Gus's Fried Chicken and the best fried chicken in the world

[Jonny69]

You can't help but have noticed that alongside the current burger frenzy there has been a fried chicken movement quietly growing. Alongside the late-night chicken shops quite a few independent restaurants have popped up offering super-high quality fried chicken. There are simply loads of them popping up in London. I've been meaning to get out and try a few so I thought I'd start a thread for the fried chickenistas of OcUK.

I've not tried any GOOD fried chicken before! When I was last in the USA I did a bit of a Man Vs Food and Triple D tour but I wasn't in fried chicken country, so I have nothing to compare it to. I know what I like from the fast food joints: I like a bit of KFC but I prefer Morley's; Favourite Fried Chicken is disgusting but from there I can only look upwards!

Here's a few of the London ones:

http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/restaurants/londons-best-fried-chicken-8495290.html

http://www.company.co.uk/city-guide/london/bar/chicken-shop-craze-london

Now, most of these are American style southern fried chicken. One we should watch is Korean fried chicken which could be piggybacking on the rise of some amazing Korean food we can now get over here. I'm pretty sure it was Jubo I saw get HUGE reviews.

Trouble is, most of these places are on the east of London so are a complete pain to get to for me. Anyone know of anything in Surrey, despite its general lack of food enthusiasm?

 

[delta0]

Korean fried chicken is my favourite. It is just better in every way and you can have chilli versions too which are epic. I normally have it in Korea and have never tried it in London. I should try out the stuff at Golders Green.

You could try New Malden. That will be easy from Surrey.

 

[FTM]

had some in Austen and it was truly delicious

I like making it at home, I use buttermilk to marinade overnight but a lot of recipes say brine..some people brine it for hours then into buttermilk for a few hours

cayenne, paprika (smoked and sweet) salt and pepper and whatever else you want in with the buttermilk if you want and same with the flour when you come to coat it

 

[Jonny69]

You could try New Malden. That will be easy from Surrey.

That's a pretty good point

We have a lot of Korean restaurants around here (Egham/Staines) but I haven't seen fried chicken on their menus.

I like making it at home, I use buttermilk to marinade overnight but a lot of recipes say brine..some people brine it for hours then into buttermilk for a few hours

Watching Triple D etc it seems to be either a regional thing or personal preference whether it's brined, coated in buttermilk or both. It's great that we can get cultured buttermilk over here now, so we can give it a go at home. One place also did oven fried, where the chicken is cooked in a dish full of oil in the oven. I've tried that method at home and it works really well. Not tried using buttermilk yet though.

 

[FrenchTart]

Oven fried sounds extremely close to the process you'd use in confit. I'm guessing you get similar results?

 

[Jonny69]

Sort of, but the temperature is hotter and it's in vegetable oil rather than fat. I think I did it at 180, when I'd normally do a confit at 140-150. I don't think it would crisp up at the lower temperature. It was basically like deep frying but not on the hob, if that makes sense? It comes out exactly the same as doing it in a pan except the top is a lot more crispy where it is sticking out the oil - pretty delicious

I seem to have a batch of collared greens cooked in the fridge and some American brown gravy. I think I know what I'm cooking tomorrow; it'll either be fried chicken or chicken fried steak with mashed potato, greens and gravy

 

[Tinders]

Ive recently been trying fried chicken in my Airfryer, nice and crispy on the outside and very succulent on the inside. The wife uses a light tandoori marinade made with greek yoghurt and various home ground spices.

 

[FrenchTart]

Sort of, but the temperature is hotter and it's in vegetable oil rather than fat. I think I did it at 180, when I'd normally do a confit at 140-150. I don't think it would crisp up at the lower temperature. It was basically like deep frying but not on the hob, if that makes sense? It comes out exactly the same as doing it in a pan except the top is a lot more crispy where it is sticking out the oil - pretty delicious

I seem to have a batch of collared greens cooked in the fridge and some American brown gravy. I think I know what I'm cooking tomorrow; it'll either be fried chicken or chicken fried steak with mashed potato, greens and gravy

Ah, makes sense. Part of the reason I brought it up is that there's a Serious Eats wing recipe where you confit the wings and then stick them in the oven (I think, memory is a little vague).

