Hello to all Steemians especially to the lovely people of SteemFoods community.

Today's featured dish is an all time favourite comfort food for many, Fried Chicken. The dish is simple, it's chicken coated in flour or some sort of batter that is then either pan fried, air fried or usually deep fried. Fried chicken, although a famous American dish, isn't exclusively American, other cuisines have their own version of fried chicken. There are also many ways to prepare fried chicken and I'm sure it also varies from one household to another but the goal is the same, crispy exterior and juicy meat on the inside.

It might be a simple dish but the execution to achieve that crispy and juicy fried chicken takes time to perfect. Other factors to consider when making fried chicken is the seasoning which plays a huge part to the overall taste of the product. Then there's the temperature to which you are going to fry your chicken and I'd say this is the most crucial part to achieving a perfectly moist yet crispy fried chicken. Today I will show you my version of fried chicken using Filipino native chicken flavored with local ingredients that is fast and simple to make.

Ingredients:

Whole chicken (sliced into 12)
5 pieces Calamansi or any Citrus
3 cloves Chopped Garlic
1/2 teaspoon Paprika Powder
1/2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
3 pinches Curry Powder
2 teaspoons Aji Ginisa (or your choice of seasoning mix)
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 cups All Purpose Flour (for coating)
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour (for the batter)
1/2 cup Water (for the batter)
Oil for frying

Procedure:

Marinate chicken

1. First wash your chicken removing all impurities. Drain excess water.
2. Transfer Chicken in a bowl
3. Squeeze four to five calamansi on chicken.
4. Add about a table spoon of chopped garlic.
5. Season with 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper and 3 pinches of curry powder.
6. Add 2 teaspoons of Aji Ginisa Mix.
7. Set aside and marinate for at least 2 hours inside the fridge.

Simple Batter

1. While the chicken is marinating, prepare a simple batter.
2. In a bowl, Mix equal parts of water and flour. Add 1/2 cup of mineral water into the bowl and add 1/2 cup of flour. Mix thoroughly. Set aside.

Frying

1. Once the marination process is almost done, prepare to fry by heating 1.5 litres of coconut oil or any neutral oil in a pot.
2. While oil is getting to the right temperature, add some all purpose flour on a tray for a final coating of the chicken.
3. Prepare a drip tray or some crumpled brown paper to catch excess oil once the chicken is cooked.
4. Once you have all three steps above set up, take your chicken out of the fridge.
5. Pour simple batter unto the chicken and mix thoroughly.
6. Now we are ready to fry. To test if the oil is at the right temperature get a cooking thermometer and see if the oil has reached 175 degrees celsius. If you don't have a cooking thermometer, do a simple test by dropping a few drops of the batter to the oil, if the batter rises to the top after 3 seconds, the oil is ready. Oil temperature is key to perfect fried chicken.
7. To fry, put the fire to low heat. Grab one piece of chicken at a time and coat with all purpose flour, make sure to tap to remove excess flour. Then drop the chicken to the oil.
8. Repeat process until you have 3-4 pieces of chicken in the oil. (I'm using 8" diameter stainless steel pot for frying).
9. Fry in low heat for about 3 minutes. After three minutes, put the heat to high and continue frying for another 9 minutes or until golden brown. Move the chicken occasionally with tongs so you don't burn the bottom.
10. Once the chicken is golden brown, remove from oil and remove excess oil by letting it sit on the drip tray.
11. To check if the chicken is cooked, the inner temperature should reach at least 65 degrees Celsius or you you can poke a knife to the chicken, if blood comes out it's not cooked yet, if a clear juices come out, it's done.
12. Repeat steps 7 to 11 for the next batch of chicken.
13. Transfer into a plate and eat while it's still nice and crispy.

I hope you learned something today and I hope you give this recipe a try. I'm also interested on how you create your version of the fried chicken. Leave your answers on the comment section below. Happy cooking everyone!