This is done more cleanly and evenly with chicken breasts but today I am using thighs. I think I'm beginning to prefer dark meat over white meat. The chicken thighs are brined for a few hours; about 1/2 cup kosher salt whirled into half gallon water. Whirling it made a mess of a bowl in the sink.
The chicken thighs were removed from the brine into a plastic grocery bag, and individually pounded flat to uniform thinness.
A spice mix was prepared; an abundance of coriander, less cumin than coriander, less salt than cumin, less black pepper than salt. Today that was all. The spice concoction usually includes various chile powders, any variety of curries, garlic powder, turmeric, or whatever else happens to catch my eye as the available spices and herbs are scanned.
The chicken was seasoned directly, the flour dredge was seasoned obscenely heavily, and the milk drench was also seasoned, all three with the same seasoning mixture. So that is a lot of seasoning, more than you might imagine. American chicken is a blank canvas upon which cooks express their creative impulses. I do not hold back, tending to error on the side of extravagance, then I am always surprised at the degree to which flour diluted all of that.
Have you ever had Kentucky Fried Chicken that proudly proclaims 11 herbs and spices? I've had it, and it is no secret. The first 10 are salt.
The flattened chicken is dredged through the seasoned flour. Excess flour is tapped off the flattened chicken pieces. The dusted chicken, now with two thin layers of seasoning is dunked in the seasoned milk drench. Excess seasoned milk is tapped off and the flattened individual pieces of chicken, now with three thin layers of seasoning is returned to the seasoned flour dredge. Excess seasoned flour dredge is tapped off and the individual chicken pieces, now with three thin and one relatively thick layer of flour and seasonings are placed in a hot frying pan prepared with vegetable oil and butter.
The flattened chicken pieces cook quickly because they are thin and tender and vulnerable. They are removed to a draining towel.
At this point the cook will have a proper mess; a bowl of seasoned milk with flour from the chicken in it, and a bowl of heavily seasoned flour left over from coating each piece of chicken twice. Wouldn't do to waste these valuable resources.
Assess the situation of the pan at the end of the frying session. If all the oil is used up then add 2 tablespoons butter to the pan. If the pan contains an excess of 2 tablespoon of oil then discard the extra in excess of 2 tablespoons. Add the amount of seasoned flour from the chicken-coating bowl that corresponds to the amount of oil that is either reserved or augmened, tablespoon of seasoned flour for each tablespoon of oil. The seasoned flour is cooked in the oil for 1 minute. The pan is doused with the extra seasoned milk (which also has flour in it from the chicken). Two things occur immediately. The roux thickens the liquid, and the liquid lifts the fond from the chicken stuck to the pan. It's like magic! It's best done with a whisk and temporarily off the heat unless you happen to be a pro like myself. *Exhales on fingernails, buffs nails on shirt* The liquid is augmented preliminarily to one cup with any number of liquids or combination of liquids, chicken broth or white wine, for example, or plain regular white milk, or even * gasp * water. Keep the liquids at hand to augment further to two cups. Judge this as proceeding to the desired thickness. In this case, it was 1 tablespoon oil/butter plus 1 tablespoon seasoned flour plus 1 +1/2cup milk with chicken broth.
So there's the pan gravy.
Brussels sprouts are de-cored to enable them to be torn apart. This is tedious business and I pity da foo who gets stuck with this finicky task. The tight little unpleasant bitter cabbage balls are torn up to loose leaf regular midget cabbage which changes them completely. Olive oil to get the leaves frying, salt to get them sweating, rice vinegar to complete a simple dressing, dried cranberries for tart contrast to all that. The flavor profile can be easily expanded in any direction, something sweet, something capsaicin, something savory, something spicy. These Brussels sprouts here are simple.
I do not know why I did not use any chile pepper in either of these two things tonight. Sometimes I do not understand myself.
Previous chicken scaloppini:
1 comment:
Followed your lead on the chicken here; thighs, brining and over-seasoning is indeed the ticket! Makes for a great pan gravy. I may even continue to the chicken and "dumplings" for the leftovers.
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