Fried Chicken or Broasted Chicken

I'm looking into it, I love broasted chicken, I want to broast turkeys also. What is your preference and why. Thanks!

Broasted chicken thighs for me any time.  Broasted is not readily available in Knoxville but it is by far my favorite.
 
Paul E. Smith

Do you realize what you're getting into with pressure frying or broasting? I'm not sure if it's even possible to pressure fry an entire chicken properly, let alone a whole turkey. While most people would readily tell you that they prefer KFC style chicken given the choice, most folks will choose the crisper, immersion fried chicken in my experience. Broasting or pressure frying is pretty much constrained by cooking standardized batches of several head of chicken under rigidly preset conditions. You don't have the convenience of just doing a few pieces or smaller/larger batch as you do with immersion frying. Size,weight,wash,oil volume, temperature recovery, even brining all contribute to the process. Change one and the entire batch is thrown off. For example, you're supplier is unable to provide 12% brined pieces today, you're not going to build pressure as fast with unbrined pieces throwing off the entire cycle. You're going to have to be even more fastidious with your oil filtering...the list can go on and on. Even your spicing is affected. Spices that work well under immersion frying don't always work under pressure and can change dramatically. Lots to think about here Tom.
 
You mention Broasting. Do you intend to buy into their proprietary process and their terms & conditions?

Love fried or "broasted" either one.  Broasted chicken in a restaurant can be super-delicious, but it can be the pits in a convenience store under a heat lamp (dry, dry, dry).  Not sure if if I have a preference (I enthusiastically order both), but I do love pressure-fried chicken.  And I'll take any part but the thigh. 

Broasted!  With sour cream and pepper.
 
Also, Pollo Campero pressure fries their chicken.  Good stuff, but tiny pieces.
 
 

I haven't had broasted chicken for years, but enjoyed it when I did.
 
When you say "fried," though, what do you mean?  Deep fat fried?  Or pan-fried?
 
Give me pan-fried chicken every time.   

I like fried chicken, but love broasted. Usually very moist and not greasy.

You shouldn't find Broasted chicken dried out..ever. If someone is selling Broasted chicken, they are licensed by the company and compelled under the terms of agreement to use Broaster's equipment,breader,and marinade as well as preparation and holding protocol. Broasting is a trademarked brand much in the way KFC is. I don't know about now, but it was not a franchise, but a product that you bought with an end user agreement. While Broasting is a pressure fried chicken, it's a proprietary process that you buy into soup to nuts.
 
In any pressure fried method, you're not going to find large chicken pieces larger then a 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 pound bird sized. Uniformity and batch weight are critical to the process. Unlike immersion/deep fried chicken, most of the cooking cycle  is ~ 12 minutes, the oil temperature doesn't exceed 230 - 250 degrees after dropping very quickly from around 375-400 degrees b4 placed under pressure and fried very briefly for just a minute or two at the higher temperature. Under normal deep frying, chicken would become very greasy if cooked at that low of a temperature or dips below 300 degrees if overloaded or can't recover fast enough. The chicken is not technically being fried at that temperature in pressure frying, it's being steamed with it's own moisture once under pressure. The exiting steam rapidly cools the oil after the pressure builds. That's the reason oil doesn't saturate it. Given the circumstances, it would be hard to do anything large pressure fried like a whole turkey.
 
 

Dawn T:  Very good explanation.
 
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Thanks Paul. Pressure frying is going the way of the Dodo bird. You're not seeing many new chains or restaurants using it anymore. There's no longer a competitive advantage unless you're peddling a brand with a mystique associated with it. As above, people will generally choose the crisp breaded immersion fried over the soft breading of pressure fried in a blind test. The PF chicken had the added advantage of being more tender which is no longer an advantage, if anything a liability with currently sourced chicken for QSR's. A pullet in the weights above took 16 weeks back in the early days of KFC and Broaster. That's been reduced to 6 weeks with today's farming with a much tender flesh for the same size. Commercial pressure fryers now operate between 3 to 8 lbs nominally over the old 15PSI to compensate for the much tender birds. With today's commercial pack chicken in this size, the standard is pre-brined and phosphate tenderized. When you take all this into account, there is no advantage to a single use pressure fryer with it's limitations and complexity to an all-purpose immersion fryer.
 
 I think people generally have forgotten the purpose of pressure frying that to some degree emulated milk tenderized, pan fried chicken's softer texture in a fraction of the time and larger quantities for a restaurant where pan frying in shortening wasn't feasible unless the customer was willing to spend a lot of time waiting for it.

DawnT:  Your info is impressive.  If I had to guess, I'd say you're a food technologist.  Am I right?
 
You're absolutely right, broasted chicken shouldn't be dried out, but I think a lot of convenience stores that serve it, in an effort to cut costs, don't always follow the rules, particularly the amount of time permitted under a heat lamp.   We have 3 Broaster outlets in our area that are restaurants.  Park Place Restaurant in "Fort O" serves it, and it's always excellent, but it's cooked to order and not prepared in advance.  Additionally, two buffet restaurants in Trenton, GA serve it, and the turnover is pretty quick, so you get a good product at those places, too.  Thank goodness.
 
Has anyone ever tried WondeRoast Chicken?  Fabulous!  Talk about a hard-to-find product.  We used to have 2 grocery delis to buy from, now I can't find it anywhere in the area.
  
