Some Alex Guarnaschelli Fans Questioned Her Double-Cook Approach to Crispy Fried Chicken
Food Network star Alex Guarnaschelli’s fried chicken recipe addresses a common issue many home cooks experience when preparing the classic dish. After frying, the chicken may be golden and crunchy, but it’s still raw inside.
Her solution is a double-cook technique of sorts, but some of her fans felt her approach shouldn’t be called authentic fried chicken. Here’s why.
Alex Guarnaschelli marinates her fried chicken in a buttermilk mixture
The Alex vs. America star’s spin on the popular meal calls for a marinade and a coating. You’ll need one whole chicken, cut into 10 pieces, or four legs and four thighs. The chef also specifies to have one full gallon of vegetable oil on hand for frying the chicken.
She begins her fried chicken by preparing a flavorful marinade. “The marinade for my chicken has a little bit of everything in it,” she says on the Food Network video (below) for this recipe.
In a bowl, Guarnaschelli combines buttermilk, sour cream, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper, noting, “When we marinate things in buttermilk, we get a nice, tenderizing side effect.”
She adds, “You can make this marinade the night before; you can make this marinade two nights before.”
The chicken pieces are “completely submerged” in the marinade and placed in the refrigerator for at least a few hours.
Once the chicken is done marinating, it’s dredged in all-purpose flour, kosher salt, smoked paprika, dry mustard powder, and garlic powder. “My mom used to make this mixture and just shake it in a paper bag,” the chef recalled. “It smells like my childhood.”
Her fried chicken recipe isn’t done after frying
Guarnaschelli swears by frying her chicken in a cast-iron pan. Each chicken piece is covered in the flour coating and then placed in the hot oil.
“I really love to use a cast-iron skillet for something like this,” she explained. “Because I really like the way it evenly distributes heat.”
The Food Network personality’s recipe isn’t finished once those chicken pieces emerge from the hot oil. Guarnaschelli calls for a second step of completing the pieces in a 350-degree F oven for about 10 minutes.
“My first batch of chicken is ready to come out and when I finish frying the rest of it, I’ll pop it all in the oven so they’re all cooked in the center,” the chef says.
Get the complete recipe, video, and reviews on Food Network’s site.
Some reviewers question whether the chef’s recipe is authentic fried chicken
Most of the home cooks who left reviews on Food Network’s site and on the network’s YouTube channel loved the recipe, saying, “So tender and juicy” and “This is my forever fried chicken recipe from now on.”
However, others took issue with the fact that the chicken isn’t done after frying, and they said so in their reviews.
“I don’t trust it if you gotta put it in the oven after,” one commenter wrote, with another adding, “You shouldn’t have to put ‘fried’ chicken in the oven after. So try frying with a deeper pan so it can float and not burn.”
Others added, “First this chicken has way too much breading and why on earth would you fry it then have to put it in the oven?” and “If Deep Fried, Shouldn’t have to go in oven. Frying the chicken too quickly.”
“The minute it goes into the oven it stops being fried chicken. The oven gives it a weird taste. Like the frozen chicken you get at the store,” another fried chicken fan wrote.
Home cooks will have to try Alex Guarnaschelli’s fried chicken recipe and judge for themselves. She earned the title of Iron Chef for good reason, after all.
