On the Table: Fried Chicken Strips

I love trying to recreate restaurant dishes at home, though often I use the original dish as more of an inspiration than an actual goal.  With a little help from "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives," however, I recently recreated Gillian Clark's fried chicken (or came pretty close to it). 

Gillian Clark is a local DC chef whose culinary skills seem to exceed her business acumen (sorry, but it's true!).  Since the General Store closed and Kitchen on K Street is not open yet, I figured I'd just have to go without Clark's fantastic fried chicken.  Then, Tom Sietsema reported in his column in the Washington Post Magazine this past Sunday that Clark works as a guest chef at Freddy's Lobster & Clams in Bethesda on Thursdays making...fried chicken!  Well, just reading that got me to thinking about fried chicken, and rather than wait until Thursday, we went ahead and recreated the dish, using Clark's segment on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" as a tutorial.  We used boneless chicken breasts rather than whole bird pieces, and it was delicious.  To prepare:

Prepare a marinade using some multiple of the following ratio: two cups buttermilk, two tablespoons of hot sauce (Frank's Red Hot...or whatever you prefer - and you could use more hot sauce if you want a spicier result), and two cloves of garlic, crushed.  That was enough marinade to cover two chicken breasts in a small-ish container.  You want to make sure you have enough liquid to cover all the chicken you are using.  If you want to have chicken strips, go ahead and cut them up before you put the chicken in the marinade (lesson learned here - I cut the chicken up after it had been marinated and then had to re-dip it before flouring.  Save yourself the trouble and cut up the chicken first).  I cut 3-4 strips from each chicken breast.  Of course, you can also leave the chicken pieces whole - they will just take a little bit longer to cook.  Mix together the marinade, place the chicken into it, and cover the container.  Let the chicken soak (in the refrigerator) for several hours, or up to a day.

When you're almost ready to make the chicken, pull it out of the refrigerator and let it sit (still in the marinade) at room temperature for a few minutes, to bring the temperature up just a bit.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Put a large skillet on the stove and pour in some frying oil - I used a combination of peanut and canola.  You want the oil to be deep enough in the pan that it will come halfway up the thickest piece of chicken.  Add about half a stick of butter to the oil.  Turn the burner on to medium and allow the oil to get hot.

While the oil is heating, flour the chicken.  Into a rimmed plate or a bowl, pour a good amount of flour (I didn't measure it, but I'm guessing it was about two cups, salt (about two tablespoons), and freshly ground black pepper (about one tablespoon).

Stir that all together.  Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour, making sure each piece is well coated.

The oil is ready when you (carefully!) flick some water into it and it sizzles.  Lay the floured chicken strips in the pan, in a single layer and not touching eachother.  If you are cooking a lot of chicken, you may need to do it in batches.

When the bottom starts to brown, flip over the chicken.  When the second side browns, remove the chicken from the skillet and lay it (still in a single layer) in a glass baking dish (I just used a pie plate).  Put the dish in the oven and cook for 10-12 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through (if you are using whole chicken breasts or bone-in pieces, they will probably take longer in the oven).

This chicken was un.be.lievable.  Seriously.  I almost have no words.  Almost.  You should make some!

I served these beauties with buttermilk mashed potatoes and peas - it's like a fancy (and incredibly delicious) TV dinner! 

Enjoy!

(P.S. Don't throw out the oil in which you initially cooked the chicken!  Strain out any solids and keep it in a closed container in the refrigerator and you can re-use it.)