 

Chewer, when you say "Broasted" what are you talking about exactly? Dawn said "broasting" is a tm brand. I thought "Broasted" was. Not sure about "broasting". ?
Joe

Chewer, when you say "Broasted" what are you talking about exactly? Dawn said "broasting" is a TM. brand. I thought "Broasted" was. Not sure about "broasting". ?
Joe

I believe I'm correct that Broaster is a trademarked brand/method of frying chicken, and the terms broast, broasted, and broasting are often used (sometimes unknowingly) to refer to the Broaster process.  Not sure if there's a patent involved with the equipment, but it's possible.  Dawn, do you know?
http://www.broaster.com/

PapaJoe8


Chewer, when you say "Broasted" what are you talking about exactly? Dawn said "broasting" is a TM. brand. I thought "Broasted" was. Not sure about "broasting". ?
Joe

Joe the process of a fryed that is also like a pressure cooker. There is some company, I believe, that has a patented process

The term has been used interchageably for pressure frying although the company used to take issue with it as it's own propritary name and process. They've made it very clear that unless it's with their materials and equipment, you can't call it Broasted and I would imaging by extention Broaster and Broasting. I know nothing about their equipment, only Henny Penny,Collectramatic,and some of the Giles that have since been taken off the market. They all work the same. I don't know if this is correct, but I did speak with a commercial appliance service rep. and he told me that Broaster used a unique process to build pressure quickly by metered shots of water into the oil. That would be a defining difference for a process patent on the equipment. KFC originally proposed pressurizing their 16Q Mirro pressure cookers with compressed air to speed up pressure which would amount to the same. While it's in their patent, I'm unaware if it had ever been employed. It's doubtful that anyone of these companies can patent the pressure fryer proper, but they can patent the process if it presents a unique method and trademark the name. Both companies formally started about the same time in the early 50's. Sanders had been doing this since the 30's in his restaurant and motel, but didn't patent the process until '62 which is about 10 years after he started the company. His was a process patent using a plain 16Q pressure cooker with an added air inlet. The patent was for the process that he used from preparation to holding, not the equipment. Phelan who developed Broaster has a patent dated 3/'58 #2827379 as his earliest under his own name and two others prior dating back to 1944 for his Broasting. Last patent appears to be 2006. I can't pull the early ones,so I don't know what he patented. It's been my understanding that Broaster won't even sell to you unless you agree to use their process. There must have been exceptions as the Maryland Fried Chicken chain used Broasters exclusively according to the owner's biography in the 60's when they started up. They never called it broasted and developed their own process.
I just noted Tom's post while I was writing this. Henny Penny claims to have developed the first commercial pressure fryer appliance in the 50's that was specifically designed just for pressure frying. I don't know if they held the patent on the original pressure fryer though. The Collectramatics are patented, but the patent is not on the fryer, but the unique crackling recovery design using a cool zone cylinder.

Just from a fast google there is a place in Lindhurst Il. named Vaughan's Broasted Chicken. I am sure there are other places that do Broasted Chicken.
 
The name of the company that has the branded program is called Broaster Chicken. I do not think Broaster Chicken can keep you from broasting chicken and calling it Broasted chicken. But you can't call it Broaster Chicken unless you use the Broaster Chicken program.
 
Broaster, broasting, broasted... try saying that REAL fast 3 times. :~)
Joe

PapaJoe8


Just from a fast google there is a place in Lindhurst Il. named Vaughan's Broasted Chicken. I am sure there are other places that do Broasted Chicken.

The name of the company that has the branded program is called Broaster Chicken. I do not think Broaster Chicken can keep you from broasting chicken and calling it Broasted chicken. But you can't call it Broaster Chicken unless you use the Broaster Chicken program.

Broaster, broasting, broasted... try saying that REAL fast 3 times. :~)
Joe

I tried but all that came out was bacon, bacon, bacon, hmmm!

PapaJoe8


Just from a fast google there is a place in Lindhurst Il. named Vaughan's Broasted Chicken. I am sure there are other places that do Broasted Chicken.

The name of the company that has the branded program is called Broaster Chicken. I do not think Broaster Chicken can keep you from broasting chicken and calling it Broasted chicken. But you can't call it Broaster Chicken unless you use the Broaster Chicken program.

Broaster, broasting, broasted... try saying that REAL fast 3 times. :~)
Joe

Vaughan's Broasted Chicken is a licensee of Broaster Company, LLC  

Chewer, well then maybe maybe you should be careful broasting since you may not be able to sell those birds once you get them broasted??? Unless you become a Broaster Company LLC licensee. Unless you call them something besides "broasted".
Joe

I saw a couple of large panel trucks recently that said "Broasted Chicken" on them.  They actually said "American Broasted Chicken" and they were in Cartagena, Colombia.

CTF,what about a deep fried whole Chicken, greens, taters and country gravy and corn bread,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Plb, thanks for the info. Broaster whatever LLC may have a TM but broasted sounds like a way of cooking something. Maybe I could get a TM for "Fried"???
Joe

PapaJoe8, you could be onto something with that.  Facebook plans to trademark the word face, which seems preposterous, but here it is... 
 
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/24/facebook-plans-trademark-word-face/

Has anybody seen Facebook with a feature called face yet? I haven't. No usage = no trademark. I know they trademarked wall.

PapaJoe8


The name of the company that has the branded program is called Broaster Chicken. I do not think Broaster Chicken can keep you from broasting chicken and calling it Broasted chicken. But you can't call it Broaster Chicken unless you use the Broaster Chicken program.

 
Dang.  There goes my plan for my Kenny Brogers Broasters restaurant.
 
Brad

Broasted Chicken meets Adam Richman...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-i9bMsykkI