Cook\'s Country - 2019-02-03

14 COOK’S COUNTRY • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019

FRIED CHICKEN IS a labor of love
for me, and it always feels like a special
occasion when I make it and eat it. But
does it have to be so? What about a
more casual fried chicken, one you can
eat while lounging on the couch watch-
ing a movie or a ballgame?
Enter popcorn chicken, those
craggy, crispy, bite-size morsels of
fried chicken goodness. The appeal
is partly in its crunch and delicious
fl avor, sure, but also in the sheer fun
and immediacy of eating it pretty
much hot out of the fryer, when it’s at
its absolute crunchiest.
But the fun was dampened as I
cooked my way through a handful of
recipes. A few made crunchy chicken
bites but called for fussy breading pro-
cedures, which was a lot of work for all
those little pieces. Some versions were
easier to make but had weak coatings
(just a thin layer of fried fl our) that
fl aked off. I wanted juicy meat encased
in a thick, savory, crunchy coating,
and a method that was easy enough to
make any time the craving hit.
First, the chicken. I tried boneless
thigh meat, but it didn’t seem right
here—it was a little too rich and the
fl esh was a bit too soft—so breast
meat was the way to go. While whole
boneless, skinless breasts can easily
overcook and dry out, the small pieces
cooked so quickly that this wasn’t an
issue; thus, brining was unnecessary.
I found that ½ -inch pieces were the
perfect “popcorn” size, and briefl y
freezing the raw breasts to fi rm them
up made for easier cutting.
I tried using a batter coating, but
the batter’s high moisture content
made the chicken pieces clump in the
oil unless I fl oated them in one by
one, an immediate deal breaker. And
my early tests had shown that simply
dumping the chicken pieces into
seasoned fl our made for a dry, scant,
unsatisfying coating.
Needing an easy way to get a sub-
stantial coating with plenty of cling, I
turned to a trusted test kitchen method
for fried chicken: After mixing a dredge
of fl our and cornstarch (the latter added

for extra crispiness), I worked ½ cup of

water into the mixture with my hands

until it felt like damp sand with tiny

craggy bits. To get the fl our mixture

to stick, I tossed the chicken pieces in

beaten eggs before coating them with it.

This moist coating clung readily to the

chicken, and the craggy bits provided

extra mass that fried up supercrunchy.

Dredging and frying in two batches

helped prevent clumping.

Final refi nements: A small amount

of sugar added to the dredge helped it

brown more quickly while imparting

a faint, pleasing sweetness. A little

baking powder in the fl our mixture

enhanced the crust’s crunch, granulat-

ed garlic and onion powder provided

depth, and a pinch of cayenne put

some pop in this popcorn chicken.

And fi nally, augmenting the dredge

with a little extra dry fl our after

breading the fi rst batch kept it from

turning too clumpy and made the two

batches indistinguishable.

The chicken pieces fried up beauti-

fully golden and crunchy, and my

happy tasters quickly gobbled them

up—especially once I whipped up a

simple honey–hot sauce dip whose

fl avor was irresistible. Now that’s my

kind of fast food.

The chicken’s

crispy coating is

perfectly seasoned,

but if you need a

little something

extra, try dunking

the pieces in our

sweet-spicy sauce.

Popcorn Chicken

Bite-size fried chicken is

a big seller at fast-food

restaurants. Our recipe

makes it just as big a hit

at home.

by Cecelia Jenkins

Texture Trick

Adding some water to a mixture of fl our

and cornstarch and rubbing it together

with your hands creates the craggy

mixture in which we dredge the chicken

pieces. When fried,

it transforms into an

extra-crunchy

coating on

every piece.