Comfort food: Fried buttermilk chicken and brioche
There are countless variations of fried chicken! However, many pros emphasise the same thing right from the start - delicious meat, buttermilk marinade and a well-mastered frying technique. "We take chickens from the Štěpánovsko farm. This is the alpha and omega of the recipe," says chef Petr Benda. "Our fried chicken in brioche reflects the basic idea of Bufet - every two or three months we adjust it according to what is growing at the moment. We try to bring seasonality to our guests as best we can." What matters when doing this?
1. The right lot
At Bufet, it's proven to be the thigh. "Chicken thighs are juicy and have fat in them, which is released by the heat and gives the meat its tenderness. The result is not as dry as chicken breasts," explains Peter. "We debone the thighs and remove the tendons and skin, but we don't knead them. All you need to do is to slightly cut through the muscle so that the fillet spreads out into a relatively thin slice, one to two centimetres high, and shrivels up nicely when fried."
2. Under the influence of buttermilk
The processed meat goes into the buttermilk. This works in a similar way to the salt solution in brining - tenderises the meat and preserves its moisture, but it also contains sugars that caramelise during frying (or baking) and enhance the flavour and golden crust. "We add 2 % salt to the buttermilk. No more. No herbs or spices. We are primarily concerned with the juiciness and tender texture of the meat," says Petr, explaining:
"The buttermilk sticks to the meat, which then pairs with mayonnaise and other salty components in the brioche, so we don't salt the marinade as much as you would brine. It would add unnecessary flavour to the food. However, when the fried chicken is served with, for example, less pronounced tzatziki, the batter can be saltier. In this case, mix the buttermilk with 3 % salt."
3. Playing with time
The acids in buttermilk and salt do a much better job if the marinating is not rushed. "The meat needs to sit in the marinade for at least 12 hours. We usually marinate it for 24 hours so the buttermilk softens the muscle and the salt has time to break down the protein. Thanks to this, the fried meat does not leak juices," says Petr.
Chemistry window: The salt transforms the protein fibres into a gel so that the cooked meat absorbs water more easily and retains it even when cooked. Conversely, unsalted protein denatures when heated - it shrinks and pushes water molecules out of the protein in the muscle. This then dries out and solidifies more quickly when fried or baked.
4. To a crisp!
The love of frying is triggered by crispiness - a quality for which food instantly wins our favour. The goal of a fried chicken recipe, therefore, is an extra crispy coating around the melting meat. The perfect contrast! "Take the marinated fillets out of the buttermilk, coat them in plain flour without rinsing and fry straight away. In six minutes the chicken is cooked through beautifully golden," says Peter, noting:
"For frying we use rapeseed oil, as it has a sufficiently high smoke point and it doesn't burn. It's important that the cutlets are the same height all the way around and completely submerged in the fat. This is the only way they will fry evenly and have a nice leafiness on the surface."
The temperature is responsible for the crust! If the food is to crisp, the water molecules must evaporate as quickly as possible. This is facilitated by a temperature above the boiling point (above 100 °C) and stable contact between the raw material and the heat, which is mediated by the fat. 'In a large fryer, we fry chicken at 150 to 160 °C, but in the pan the oil cools with each new piece of meat - once the temperature drops below a certain point, the chicken does not crisp up and absorbs unwanted fat. It is therefore worthwhile heat the oil to 185 °C," says Peter and recommends:
"To prevent the oil temperature from fluctuating, it is useful to prepare the chicken in smaller batches and after frying, wait a while for the fat to heat up again. It is also a common mistake to set the temperature too high. The meat will then burn on the outside while remaining semi-raw in the centre.'
Caution! Remove the finished chicken with a perforated ladle or kitchen tongs and immediately pat it dry with a paper towel - excess oil moistens the crispy layer and you definitely don't want that!
Did you know...?
A weakness for crispiness is supposedly in our genes! It was written into them the moment our ancestors discovered cooking over a fire and tasted the baked crust on bread or meat. What's more, scientific research claims that crunchiness stimulates flavour - and expands the multisensory experience of food.
The link between pleasure and sound has been explored, for example, by Oxford professor Charles Spence, who argues that people evaluate food based on what they hear. According to one study, diners enjoyed their coffee less when the coffee machine made an unpleasantly high-pitched sound. In contrast. the crunch of cookies, chips. or fried triple-dipped bread, but also vegetables and fruit, suggest freshness and evokes positive emotions.
By the way, Charles Spence is considered the author of the new science of eating! His book Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating analyses the perception of food through the different senses and explores the factors that influence taste, whether it's the environment, the material of the cutlery or eating with the hands - all of which have been shown to improve mouthfeel.
5. Flavour à la season
The accompaniment of the fried chicken at Bufet is determined by the seasonal offerings at the market. In winter, the the still-hot steaks are sprinkled with a spicy mixture of nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, chilli and salt and served in a fire-toasted brioche - along with a yoghurt coleslaw and a dressing of mayonnaise, ketchup, shallots and horseradish.
In the spring, the bun is spread with with brown butter and wild garlic pesto and topped with fresh radish combined with chilli mayonnaise. In the summer, the fried chicken is topped with cucumber salad, dill mayonnaise and poppy seed oil, and in the autumn it is flavoured with things like truffle mayonnaise.
Throughout the year, the menu also includes mushroom mayonnaise. Sliced mushrooms are placed in cold oil and slowly fried for about 45 minutes until the fat has taken all the flavour out of them. The mushroom oil is then whipped into a creamy mayonnaise. In the same way, the cooks make oil and mayonnaise from garlic - the remaining cloves are stirred into the marinade for jerked chicken or beef.
From practice
In a marinade, buttermilk can take the place of yogurt, kefir and crème fraîche, or sour whey or milk with a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar.
Some chefs season the flour salt, pepper, dried garlic and onions or various herbs, while others add cornstarch to the dough to give it a crispy crust. The trick in preparing the popular Korean chicken is is the double-frying technique and a special sauce with baking powder. This reacts with the fat and skin and promotes crispiness.
Among the hundreds of recipes, a standout is the pre-salted chicken, which is double-coated in buttermilk with egg and hot sauce and in flour. The fried pieces are then breaded at the end with oil mixed with cayenne pepper, brown sugar and smoked paprika, roasted cumin and chopped garlic. The golden fillets may also be dipped in clarified butter with chilli, garlic and herbs - the hot meat takes on the flavour of the spices and fat without soaking up the grease.
Bufet is also the place to go for chicken breast strips: Strips of meat marinated overnight in BBQ sauce (with apple cider vinegar, salt and spices) are dipped in buttermilk and coated in plain flour just before frying.
For a flavourful chicken, try black garlic mayonnaise and more cleverly flavoured sauces or salsa and pesto of wild herbs that springtime provides for cooks.
Sources: Bufet Cooks, Samin Nosrat: Salt, fat, vinegar, heat
