So the original plan was to cook fried chicken wings for the traditional July 4 party, and also to cook omelets for my family for July 4 breakfast (which would have happened on July 3). That of course didn’t pan out, because my cat sitter lost Missy. But I figured I’d post pics from my practice runs and write up my notes and thoughts.
Since I started off with a pic of the fried chicken, let’s talk about fried chicken first. I basically used Alton Brown’s fried chicken recipe verbatim, from Good Eats Season 4’s Fry Hard II: The Chicken.
The batter stayed pretty much the same as AB’s recipe. It’s hard to tell, but there’s chicken wings (more on that later) soaking in butter milk on the right. And then you season the chicken with kosher salt, garlic powder, cayenne, and paprika. (The original recipe called for smoke paprika instead of regular paprika, but this was before I discovered the awesomeness that is smoked paprika.) Then coat in flour, and fry in shortening.
Yes, Alton Brown suggests frying in shortening. Would I recommend frying in shortening? To be honest, it brings out great results, but it’s impractical. You can pour peanut oil into a pot. You have to scoop shortening by hand. Also, shortening has a low smoke point, so you have to watch the thermometer carefully. If you’re hardcore, I’d say try both and decide for yourself if shortening is worth it. If you’re like me, take the easy way out and just use peanut oil.
Beyond that, the spice mix is spot on. (Although maybe it’ll be better with smoked paprika.) Seasoning the chicken directly instead of mixing it in with the flour is key. It gets a lot more flavor into the chicken.
The other deviation from AB’s recipe is he recommends breaking down a whole chicken. I just bought a bunch of chicken wings, broke those down, and fried those. Why chicken wings? The pieces are much smaller, so it’s more appropriate for a party snack rather than big old thighs and legs and breasts.
For the record, if you’re pan-frying the chicken wings, 4 minutes on the first side and 3 minutes on the second side seemed to be spot on. If you’re deep-frying, logically, the chicken wings will take between 4 and 7 minutes. (If you don’t know the difference between pan-frying and deep-frying, watch the Good Eats episode.)
So now the other half of this write-up: omelets. Last time we made omelets, I had a lot of trouble getting them to cook through without sticking to my stainless steel pan. I have a Lodge Cast Iron Skillet now, so I figured I’d use that instead. (And this is after spending a bunch of time and effort to properly season the damn thing.)
That said, I still had trouble actually folding the omelet onto the plate (as you can see from the picture). The omelet doesn’t stick per se, but it does resist sliding. So I had to get under there to make the omelet slide, but I didn’t do it very well (plus maybe the omelet was a bit undercooked), so the omelet self-destructed on the way down to the plate.
So about that filling? I felt that mushrooms and onions would capture my flavor profile pretty well. I had 1 onion, 4 oz crimini mushrooms, 4 oz shiitake mushrooms sauteed in olive oil, salt, black pepper, Frank’s Hot Sauce, and some soy sauce to boost the flavor and color of the mushrooms. This recipe is enough to fill 4 omelets. (Or if you’re crazy like me and each omelet to be half mushroom-onion, half ham and cheese, then you can make 8 omelets.)
This one looks much better, right? Well, that’s actually a lie. Look again at the cast iron pan. See that other handle on the far side of the pan. If you roll the omelet down away from the main handle, the far handle will prop the omelet up above the plate by about 2-3 inches. What ends up happening us the filling falls out, and then the omelet falls on top of the filling. (At least I was able to disguise the fact that the filling fall out.)
As it turns out, a better way to fold the omelet is sliding it across. (It’s hard to describe with words, and I don’t have a third hand to take a photo. Next time I do it, if I get it right, I’ll get someone to photograph it for me.
Also yes, I made 2-egg omelets instead of 3-egg omelets this time.
So what next? Well, I’m visiting my family over New Years, so I have another half a year practice my omelets and get this right.