Food Of The Day…
Fried Chicken!!
Fried Chicken is chicken which is dipped in a breading mixture and then deep fried, pan fried or pressure fried. The breading seals in the juices but also absorbs the fat of the fryer, which is sometimes seen as unhealthy. The chicken itself may be chicken pieces on the bone with skin, or boneless and skinless pieces, usually breast meat, as in chicken fingers.
Also referred to as Southern Fried chicken, it is most often made using a pressure frier, as this is the quickest and some would say, ‘tastiest’, method of preperation. The water inside the chicken becomes steam and escapes through the oil in a sealed chamber, increasing the pressure and lowering the cooking temperature needed. The steam also cooks the chicken through, but still allows the piece to be moist and soft inside the crispy batter.
Southern fried chicken is historically an Afro-American dish. The preparation of fowl using frying was relatively unknown among Europeans and the European setters of the United States, but was common in Western Africa. Africans who were enslaved and brought to the Americas brought this method of food preparation with them.
Varients
- Chicken fingers – also known as chicken strips or chicken tenders, this is one of the most common forms of fried chicken, generally pieces of breast (sometimes with rib meat) cut into long strips, breaded or battered dipped, and deep fried.
- Chicken nuggets
- Buffalo wings, or the boneless buffalo fingers. Epynomous to Buffalo, New York.
- Popcorn chicken – occasionally known as chicken bites or other similar terms, small morsels of boneless chicken, battered and fried, resulting in little nuggets that resemble popcorn.
- Chicken patties – breaded, fried patties of chicken meat used in sandwiches.
- Chicken Fries – chicken nuggets in the shape of french fries, popularized by the fast-food restaurants Burger King and KFC.
- Chicken Chipees – chicken meat chopped and shaped into chips coated with potato crumbs. Popular in Australia
- Chicken Karaage
- Chicken Katsu – Panko breaded chicken one to two centimeters thick and sliced to bite sized pieces, served with cabbage. A variant of tonkatsu, used in the Hawaiian plate lunch.
- Country fried chicken – chicken meat that has been coated with flour or breaded, fried and served topped with country cream gravy.
