Fried Chicken - crystal sauce

Ray Borkman, Facebook Group - COVID-19 group.

This is for a whole chicken

Dry brine the chicken overnight with salt, black pepper, & granulated garlic. I actually season each piece individually and put them in a zip lock bag as I go. I feel like if I do it that way I get the right amount of seasoning. Rather than trying to season the whole bird at once. Even though ultimately I’m throwing it all in the same bag together; I just feel like it prevents me from over/ under seasoning. Not sure if that makes sense?

In the AM, marinate the chicken in 1 cup Crystal hot sauce, turning throughout the day.

Season about 2 cups of self rising flour with a teaspoon of salt and about 22 cranks of a pepper mill.

Whisk up 3-4 eggs. Remove the chicken from the hot sauce and dip in the egg wash, don’t bother draining the chicken btw.

Fully coat the chicken in the flour mixture. Allow to rest 10-15 minutes before frying to allow the breading to set.

Deep, fry, not skillet fried. You need a large pot with a couple quarts of oil here so that the chicken stays fully submerged.

Fry at 350° for ~10 minutes for the white meat, ~12-14 for the dark.

I implore you not to tinker, lol. I know 1 cup of hot sauce sounds like a lot, but hot sauce is mostly vinegar and it dissipates substantially as the chicken fries. It leaves behind a ton of flavor but really no heat whatsoever. Trust me.

I got the idea from experimenting with different acidic brines, which is common: lemon juice, vinegar. I decided I liked the vinegar better. Then I added some garlic and cayenne. I kept increasing the cayenne because i could never taste it in the final product. Vinegar, cayenne, garlic... Eventually it dawned on me that I was basically making hot sauce so I just started using hot sauce. Crystal being my go to.

Turns out, I wasn’t the first person to think of this. There are quite a few fried chicken recipes that include hot sauce in lieu of vinegar or lemon juice in their brine/ marinade.