Homemade Chick-Fil-A with Five Ingredients
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Fried Chicken Sandwich
Chick-fil-a style fried chicken sandwich with juicy and crunchy fried chicken and pickles.
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Step 1: Season
Season some boneless skinless chicken thighs with salt and pepper. I use thighs because one boneless skinless thigh is just the right size for a sandwich, plus thighs are juicier than breast.
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Step 2: Add pickle juice
Put the chicken thighs in a ziplock baggie with the top folded over (this keeps nasty chicken juice from getting on the outside). Pour in some juice from a jar of dill pickle slices. Just a half cup or so.
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Step 3: Seal
seal the bag most of the way, then squeeze out any excess air and seal the bag all the way. This ensures good contact between pickle juice and chicken.
Step 4: Wait
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Let the chicken brine in that pickle juice for at least half an hour and up to overnight. The salty juice breaks down some of the chicken's muscle proteins (mainly myosin), which in turn helps the chicken retain more juice as it fries later on. It also adds flavor.
Step 5: Set up a dredging station
Put some self-raising flour into a bowl and some buttermilk in a second bowl. Season the flour with a lot of black pepper (no salt necesary, self-raising flour already has salt in it). If you don't have self-raising flour, you can also use all-purpose flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder and a teaspoon of kosher salt whisked into it per cup of flour.
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Step 6: Add buttermilk to flour
Add about 2 tablespoons of buttermilk per cup of flour to the bowl with flour and work it in with your fingertips. This will make the crusty shaggy bits that crisp up as you fry.
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Step 7: Dredge
Transfer your chicken to the buttermilk and turn to coat, then lift it up and put it int he bowl with the flour. Turn it and press it into the flour a few times very firmly to build up a nice thick crust.
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Step 8: Shake off excess
Gently shake off loose flour and check for bald spots. You want nice, thick, even coverage with lots of nooks and crannies.
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Step 9: Fry
Heat an inch or two of peanut or canola oil (or shortening or lard if you want to get real) to 400°F or so in a chicken fryer, wok, or Dutch oven. You want it this hot so that when you add your chicken it doesn't drop too much. Use a thermometer.
Step 10: Add chicken and fry
Slowly add your chicken so it doesn't splash. You should get your hand right down near the surface of the oil. Don't drop the chicken in. That's how you splash yourself with hot oil and burn your arms. Fry the chicken without moving it much until the bottom side is nice and crusty.
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Step 11: Flip
Carefully flip the chicken with a slotted spatula. Use a fork or another spatula to help you so the chicken doesn't flop down and splash when you turn it. Cook until the second side is crusty. In all you're looking at about 5 minutes of fry time.
Step 12: Drain
Drain the fried chicken on a paper towel-lined plate.
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Step 13: Bun
Put the chicken in a toasted bun with a few of those pickles.
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Step 14: Eat
Eat up!
