Cooking with Colm O'Gorman: How to make proper fried chicken with a buttermilk brine 

And my recipe for American-style biscuits 

Crispy spiced fried chicken. 

Fried chicken with biscuits and gravy is a classic brunch dish in many parts of the US, but its origins are in the south. The first time I heard about this dish I imagined some sort of crisp, well, biscuit, but no in this case a biscuit is what we know as a scone. In my recipe, I have swapped the gravy for a beautiful butter, chilli, and honey sauce.

There are a few elements to this but do not be daunted. They are all quite simple. If you want to skip the scones, just make the fried chicken and the sauce, and serve it with some waffles or whatever sides you fancy. The cheese scones are delicious though, and worth making as a standalone recipe if you fancy a savoury scone.

I made some fresh pickles to serve with this but use shop-bought ones if you prefer. To make your own, just warm 120ml of white wine vinegar, half a teaspoon of flaky sea salt, and four tablespoons of caster sugar in a pan until the sugar is dissolved. Slice some cucumber into thin wedges or slices, and peel and thinly slice some fresh beetroot. Put the prepared vegetables into separate bowls and pour half of the pickling liquid over each. Add a little chopped dill to the cucumber if you have any. Let them pickle away while you cook your chicken and bake your scones.

Fried chicken with biscuits

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

Eat like the Americans do with this brunch classic

Servings

4

Cooking Time

 60 mins

Total Time

 60 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 4 skinless boneless chicken thighs

• 8 chicken mini breast fillets

• For the brine:

• 500 ml buttermilk

• 1 tsp flaky sea salt

• 1 tsp onion salt

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• 2 tsp smoked paprika

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• For the coating:

• 400g plain flour

• 40g cornflour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 2 tsp flaky sea salt

• 2 tsp ground black pepper

• 1tsp ground cumin

• 2 tsp garlic powder

• 1 tsp onion salt

• 1 litre of sunflower to fry the chicken.

• For the sauce:

• 60g butter

• 1 red chilli

• 60g runny honey

• Juice of half a lemon

• A pinch of salt

• For the scones:

• 225g plain white flour

• ½ tsp bread soda

• Pinch of salt

• 1 ½ tsp sugar

• 25g butter

• 1 small egg

• 125ml buttermilk

• 75g mature vintage Cheddar

Method

1. Trim any fat from the chicken thighs. Combine all the ingredients for the brine in a large bowl and add the chicken. Ensure the brine coats all the chicken well and covers the meat. Cover the bowl and let the meat marinate for at least eight hours or overnight in the fridge.

2. Pop all the ingredients for the crispy coating into a large bowl. Give them a quick whisk to make sure they are very well combined. Remove a piece of chicken from the brine and toss it in the flour, making sure it is well coated. The thighs will need a little more care than the breast fillets as they have more nooks and crannies. Just check each portion to ensure it is well coated before moving on to the next. Put the coated chicken on a non-stick baking tray and let that rest for five or ten minutes before you start frying the chicken. I usually rest it for about thirty minutes because that gives me a plenty of time to prepare some sides and bake my scones.

3. Preheat your oven to 200°C. Combine all the dry ingredients for the scones in a large bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and rub it into the mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a small well in the middle, lightly whisk the egg together with the buttermilk and pour that into the well. Mix into a soft dough.

4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and shape into a rectangle. Roll it out so it is about 1cm thick. Grate the cheese. Spread it evenly across the rolled-out scone dough. Starting at one of the long edges, roll it into a sausage shape.

5. Cut it into five to six even slices. Pop them onto a lined baking tray, leaving enough room for them to rise. Put them into the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes. Once cooked, put them on a wire while you fry your chicken.

6. Heat the sunflower oil in a saucepan until it reaches 180°C. Carefully lower a few portions of chicken into the oil, taking care not to crowd the pan. I usually fry about three pieces per batch at this stage. Fry the chicken for three minutes, then remove it with a slotted spoon and let it drain on some kitchen paper. Check the temperature of the oil between batches to make sure it stays at 180°C, a digital probe thermometer is your best friend for this.  When you have given all the chicken its first fry, pop it back in again in batches for another three minutes until it is cooked through, beautifully golden and crispy. You can add a bit more chicken to the pan for each batch for this second fry. I generally do the first fry in three batches and the second in two.

7. While the chicken is cooking, melt the butter for the sauce in a small pan. Finely slice the chilli and when the butter is foaming, add that to the pan and fry it for a few minutes. Add the honey, stirring it in well to bring the sauce together and then the lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Taste and add more lemon juice if needed.

8. Serve a few pieces of chicken, along with one of your freshly baked scones and some pickles. Just before you serve, drizzle the chicken and the scone with some sauce. Serve the rest of the sauce on the side.