Free range fried chicken

I like my chicken to be free range, and British too but most definitely free range. I will sometimes overlook this (with a bit of guilt) to enjoy a takeaway but I can't bring myself to buy fried chicken, I think the fact the chicken is the focus of the meal makes it worse somehow. A bit of weird twisted logic there.

So the answer to getting free range fried chicken was to make my own. This is the second time I tried it, and it came out nicely both times so I thought it was time to share.

I should add, the hobs are off in all the pictures before the cooking one, it is just that my kitchen is so tiny I have to use the cold hob tops as workspace.

Big pans of hot oil are dangerous things, and so is raw chicken. Use plenty of care with both.

The herbs and spices I used are listed, you can use any you have/like. These are a little spicy.

Ingredients:

1 cup of buttermilk, or 1 cup of milk and the juice of 1 small lemon

Chicken, this recipe will do 4 thighs and 5 legs or the equivalent of any chicken bits you fancy. I chopped breast pieces up the first time.

2 cups flour

2tsp salt (yeah, its a lot, but its not like you eat this everyday)

2 tsp thyme

2tsp basil

2tsp oregano

4tsp ground ginger

4 heaped tsp celery salt

4tsp black pepper

4tsp dry mustard

4 heaped tsp paprika

2 tsp chilli powder

1 egg

1 litre cooking oil

In a jug mix the milk and lemon juice, stir and leave for about five minutes, it will go thick and you will probably see little white flecks in it. This makes a good substitute for buttermilk.

Put the chicken pieces in a large bowl and pour the buttermilk (or above substitute) over. Cover and leave in the fridge to soak for at least two hours, stir once or twice to make sure all the chicken is covered. It can be left overnight in the fridge. 

The chicken should be about room temperature when it is cooked, so take it out of the fridge a little before you want to cook it.

In a large bowl or roasting pan mix the flour, herbs and spices. A whisk is good for this, yeah it sounds odd, but it works.

Take the chicken out of the buttermilk and put it on a plate. Add an egg to the remaining buttermilk and mix well.

Set up a coating station a little like the one below. We have chicken, egg wash, flour coating and a baking tray off to the side for storing the coated chicken.

Dip the buttermilky chicken into the flour, then the egg wash and finally back into the flour. Make sure it gets coated all over at each stage, I found the best way is to drop it in then lift a handful of flour over the top to bury it, then pull it out and gently shake off the excess.

Do all the chicken pieces, putting each one onto a plate or tray to store, try not to let them touch each other or they will stick. I used a lined baking tray with a cooling rack to sit the chicken on.

The chicken will sit happily in its coating for a while, so this is a good time for a quick clear up. Set the litre of oil heating in a large pan or switch on your deep fat fryer. The fryer is the safer option, but I don't have room for one, so I used my fantastic wok. Use appropriate hot oil caution.

When the oil is hot enough to brown a small chunk of bread in 60 seconds carefully put some of the chicken pieces in. Don't overcrowd them, the wok fits three thighs or four legs. Cooking pieces of the same size together is a good idea.

Cooking time will depend on the size of the pieces, I gave these at least 5 minutes on each side then put them on a clean grill tray in the oven at 180 degrees C while I cooked the rest. The final batch out of the oil had ten minutes in the oven while I cooked some wedges.

This does tend to make the oil very dirty as bits of flour fall off during cooking. It is a good one to do right before you change the oil in your fryer.

Enjoy a big plate of fried chicken!

Recipe- Beef bourguignon

This might seem like a strange choice for a first post considering how much I bang on about the best of British, but it is not the name of the dish or the origin of the recipe that makes the food, it is the ingredients.

An early warning- there are a lot of pictures as I did this step by step.

I did not plan to make this for the blog, so the ingredients are as they came from the fridge/cupboard, I thought I would see how well I did making this out of British produce and try to do better next time.

Ingredients (In the order you need them):

1 leek (UK)

3 cloves of garlic (unknown, no label)

2 large carrots (British)

1 tsp olive oil (Non specified EU origin)

400g pack of casserole beef, chopped into chunks (British)

1 large glass of red wine (French)

1 stock cube (No idea, not labelled on the box)

2 large glasses of water (UK, from the tap)

1 tsp olive oil (Non specified EU origin)

4 rashers of bacon (British)

6 large chestnut mushrooms (Ireland), or other variety if you prefer

8 shallots (British)

1 tbsp corn flour (Non specified EU)

1/3 mug cold water (UK, from the tap)

Set the oven to 180 degrees C

Wash and slice the leeks. Peel and slice the carrots. Peel and crush the garlic.

Heat the oil in a large casserole dish or pan and brown the beef.

Take the browned beef out of the pan (the lid is a good place to store it). Add the leeks and garlic and lightly fry until the leeks look a little see through, you will need to keep stirring them to avoid burning.
Add the sliced carrots, browned meat and stir
Add the red wine, stock cube and one glass of water. Stir well.
Put the lid on and place in the oven at 180 degrees C for two hours. Check occasionally and add a little more water if it is looking dry.

After two hours prepare the shallots (peel) and mushrooms (quarter).

Finely chop the bacon and fry in 1 tsp of oil.

Once the bacon is crispy add the mushrooms and shallots. Fry until the mushrooms are soft, the shallots should be lightly browned where they have been touching the pan.

Take the casserole dish out of the oven. Stir in the bacon, shallots and mushrooms. Put back in the oven for another hour.

About five minutes before serving mix the cornflour with cold water in a jug, stir into the casserole and return to the oven for a few minutes.

Serve with potatoes and veggies and what is left of the bottle of wine. Enjoy!