Movie Night Chicken and Analogizing Reductions to Gaining Weight
I have been enamored with Heston Blumenthal for years, but I only recently acquired a few of his cookbooks. Any description of Heston that I write here would not do him justice. It is worth taking the time to read about his impact on gastronomy and cooking more generally.
The fried chicken recipe in this piece comes from Heston's "Is This A Cookbook?" And it is one of the more enjoyable endeavors I have taken on this year. This fit perfectly into a dinner for our couple's Movie Night.
As far as fried chicken goes, this is one of the easier recipes I have come across, particularly in contrast to the fried chicken sandwiches made earlier this year in terms of simplicity in the marinade and coating. To stay on theme - and include a "fruit" with our dinner - I came up with a cherry cola glazed cherries recipe all on my own.
Popcorn Popcorn Chicken
Weights
- 900g boneless skinless chicken thighs, diced 2–3cm
- 120g Maseca (masa harina)
- 480g kefir
- 60g popped popcorn, dry-popped, blitzed to panko size
- 180g Maseca (masa harina)
- 2 tbsp onion powder
- 6 tsp garlic powder
- 3 tsp smoked paprika
- 4 tsp paprika
- 4 tsp salt
- Black pepper, generous
- Vegetable oil, for deep frying
Instructions
- Combine 120g Maseca and 480g kefir in a bowl until smooth. Add diced chicken, coat evenly, cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
- Pop popcorn kernels dry in a cast iron pan with a thin film of neutral oil over high heat. Cool completely, then blitz to a coarse panko-size crumb
- Combine blitzed popcorn, Maseca, onion powder, garlic powder, both paprikas, salt, and a generous amount of black pepper in a bowl. Mix well.
- Heat vegetable oil in a narrow saucepan (no more than half full) to 320F. A narrow pan minimizes oil volume while maintaining depth.
- Remove chicken from marinade. Working in batches of 5–6 pieces, toss in the coating and set aside briefly on a plate.
- Fry in small batches for 3–4 minutes until golden and cooked through. Drain on paper. Serve immediately.
This really landed in a way that I must admit I hadn't expected. Far be it from me to question Heston Fucking Blumenthal, but the book is playful and I wondered how well the coarsely ground puffed popcorn would take to the marinade and how well it would come out of a deep fry. Obviously, both of these concerns were dumb and wrong.
The photos demonstrate how the popcorn carried through to the chicken after the fry, but there were a number of bites of chicken that really carried that popcorn taste through, too. It tasted good blind, but once my brain made the connection, the impact multiplied.
Allison appreciated the dryness of the exterior, which I hadn't really considered until she mentioned it. This was another surprising benefit considering we were consuming this as finger food alongside popcorn in the same bowl. Where wheat flour coating retains some moisture and stays slightly tacky, the nixtamalized masa sets into a dry, almost chalky-crisp shell. The lower fry temperature - 320F - probably contributed to this, as well, and the small cubed chicken cooks through quickly, so very little was lost in terms of time.
Recipes like this, where the idea is clever and your appreciation of it grows throughout the process of cooking and eating it, are some of my absolute favorites.
Cherry Cola Glazed Cherries
Weights
- 355ml Mexican Coke (1 can)
- 300g frozen dark sweet and red tart cherries, thawed, reserve thaw liquid
- 20–40ml reserved cherry thaw liquid
- 15ml apple cider vinegar
- 1g Urfa biber
- 25ml Luxardo maraschino liqueur
- Flake salt
Instructions
- Reduce Mexican Coke in a wide pan over medium heat to approximately 80–90ml, roughly 75% reduction. Target: slightly syrupy, coats a spoon. Watch carefully after 60% reduction; it accelerates fast and will scorch. Pull when you see large dark bubbles forming at the edges. About 20–25 minutes total.
- Add thawed cherries and reserved thaw liquid to the cola reduction. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook 2 minutes, cherries should soften slightly but hold their shape. Pull cherries out and set aside.
- Add apple cider vinegar and Urfa biber to the remaining liquid. Reduce over medium heat until the glaze coats the back of a spoon and a line dragged through it holds without closing. Small volume, watch it constantly, 2–3 minutes.
- Pull off heat. Add Luxardo, swirl to combine.
- Fold cherries back into the glaze to coat. Spoon cherries into serving dish, leaving any excess liquid in the pan.
- Finish with flake salt. Serve at room temperature alongside the chicken.
Reductions really piss me off. Every recipe describes them in terms of either a percentage-based reduction or an amount of liquid remaining. I am not doing anything differently here because I am not sure there is a better way. But, without a scale built into your cooking device, I am unsure how anyone is supposed to know when to actually stop.
It is easy to say, "you stop when it looks like significantly less liquid and the texture seems right." For some of you, maybe that works. For me, it's the same as the first time I really got fat. Over the course of a few years, you gain a pound or two per month, every day looking at yourself in the mirror, looking about the same as the day before. One day, you come across an old photo of yourself and realize you've gained 40 fucking pounds.
I stare at these reductions and they just don't ever seem to be going anywhere. When I take a second to process the edges, I can see where the liquid began and where it is now, but I still only have so much perspective for what remains. When I pull my spoon through, especially if using a wide-bottom pan where the liquid closes quickly, I can't really tell how syrupy it is. I have made peace with guessing.
The cherries were good, and it was fun to think up something myself and put it into action. They had a bit of cherry cola flavor and we picked at them like you might candy in the theatre. The urfa is not necessary, but I used it in my fried chicken sandwich recipe, so it was already in the house. I noticed the bottle likened it to Turkey's version of Aleppo, and the fruity, chocolate, and tobacco profile seemed to be a nice touch alongside cola caramel and cherry flavor profile. It is a bit oily, so it dissolved nicely into the glaze rather than sitting like noticeable flecks on the cherries.