instead of the crisp, crunchy crust of the chicken
dropped into the fryer immediately after dredging.
Why is this?
Once again, it’s our friend gluten.‡ ‡ As the
chicken rests, the flour in the dredging gradually
absorbs moisture from the buttermilk and the
surface of the chicken. As it absorbs moisture, its
proteins begin to unfold and link up with each other,
forming a sheath that grows tougher and tougher as
it sits. Let it sit for too long, and you’ll get a crust
hard enough to crack your teeth. Fried chicken
should be crisp, never tough, and to achieve this
goal, you want to get your chicken from flour to oil
as rapidly as possible. Of course, this introduces a
problem: freshly dredged chicken will release a ton
of dry flour into the oil, which will cause the oil to go
bad very fast. My advice is to shake the bejeezus out
of those chicken pieces in a metal strainer as they
come out of the flour mix so that there are as few
excess particles of flour as possible.
nandana
(Nandana)
#1