fried chicken

One Bell and Evans whole chicken is cut into pieces and brined for about three hours. The pieces are dried, dredged in seasoned flour, drenched in seasoned egg wash, then dredged again in the same seasoned flour. The pieces are deep fried under 7 LBS pressure in two batches dark meat first then white meat. 

The salad shown is pre-washed greens with oil and vinegar dressing.

Flour coating:

*  2 cups all purpose flour

*  1 teaspoon garlic powder

*  1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

*  1/2 teaspoon sea salt

*  1 teaspoon pepper

*  1 teaspoon powdered ginger

*  1 teaspoon ground fennel seed

Egg drench

*  three eggs 

*  1/4 cup milk

*  all the same seasoning as the flour. 

Using the pressure cooker was a daring experiment. It speeded things dramatically. The dark meat cooked in 8 minutes, the white meat cooked in 7 minutes. 

The problem with using the pressure cooker, apart from the scary danger, is that the heat of the oil inside the pot is unknown. The cook can hear what is going on inside the pot but the temperature of the oil remains a mystery. For the crust to be crispy the oil must be maintained at 350℉ / 175℃ as closely as possible. If the temperature of the oil drops significantly then the crust will be soggy with oil. The advantage of pressure pots is that they increase the temperature of cooking water thus speed cooking. To release the pressure so that the lid can be removed involves cooling the air above the liquid. If the liquid stays hot then so too does the air between the liquid and the lid tend to stay hot. It was not possible to release the pressure as long as the oil stayed hot. The pot must be removed from the burner in order for pressure to cease being produced within the pot. To release the seal before the pressure drops inside the pot would disastrously spray hot oil throughout the cooking area. I tried to keep up the temperature of the oil and still reduce the pressure so that the lid could be removed but it simply was not possible. For both batches, the temperature of the oil after the lid was safely removed was 250℉ / 120℃, too low for excellently crisped crust. The crust of this chicken suffered due to the impossibility of removing the lid while the oil is still hot. Apart from the incompletely crispy crust, the chicken itself is delicious and cooked perfectly. Presently I do not have a solution for the lid-removal-while-still-hot problem.