Recipe: Town Hall Tabasco-Spiked Slow-Cooked Fried Chicken with Town Hall Spice

TABASCO-SPIKED SLOW-COOKED FRIED CHICKEN



FOR THE TABASCO JUICE:
1 1/2 cups (3/4 pound) unsalted butter
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1/2 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup Tabasco sauce
FOR THE CHICKEN:
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 whole chickens, 3 to 3 1/ 2 pounds, each cut into 8 pieces (2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 legs and 2 wings), or 6 or 7 pounds mixed chicken pieces
4 cups buttermilk
Canola oil, for deep-frying
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning
1 tablespoon Town Hall Spice Mixture (recipe follows)

TO PREPARE THE TABASCO JUICE:
Clarify the butter as directed on page 254, then let cool. You should have 1 cup.

In a food processor, combine the garlic, onion, and Tabasco sauce and process until smooth. Pass the puree through a fine-mesh strainer into a measuring cup. You should have 1/2 cup. Mix together the clarified butter and the strained mixture and set aside.

TO PREPARE THE CHICKEN:
Salt and pepper the chicken pieces. Using a meat injector, inject each piece of chicken with 2 shots of the Tabasco Juice, using about 1 1/2 teaspoons for each shot.

Place the chicken pieces in a single layer in a large baking dish (or 2 dishes), and pour the buttermilk over the top. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

TO FRY THE CHICKEN:
Pour the oil to a depth of 3 to 3 1/2-inches into a deep fryer or deep, heavy-bottomed pot and heat to 325 degrees F.

While the oil is heating, in a shallow bowl, stir together the flour, cornstarch, Old Bay, 1 tablespoon Town Hall Spice Mixture, and 1 teaspoon salt. Coat the chicken pieces with the seasoned flour, lightly shaking off the excess.

Working in batches to avoid crowding, add the chicken pieces to the hot oil and fry for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Drain on paper towels and serve hot.

TOWN HALL SPICE MIXTURE

2 tablespoons ground cayenne pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon celery salt

In a bowl, mix together all of the ingredients until well combined. Store in an airtight container in a cool cupboard. The mixture will keep for up to 6 months.

RECIPE NOTES:
"It took two giants in the food world to teach me how to make the perfect fried chicken. Mike Boylan, a good friend of mine, invited me to his house for a demonstration on deep-frying turkey presented by the McIlhenny family (the makers of Tabasco sauce). About ten of us were huddled around a huge vat of oil on Boylan's back-yard deck in Marin County, just north of San Francisco. What was especially interesting to me, even more than the deep-frying, was the mixture of garlic juice, onion juice, clarified butter, and Tabasco that was injected into different parts of the bird. The next step was to rub the bird with flour, and then lower it very slowly into a pot of oil - slowly because if you dropped it in quickly, we were told, the moisture in the bird would cause it to shoot out of the pot like a cannonball. This sense of danger only added to the experience. It took all of thirty minutes to cook a sixteen-pound turkey. The first bite was incredible: crispy, garlicky, and moist. The second thing that influenced me was a discussion with Wolfgang Puck about how his mother used to cook fried chicken. Her secret was frying the chicken at 300 degrees F, a much lower temperature than normal. With a lower temperature, the chicken is able to cook evenly and the skin becomes crispy without burning. At Town Hall, we soak the chicken pieces in buttermilk, inject the Tabasco mixture, and then dredge the pieces in a seasoned flour mixture. A flour mixture (versus a wet batter) allows you to taste the flavors of the chicken and still gives you a crispy skin."

Source: Cooking My Way Back Home: Recipes from San Francisco's Town Hall, Anchor & Hope, and Salt House by Mitchell Rosenthal and Jon Pult