rosemary
1/4 tsp. dried basil
1/8 tsp. dried oregano
1/8 tsp. garlic powder