Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Honey/Sumac/Garlic/Sriracha Sauce

I have finally gotten rid of my cluster headache, so this weekend was all about the cooking. The paella wasn't super successful, so I want to try again, but the fried chicken was!

This recipe has been evolving for years, and I think I'm at a place I really like. It got rave reviews. It does require prep the day before, but it's really labor light overall.

Also, most people seem to prefer bone-in chicken, with skin. I like the chicken tenders style, because I am lazy. The thing I've found is that a full 12-24 hours in the marinade makes all the difference in keeping the chicken moist.

The only problem I ran into is that my last batch, I put in too much chicken, and dropped the oil temp too far, so I had to fry it for too long and the breading got soggy.

Smaller batches are the way to go.

The recipe is all me, but the frying info I got from here.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

3-5lbs skinless, boneless chicken breasts and/or thighs cut into strips about 2 inches wide

Enough vegetable or corn oil to fill a deep pot (for frying)

Marinade

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

2 c. buttermilk (maybe a little more, depending on amount of chicken)

2 tbsp cayenne pepper

4 tbsp garlic powder

4 tbsp onion powder

2 tbsp paprika (either sweet or hot)

Breading:

3 c all purpose flour

1/4 c onion powder

4 tbsp garlic powder

1-3 tbsp cayenne (depending on preferred spice level)

2 tsp sea salt 

Honey/Garlic/Sriracha sauce:

1 c honey

1 tbsp ground sumac

1 tbsp sea salt (added slowly!)

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1-3 tbsp sriracha

How to:

For the chicken:

- The day before, mix all the marinade ingredients & add chicken. There should be enough marinade to cover the chicken slightly

- Cover, and put in the fridge for at least 12 hours

- The day of, pull the chicken out of the fridge an hour before you're going to cook, to bring it up to temperature.

- In a large bowl, mix all the breading ingredients

- Heat oil to 300 degrees (this is important! I actually used a thermometer for once)

- Working in batches, put marinaded chicken into breading. Toss, then squish with your hands to make breading adhere

- Fry in batches, depending on your pot size. Temp shouldn't drop below 250, and always let it come back up to 300 between batches

- It took 12 minutes to fully fry the pieces for me, but check after 6

- At these temperatures, the breading gets nice and crispy and not over done at the same time the chicken is done

- When you pull it out, put it on a draining rack over a sheet pan, to catch the oil. Eat while hot. This doesn't re-heat very well

For the sauce:

- Mix it all together in a microwave safe dish, and microwave in bursts of 30 seconds till thin and incorporated. Re-heat as needed to soften.