Gillian's Fried Chicken

By Addie

Recipe courtesy Gillian Clark, The General Store and Post Office Tavern, Silver Springs, MD
Show: Throwdown With Bobby Flay
Episode: Fried Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 quart low-fat buttermilk
• 6 cloves garlic, bruised
• 1/3 cup hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco)
• 1 (3-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons salt (sea salt or kosher)
• 1 tablespoon finely ground black pepper
• 3 cups corn oil
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

Preparation

Step 1

Combine the buttermilk, garlic, and hot sauce and stir well. Submerge the chicken pieces in the buttermilk. Let soak for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator, but preferably overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Sift together the flour, salt, and pepper. Heat the oil and butter over medium heat in a large skillet until the foaming of the butter begins to subside. Pull the pieces of chicken out of the buttermilk 1 at a time. Let the excess buttermilk drip off, and then coat the chicken in the seasoned flour. Coat well and shake off any excess flour. Place the chicken skin side down into the hot oil. Cook until nicely browned, 10 to 12 minutes per side.

Place the chicken on a sheet tray and bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes. You should see the juices of a thigh or leg run clear when you pierce the chicken with a fork.

This recipe was provided by professional chefs and has been scaled down from a bulk recipe provided by a restaurant. The Food Network Kitchens chefs have not tested this recipe, in the proportions indicated, and therefore, we cannot make any representation as to the results.
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REVIEWS:

It was very good. The crust was tough. It's not as good as my MILs, which is also easier.

This was the best chicken I ever had, so simple, but elegant enough to serve to company. The butter in the oil was genius. That was the something something that mine needed. Who would have thought. Baking it off was also a plus. Cooked chicken without over frying and burning the flour.

Just finished dinner and this chicken was excellent! We do not have buttermilk here in Mexico so I used whole milk and a cup of unsweetened plain yogurt for the overnight marinade. Very tender and very crispy!

This is the method I use to make fried chicken., but with different spices in the buttermilk.A couple of keys NOT OVER 3lb chicken (and preferably smaller. My grandmother said a 3 lb chicken was too large to fry.And kosher salt or sea salt because of the grain size.Small chicken and let it come to room temp before frying and you won't have to finish in the oven. Also, 12-15 min is plenty of time to get a small chicken done at 325-350 oil.

I made this chicken for the first time last night. It is delicious! I cut down on the salt and did not add any hot sauce. Not only did the chicken come out looking gorgeous, it tasted absolutely wonderful. I'm going to make my chicken this way from now on.

Made this for mothers day dinner and my mother and family loved it!!

This turned out great for us. Those of you who found it too salty - if you were using table instead of kosher or sea salt, that's why. I added some smoked paprika to the flour dredge - just a little - and the flavor was amazing! If you get the oil up to 350 before frying, it won't come out greasy - ever...

Great! I had never thought about the butter, wonderful! Just a little too much hot sauce but will use a lesser amount next time. Great idea with the baking-till-done method excellent not greasy at all.

I just made this recipe after watching the show down this week. I followed the recipe step by step, my hushand and I were very excited to try it......what a let down! We didn't like the tabasco taste and it was too salty. I will NEVER us this recipe again.

I'm going to try Bobby's next.

Absolutely delicious! Moist and Crispy with a great amount of spice. Will definitely cook this chicken again.

I made this exactly as directed. My husband found the crust unbearably salty & I agree. It had a too-pronounced garlic flavor.
I had the burner on medium-low instead of medium, and the crust got way too brown in spite of that! I do like the technique of getting a crust on the chicken, then finishing in the oven since a lot of oil drained off & the chicken was not greasy. If I made this again, I'd skip the tabasco & soak in buttermilk & a small amount of salt, dredge in a seasoned flour & fry as directed just until crust was a pleasing golden-brown color, then bake at 350 until done. I make hot wings with half butter and half Frank's hot sauce on fried chicken wings; I might try brushing that on the finished fried chicken. I couldn't taste butter at all in the chicken crust of this recipe so it was just a waste.

You haven't HAD fried chicken until you've tried this recipe! I am not kidding... every single bite was better than the last. The chicken is infused with such an amazing flavor combination, rather than the usual fried chicken that just tastes good on the outside, this fried chicken is absolutely delicious all the way through. I used drumsticks and soaked overnight in a large bowl. I was surprised that this method was MUCH cleaner than my usual method and so much easier. I usually double batter, but with this recipe it's not necessary. Using butter in your vegetable oil adds such a rich taste to the crispy skin as well. I will NEVER go back to my old fried chicken. Thank you SO MUCH GILLIAN CLARK!!!

