Recipe, HOME

I haven't had fried chicken in years. Caleb & I make a healthy oven baked GF version with GF panko (the recipe of which I will also put up here at some point), but we tend to not make the real stuff because it's so unhealthy, until last week when we had a serious craving...

I'd been dreaming about it for a while and so had he, so we spent a while texting about creating something great and of course the kind of texture we wanted for the coating. I obviously suggested Southern Fried (because it's the best), so Caleb said he would come up with a recipe that would be as close to that as he could get. Whenever I ate fried chicken growing up (which was rare) I would tend to just peel off the coating and leave the chicken; mostly because I'm very picky about chicken meat, but also because, let's be honest, the coating is the best and most important piece. And that was our aim.

So...here's our recipe for GF Fried Chicken - that you can of course modify to your liking. I've also put in a recipe for some Chipotle Aioli that Caleb made to go with our food. That day we also used our T-Fal Actifry to give us low calorie chips/fries to go with our beige dinner - as if we cared about calories (!) and they turned out beautifully!

Gluten Free Fried Chicken 

Ingredients

- 240ml Buttermilk

- 4 x Cups of GF flour (ours is from Costco and is one of the best GF flour's I've found, so if you have a membership, find this Namaste Food's blend!)

- 2 TBSP's Salt

- 1.5 TBSP's of: Paprika, Garlic Powder & Onion Powder

- 1 TBSP's of: Celery Salt, Chili Powder, All Spice, Ground Red Pepper (cayenne), Mace

- 2 TSP's Black Pepper
- Hot Sauce (of your choice)

- 2 Chicken Breasts, 4 Thighs, 4 drumsticks, as many wings as you'd like
- Giant bottle of Vegetable oil for frying! 

Method

1. Wash and trim your chicken and place in a bowl. Pour over all of the buttermilk until all pieces are coated. Leave to soak for at least 3 hours. Firstly in the fridge, but then remove and put somewhere safe, so that the chicken is not too cold for cooking. 

2. In a separate bowl, measure out the flour. Then add all other spices and mix thoroughly. 

3. Lay out some foil (or plates) ready to place chicken on once it's been coated. 

4. Take your chicken pieces and coat in your flour mixture. Tap off excess flour. If you'd like, we double coated our chicken to give an extra thick and crispy layer. To do this, once the chicken has been tapped for excess, add some hot sauce to the buttermilk (as much heat as you desire), redip the chicken in the buttermilk and then place back in the flour mixture until full coated for a second time. Once coated, place carefully on the foil.

 [We tried it both ways, with one coat and two, and I can safely say I preferred the double coat.]

5. Pre-heat your oil to between 325-340 degrees F.  [Be aware that if your chicken is too cold, it will lower the temperature of the oil dramatically. We used a digital thermometer.]

6. Fry your chicken for 7-10minutes. Basically, once it starts to get some real colour to it/ gets super crispy. Length also depends on which piece of the chicken you are cooking. The internal temperature of the chicken should be a minimum of 165 degrees F, to make sure that it is cooked. [I am not responsible if you undercook your chicken, so please be careful!]

7. Place on papertowels/kitchen roll to get rid of any excess grease (obvs to make it slightly healthier, ha). Sprinkle with salt. 

8. ENJOY your chicken! Eat with whatever you desire!!!!

[Double Coated GF Fried Chicken on GF roll, with Chipotle Aioli & Rocket]

[Single Coated GF Fried Chicken with ActiFry Fries/Chips]

Chipotle Aioli

Ingredients

- 2 x Egg Yolks

- Olive Oil

- Lime Juice

- 1/3 cup Cilantro

- 2 x Canned Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce

- Garlic Powder

- Salt to taste

Method

1. Whisk 2 egg yolks and slowly trickle in olive oil until the mixture has set. Then add 1 TSP of lime juice and whisk so it does not split. 

2. In a food processor put the cilantro, the peppers (plus a bit of extra adobo sauce from the can), the salt, garlic powder and a splash of lime juice. Mix on high until fully blended. 

3. Gentle fold into the mayonnaise, stirring as you do to make sure the aioli does not split. 

4. You are done! Keep refrigerated to keep fresh.