Sounds damn tasty anyhow. I have half a chicken (the good half - breast meat is gone) to use up and also a big ol' box of wings to use up. I may have to copy your idea

 

[Tunney]

Korean fried chicken is my favourite. It is just better in every way and you can have chilli versions too which are epic.

Wait, it's possible to get a Korean dish without chilli?

 

[Maccapacca]

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.3...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sdW0KeeC3aJu-TeEese8e7Q!2e0

If anyone is brave enough this place is fantastic.

All it needs is John Candy.

http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/news/10421688.display/

 

[Rich_L]

Ah, makes sense. Part of the reason I brought it up is that there's a Serious Eats wing recipe where you confit the wings and then stick them in the oven (I think, memory is a little vague).

Nah, the confit part is done in the oven but you still have to deep-fry to finish. Am doing Kenji's oven-fried buffalo wings (dry in fridge overnight with baking soda/salt then bake at 450F) for Superbowl Sunday so quite looking forward to giving that a go!

 

[FrenchTart]

Ah. I tried that last week and found it a little overly salty (and could taste the baking powder/soda). Not sure if you saw my comment on the post but basically you may want to try neutralising the baking soda with vinegar and leaving it to dry longer.

 

[Rich_L]

Yeah I had planned on using half the salt and maybe cut the baking powder by about a third after reading the comments and he does acknowledge he loves his salt

Did you do it with the buffalo sauce or similar or were you just eating the wings as-is? I had figured that once you coat it in the buffalo sauce it'd probably mask any residual baking powder flavour but if not then might give that vinegar wash idea a go on a batch and see if makes any difference.

 

[FrenchTart]

I cooked up a coating using hot sauce from a local deli and butter (I also added a ton of scotch bonnet chillies but the heat didn't really carry through - butter doing its thing I guess).

I've found a few of Kenji's recipes to be a little on the salty side so I guess take what I'm saying with a pinch of salt (ho ho). I love rich food but the salt levels generally need to be tempered by other things - and I found that in this particular recipe the hot sauce wasn't enough.

The baking powder flavour definitely came through on some of the wings but that could just be down to uneven application. I do wonder if making a liquid base and then dipping the wings in that would provide a more consistent approach. Even if it does I would still be tempted to use an acid to neutralise the base though as even a minor amount of flavour from it is a detriment (imo).

 

[Rich_L]

Mhm, I tend to go light on salt generally when cooking, though his colombian salt potato recipe looked amazing

Reason I asked about the sauce is that Frank's Hot Sauce is basically just cayenne peppers and vinegar with a bit of salt and garlic powder so perhaps using a hot sauce with a high vinegar content ends up breaking down any residual pockets of baking powder?

I may have to cook up a batch tomorrow as a tester

 

[FrenchTart]

Good point re the acidity of the hot sauce. Perhaps I simply didn't have enough and/or didn't leave it covered long enough.

You should definitely experiment - I will do the same on sat/sun and post my findings

Edit: I agree that those potatoes look sublime btw

 

[delta0]

Wait, it's possible to get a Korean dish without chilli?

Not many!

 

[Scam]

I'm no expert, but the best I've ever had was at Bibigo in Soho. Proper Korean red fried chicken. Gorgeous! Also quite good was the fried chicken burger at Jackson & Rye.

Having watched Saturday Kitchen this morning I'm going to have to go and try another new Korean place in Soho which is Jinjuu. Her fried chicken looked awesome.

 

[Jonny69]

Thread hijack, because this isn't what I intended, but chicken fried steak: so, wrong, but tastes so, so right

Collared greens and mash with American brown gravy in the background.

What complete abuse of good sirloin

 

[FrenchTart]

As you say, a heathen thing to do but still...looks awesome

Post up some chicken-fried bacon next.