KFC - Tester Thread

[turkey]

cheers for the confirmation, a deepfryer would be ideal, but smuggling in one and keeping it hidden from a certain person might be pretty hard lol.

I have a chip pan sieve but would need to get a decent thermometer and something to filter the oil with and could just do it on the hob. Something to consider when looking at kitchen gadgets for sure.

[greensheepuk]

That's how I started turkey, but if you consider £10 for a decent thermometer that'll clamp over the side of a pan and measure circa 200C+ and the added nuisance of managing temperatures whilst trying to bread chicken then surely another £15 for a fryer has gotta be worth it! lol. Maybe spend another £5 on flowers at the same time to soften the blow, lol.

JK

[greensheepuk]

I've put a video together for making wings which is pretty much the same coating process as for original recipe except in this case I skip the first wash as the wings are already wet from the marinade.

I was going to finish this video as a full recipe but TBH the wing's weren't nearly spicy enough, there was so much chilli in there that it darkened the coating but still didn't add any heat! So, I've abandoned that idea for now and so as not to waste the footage am instead just posting as an example of the process.

I've sped up all the unnecessary parts so you shouldn't need to skip through too much to get the gist of it:





JK

[rivergirl]

Mar 18, 2013 20:38:52 GMT turkey said:

cheers for the confirmation, a deepfryer would be ideal, but smuggling in one and keeping it hidden from a certain person might be pretty hard lol.

I have a chip pan sieve but would need to get a decent thermometer and something to filter the oil with and could just do it on the hob. Something to consider when looking at kitchen gadgets for sure.

I invested in one when we first moved to France . I had a love of potjelveesch a local Flemish dish that is served on hot chips. Mind you I will not have it in the house!! As I cannot stand the smell so Richard gets kicked out into the outdoor kitchen to make the chips!!

[greensheepuk]

Well I'm still working on the Hot Wings and they're getting better every time but I still can't get enough heat in. I've made 2 batches recently and wanted to list a few pointers to differentiate these wings from the standard chicken:

- The heat needs to be marinated into/coated onto the wings directly not be mixed into the flour/wash. The coating should be just flour, salt, pepper and maybe a little cayenne, this is what keeps the colour light.
- What also keeps the colour light is a watered down wash, I was originally making it with just milk and water but now also use an egg so its more like 1 egg, 250ml milk and 250ml water with some S&P.
- The coating process is as for the original recipe only without the first wash, you need to go straight into the flour first. This is to stop the first wash stripping off some of the marinade and then darkening the successive flour coats. Going straight into the flour first prevents this.
- The wings should be really well trimmed first. Trim off as many fatty parts of the skin as you can but without actually skinning the wings, this helped a lot with the end product which initially tasted a little too 'fatty'. Also, don't brine the chicken first it's not really necessary for wings anyway and seems to interfere with the end product.
- Increase the frying temperature to 185-190C, cooking time is hovering around the 7-8 minute mark.

So to get the heat in with the last batch I made, I covered the trimmed wings in tabasco, chilli flakes and cayenne. But not too much cayenne, I don't want the wings to be red, just hot. The idea being that chilli flakes can add heat without too much colour change. Anyway, there was a serious amount of heat on these wings but yet again, once coated and cooked they cam out barely 'mild'!

I need to get on ebay and find my self some of that ridiculous chilli extract for the next batch though! lol







JK

[turkey]

I would assume with only 2 hours to marinate that you will never get the heat into the chicken with any normal chili, and going all out on crazy sauce may not work and is doubtful what they do in the restaurant.

I think you need the heat in the coating, could you add lots of tobacco to the wash as that will be embedded in the coating on the chicken?

or go nuts

www.chilliworld.com/SP6.asp?p_id=69

and add to the flour coating, I think care would be the name of the game here, but hot wings they would certainly be

[greensheepuk]

If i had the foresight to plan ahead, lol, then more marinating time would certainly improve the chicken and probably also the heat. But saying that, none of the marinade is lost, It all gets held in with the first flour coat so really I should still get the heat.

I can however confirm that with hot wings, the heat is actually in/on the wings, not the coating. No doubt there is some spice in the coating but if even the KFC website states that it's all down to the marinade then I'm inclined to agree! I can also say without question that any significant amount of chilli added to the flour will cook/burn and darken the coating during frying which isn't the case with hot wings, it's a particularly light piece once cooked.

