Southern Fried Chicken

Classic Southern fried chicken should be crunchy and crusty on the outside and juicy and flavourful on the inside. That's the reason for soaking in the spiced buttermilk, and the double coating of flour creates that fantastic crust.

PREP TIME: 8 hours
COOK TIME: 1 hour

SERVES: 6

Ingredients

8 chicken drumsticks (skin on)
8 chicken thighs (skin on)
250ml Buttermilk
3 tbsp Sweet Home Alabama
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp salt

Directions

Mix 1 tbsp Sweet Home Alabama with 200ml buttermilk
Place the chicken pieces in a large flat dish and pour over the buttermilk mixture. Using your hands, make sure the buttermilk get worked into the chicken pieces
Cover with clingfilm and leave in the fridge for at least 8 hours
Add the self-raising flour, the remaining 2 tbsp Sweet Home Alabama and the salt to a large sealable bag and mix
3 or 4 pieces at a time, add the chicken from the buttermilk dish and shake around to get a good coating of flour on each piece. Set the chicken on a rack and repeat with all pieces of the chicken
After standing for 15 minutes, add the remaining 50ml buttermilk to the marinading dish and re-coat the chicken pieces
Repeat the coating of the pieces of chicken with the flour mixture a second time, and let the chicken rest on the wire rack
Heat a large pan/wok with vegetable oil to 180 ℃
Fry the chicken pieces 4/5 at a time in the oil for 7-10 minutes, turning once, until nicely golden, and place on a wire rack over a baking tray
Heat an oven to 180 ℃
When all the chicken is done, place in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes until chicken is fully cooked (cover with foil if the batter is getting too dark