Fried Chicken for a Crowd Recipe, a.k.a. Sous Vide Fried Chicken
By perfectly precooking the chicken before frying, we cut down on fry time, enabling us to serve more crisp, fresh chicken faster.
Ingredients
- 2 whole chickens cut into 8 pieces each
- 3 Tbsp kosher salt divided
- 3 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper divided
- 1 Tbsp paprika
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 2 C buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tbsp hot sauce
- 3 C flour
Instructions
- Mix 2 Tbsp salt, 2 Tbsp pepper, and the rest of the spices together. Season the chicken with this mixture. Optional for deeper flavor: let it all sit in the fridge overnight.
- Prepare the chicken for sous vide by vac-sealing it or putting it in well-sealed zip-top bags. Insert a Pro-Series Waterproof Needle Probe through some sous vide tape into the thickest part of one of the breasts. Place a piece of sous vide tape on one of the thigh bags, too, so you can easily move the probe there once the breasts are done. (They’ll always take a bit longer.)
- Put the chicken in a large pot fitted with a sous vide circulator. Set the circulator temp to 185°F (85°C).
- Start cooking. Set ChefAlarm’s high-temp alarm for the chicken breast to 158°F (70°C).
- Meanwhile, mix the buttermilk, eggs, and hot sauce together in a large bowl.
- Mix the flour with the remaining 1 Tbsp each of salt and pepper in a large bowl.
- When the chicken breast alarm sounds, remove the bags with the breasts from the water and set aside while the rest of the chicken comes to temp. Move the needle probe to the pre-taped bag with the thigh and reset the high-temp alarm to 180°F (82°C).
- When the thighs reach temp, remove them from the water.
- Cut open the bags, remove the chicken pieces, dip them in the buttermilk, then dredge them in the flour. Set them on a cooling rack placed in a baking sheet. If you want your chicken extra-crispy, dip the pieces back in buttermilk, then in flour again!
- Fill your pot with oil and start to preheat it to 350°F (177°C), using ChefAlarm to watch the temp. (Switch from the needle probe to the optional straight probe and use ChefAlarm’s included pot clip to attach it to your oil pot.)
- Fry the chicken in batches, cooking just until the breading is a beautiful golden brown, 2.5–3 minutes.
- Remove the chicken and rest it on a paper towel- or butcher paper- lined baking sheet.
- Repeat with the rest of the chicken, until it’s all cooked.
- Serve with your favorite accompaniments—collard greens, maybe some black eyed peas, and biscuits or cornbread.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!