JUST MADE THIS TONIGHT, VERY GOOD. IT IS VERY CRUNCHY (IF YOU LIKE THAT. I PERSONALLY THINK THE FLOUR MIXTURE COULD USE SOME ADDITIONAL SEASONING. MAKE SURE THE OIL IS NOT "TOO" HOT. OH AND THE FLOUR AND THE BUTTERMILK MEASUREMENTS ARE MORE THAN ENOUGH FOR 8 PIECES. I MADE MORE AND STILL SOME LEFT OVER. NEXT, I WILL TRY BOBBY'S RECIPE

This recipe is very delicious. I don't really make fried chicken because of the fat and calories, but I will make an exception for this recipe. I did not have Tabasco so I used Tapatio. Wow great flavor, but next time I will add the Tapatio & some tabasco for heat. I thought the 4 cups of flour was wasteful with only 8 pieces of chicken. I will cut the flour mixture in half next time. I will also omit the butter since I really couldn't taste it, and it left the oil very dark brown and I felt I didn't want to reuse it again. Just good old corn oil next time. Definitely worth the effort. The buttermilk made the chicken so tender and delicious. It is worth letting the buttermilk mixture marinate overnight.

I liked using the buttermilk and garlic.. Not a fan of the hot sauce, and I felt the flour needed more seasoning. Chicken was moist and tender but a little greasy. Not the fried chicken taste I was looking for.

I only give this recipe a 4 because as far as fried chicken goes it's very good but it's not earth shattering. The crispiness was right on and it has a good flavor. To the person who rated this one star because it wasn't cooking correctly....that's what we like to call Operator Error. I'm not sure what you did wrong but this chicken came out perfectly done and crunchy. Make sure you let your oil get hot, don't crowd the pan because it will lower the oil temp, don't flip it too much because then it just absorbs a lot of oil and finish it in the oven for perfect crispness. Again, a very good fried chicken recipe but I will keep looking for something even better, maybe I should try Bobby Flay's version from this throwdown.

A truly delightful experience!

If I could have given this recipe a negative rating, then I would have. I have the drumsticks in the oven as I type this. I started cooking over two hours ago. I fried each drumstick and then put the chicken in the oven at 350 as instructed. It is well over one hour and the &$* chicken is still undercooked. Just ruined an entire meal with my family. Everything is done except for the stinking chicken. WORST RECIPE EVER.

There was way too much salt in this recipe, it almost made it inedible. Other than that this was a really good recipe.

Great recipe! First time ever cooking fried chicken and everything turned out great! Tabasco gave it a nice little kick without being too spicy. The combination of pan frying and finishing in the oven resulted in juicy and tender meat with a nice crispy skin. I'll definitely make this one again!

I absolutely would not recommend this one after trying it. I watched this throwdown and was so excited to try it. I found the flavor quite nice but it was very greasy and not near as "crunchy" as expected. My husband said it had NO flavor at all. My own basic flour dredged fried chick (in my opinion fares MUCH better. ( I think Bobby owes me $20 for the extra ingredients I had to purchase

My wife Diane and I tried this recipe this past weekend. It is the best fried chicken We've ever had.

Colonel Sanders move over!Easy to make and tastes GREAT!!!This is why I like shows like Throw down, Diners drive ins and dives, And Iron chefs. It gives me a chance to see new recipes and techniques.

I just fixed this chicken for dinner tonight. I must say, the aroma of the tabasco sauce while it was cooking was wonderful. I think it is a very good recipe. The tabasco sauce did give it an outstanding flavor.I was a little disappointed that it didn't have a spicy flavor (thats why I give it a 4. I will add extra spice to the flour next time I use this recipe. It's definitely a keeper.

Just got through eating this chicken. It was wonderful. VERY crispy. The hot sauce scared me and I only put in half as much. I don't feel a tingle at all, yet I could enjoy the hot sauce flavor. I think it would be safe to put the whole thing in.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, and wonderful. I left out the hot sauce because I was feeding children and they LOVED it.

The Best Chicken Enjoy!!!