I think the next batch will be some standard chilli powders/flakes with some added chilli extract and a longer marinade, but I'm certain I've got the flouring sorted.

More to come.

JK

[cannyfradock]

JK

Too much to take in, in one sitting.....brilliant thread...

Thanks for sharing this with us.....

Terry

p.s... I haven't got anything to add to this thread.....but I'm following every post.

[greensheepuk]

Just a very quick update/change to the recipe, hopefully anyone considering making this will read this far!

I now think that you shouldn't shake the frying basket straight after the chicken has gone in the oil. I've tried the last couple of times just placing the basket in the oil and leaving for 2-3 mins before the first shake and as long as the pieces didn't spend too long in the basket before entering the oil (i.e. having time to stick together) they're always separate/loose come the first shake at 2-3mins. So I've come to the conclusion that shaking as soon as the food goes in the oil can only increase the chances of damaging/striping off the breading and increasing the chances of greasy chicken.

Anyway my fryer has been cleaned and stored back in its box in the garage for a while, we don't have room to keep it out all the time so I tend to only use if for a couple of weeks at a time every couple of months. Please feel free to post pictures/info of your own KFC style frying episodes here.

JK

[greensheepuk]

ok so I flaked and got the fryer back out, what can I say, I had a craving for a hot wrap!

Anyhow, I had some mini-fillets but hadn't got round to ordering any chilli extract so I marinated them in some hot chilli sauce, salt and peeper and used metal skewer to pierce the surface of the chicken every time I mixed it to hopefully increase the absorption.

The breading process on this batch was similar to the last hot wings. Straight from the marinade into flour with S&P and a little cayenne. Then into the wash which this time was 2/3 milk to 1/3 water (and worked a treat). Then back into the flour. I should have clarified further in my earlier posts but when I say toss 10-15 times for each flouring I mean it, don't just toss until you think its coated. You'd be surprised how long it can take to really create a good coating.

Then fried at 180 for about 6 mins and held in the oven for 20 mins. I decided to make use of some left overs and create a toasted wrap from these pieces. Just wrap in a soft tortilla and toast on a medium/low griddle for a few mins a side and it was delicious!









Not so good warmed up though! I found that out this lunchtime! And the change from Tabasco to a hotter brand made a significant difference, but I'm still holding by my previous conclusion that all the marinade is held ont he chicken and increasing the heat means increasing the heat of the marinade so it's definitely chilli extract for the next batch!

JK

P.s. Not wanting to sound expectant or anything similar but please let me know if anyone reading this is actually making it themselves/planning to make it in the future. I'll write my cooking up all day long provided at least 1 person is getting some benefit from it, but it needs to be at least 1 lol.

EDIT: P.p.s Apologies for the less than normal quality pics, the DSLR was upstairs and my phone was in my pocket so I used that, should be back to normal on the next post.

[rivergirl]

Okay here's my chicken . I used a few different types of chilli and did the last roll in the Panko crumbs

Attachments:

[rivergirl]

And then shoved it into the oven!! I think it was the panko crumbs that made it extra crispy

Attachments:

[turkey]

Both looking very good there, I was thinking of this thread yesterday as was up town for work and had a Japanese chicken wrap from a rather good food market stall, that had fired chicken with Panko crumbs and some devilishly hot sauce.

Regarding the wrap itself I had a look recently at how to make your own and seems quite simple, I suspect with all simple things the devil is in the detail but a fresh warm wrap would be amazing with the rest chicken I would expect, perhaps not authentic restaurant but mmmmmmmm all the same.

Ps if you had not mentioned the phone camera I would not have noticed really , still very decent pics

[cannyfradock]

JK

Still haven't got round to trying these myself yet.....but will do soon. Nice to see others (Rivergirl) taking advantage of this thread.

Love all the info and pics....I just clicked to enlarge the first photo on the set of pics you apologised about.....I couldn't believe the detail in that photo. I'm pretty rubbish at taking pics but if my best pics turned out as good as the one's you apologised about, I'd be a happy chappy.

Terry

[umhloti]

Yes I also have to put up my hand i still havent taken advantage of all of this info . Its filed and want to try all of it soon . Thank you for all of this . ANd a instructional video also man thats brilliant . I subscribed to your channel . I love KFC as mentioned before and want to make a zinger burger first . he ha yum yum