Slow Cooked Yardbird Chicken

Apr 12

Apr 12 Slow Cooked Yardbird Chicken

Diary, Food & Drink, Recipes, Restaurants

I recently had lunch at Red Rooster with some of my favorite peeps…and we of course had to have some version of Marcus Samuelson’s famous Yardbird Fried Chicken. Instead of ordering the chicken we tried the wings and all had a bite of one of his thighs. Honestly - those fried pieces are just too good. When I got home I started thinking. Maybe I could make a version of it without the frying. I felt like the method of cooking my Chicken Shawarma would work if I could figure out the right acid component to work with the spices so I started googling. I found a recipe for his Pan Fried Chicken with Berbere Hot Honey and started my experiment.

The result? UN f-in Believable. It tasted like a spicy, much better version of the Shake & Bake Chicken I grew up with and loved so much.

What I did was use the ingredients in his wet brine as well as the dredge & fry. And since he used apple cider vinegar in the brine I figured that would work as my acid (in the Shawarma there’s lemon juice as the acid).

Give it a try. I promise - if you like your chicken hot and spicy but without the added fat of frying you will love this.

Ingredients

1 chicken Thigh with skin and bones

2 Tablespoon Kosher Salt

2 Teaspoon Coriander seeds, ground with a pestle and mortar

2 Teaspoon ground black pepper

1 Tablespoon garlic powder

1 Tablespoon onion powder

2 Tablespoons Berbere

1 Teaspoon Turmeric

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar

Directions

Combine thigh with all the dry ingredients in a plastic bag. Put in fridge for 24 hours.

Using a Dutch oven if you have, Pour the Olive Oil and Apple Cider vinegar into the Dutch Oven and add the chicken and as much of the dry ingredients into the Dutch Oven as you can gt out of the plastic bag. Turn the chicken and swish it into the mixture (which is now like a wet brine or marinade.

Preheat the oven to 425 and put the chicken into the oven. Set your timer for 45 minutes. Doing it without waiting for the oven to preheat means you don’t have to wait for the chicken to come to room temperature.

Check the chicken at the 45 minute mark and turn the chicken over. If you’re a better chef than I you might now lose the skin on the bottom. Don’t worry if you lose it, it’s great to scrape up and eat after (just like the Shake & Bake tidbits on the bottom of the baking sheet when I was little).

Let it bake for 10 more minutes.

I served it on top of a mixed green salad with broccoli rabe that I cooked with garlic and red pepper. I poured the remaining hot “goop” on top of the chicken and salad and drizzled it all with my favorite balsamic vinegar ( Villa Malodori).

Bon Appetit!