Sunday Supper 3: Crisp Chicken Thighs with Peas and Carrots

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Recipe by Hugh Acheson, available at Food and Wine

*Click the link above to see the full recipe, or find it at the bottom of the page.

Made On: January 18, 2021 (technically a Monday, I know ...)

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This recipe has a very plain sounding name for the deliciousness it delivers. Essentially fried chicken (sort of) with a salad, this dish delivers some classic and simple (but delicious) flavors alongside some tantalizing textures and a couple of surprise flavor bombs. This is among the best fried chicken I've ever had, and certainly the best I've ever made. The skin was perfectly crispy while the chicken was almost ridiculously moist and tender. The buttermilk brine makes a huge difference, and those two hours are so well worth it.

This chicken starts in a skillet and finishes in the oven, and the salad takes only a couple minutes to pull together with barely any cooking. So this is a great recipe to keep on hand for family dinner night (if you've got a little bit of time) or date night, if you're dating someone who likes to eat (which you should be).

And here's the thing about fried chicken. It's delicious. But a lot of home cooks I know (myself very much included) don't make it often, for a variety of reasons. For me, it mostly boils down to things like "it's too messy," "what do I do with all that leftover frying oil," "waaaay too many calories" or "I can never get that restaurant-crispy skin at home." Let me break down how much I love this recipe/method for chicken against all four of these reasons-not-to.

IT'S TOO MESSY

Yes, frying chicken (or anything for that matter) can be a messy endeavor. There's the brining with drips of brining liquid everywhere, the dredging with flour all over your nice sweater and the frying with oil popping and spraying everywhere. I tend to be a little messy and chaotic in the kitchen, so I feel you. But this recipe keeps things simple and straightforward so you are focused on the essential tasks in a way that should help minimize mess. The two-step cooking on the chicken gives you a chance to not have to tend the hot oil so you can focus on your vegetable prep or do some cleaning as you go. Also, the amounts used (of pretty much anything) are small and manageable to help manage mess and limit waste. Which brings me to ...

SO MUCH OIL!

I'm a weirdo and a big turn-off for me, when I think about frying chicken or anything else, is thinking about all that spent oil you're left with at the end. In my heart, I know it served a delicious, noble purpose, but in my head it seems like a significant expense and a huge quantity of waste. I feel like there should be something else I can use that old oil for to justify the cost.

I still don't know what to do with spent fry oil, or really even how to properly dispose of it. But, this recipe gets me, because you're using only 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening. By the time you're done frying, and your pan cools, you're left with a very manageable (and inexpensive) amount of solid oil to dispose of. A winner for me.

OH, THE CALORIES!

Look, fried chicken is hardly "diet food." But it's not some big bad monster either. It's not an every day food for me, but it's one of those that no matter how infrequently I eat it, it comes with a huge guilt trigger - "fat people shouldn't be allowed to eat fattening food without feeling shame." I call bullshit. Eat food. Food is good. With something like this, detaching guilt from the experience helps me focus on the food as food, not as emotion. The textures, tastes, smells, etc. Through that lens, the food is just that. It's delicious. It's nourishing. It's filling. When I'm not scared of or ashamed of it, I don't crave it in quite the same way. I'm able to eat my fill and not obsessively go back for more and more.

This recipe does some things to help you out on the calorie front. Frying in vegetable shortening will reduce some of your calorie count, as will finishing the chicken in the oven rather than frying in oil all the way through. Make sure you get your oil nice and hot (I aimed for between 350-375), which will also help reduce the amount of oil your chicken absorbs. And, it sounds silly and cliche to say it, but if you're making this whole recipe, you're serving the chicken with a delicious, textural and fragrant medley of vegetables. The salad is as much a part of the dish as the chicken. The greens will cut the richness of the chicken for you, but also help fill you up with very few calories per bite (compared to the chicken).

RESTAURANT-CRISPY SKIN

I don't have a great track record with getting crispy skin or chicken or nice rich sears on steaks. It's all about not being afraid of heat, and I'm working on it.

For this chicken, make sure you get your oil nice and hot. I got mine up in the 360 range, as it just barely began to lightly smoke. A high heat frying oil will help crisp up your skin from the very beginning. I started mine skin side down (skin straight into the hot oil), then flipped once in the oil before transferring (skin side up) to the rack to go into the oven. I'm convinced finishing up in the oven also helps with crispiness as it dries out some of that oil to give you an almost crackery crunch.

For bonus points, sprinkle some nice flaky salt over your chicken the second it comes out of the oven. The residual oils will grab onto that salt and give you a beautiful salty top-note of flavor in every bite.

MY PREPARATION NOTES

• I didn't want to buy buttermilk (because I always end up letting the unused buttermilk to to waste) so I made some sour milk with milk and vinegar (which I already had in the kitchen). My ratio was 1 cup milk to 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon white vinegar. Worked beautifully and returned results just like buttermilk.

• The mustard powder and cayenne are nice in the seasoning. This is where you could really make this your own. Think about adding flavors like black pepper, garlic powder, paprika. Yum!

• Because I'm not Hugh Acheson, I use a meat thermometer to check my chicken for doneness. The magic number is 165 degrees for chicken. Mine got there in just shy of 20 minutes in the oven.

• Finding the carrots with the tops attached is worth it for this recipe! The tops add a lovely grassy, earthiness to your salad mixture.

• Because I was serving up just one portion, I didn't dress all the salad. If you're saving some for leftovers, just dress what you're going to eat and save the rest to dress later.

• The apple cider vinegar in the hot sauce comes through in a beautiful, subtle way. If, like me, you'd like it a little less subtle, think about adding just a splash more.

Rating: 4.5/5

Will I Make It Again?: Chicken - Definitely; Salad - Possibly