Holding Fried Chicken

I've spent the past year or so formulating my own chicken breader. After many trials of flours and ingredients, I have something that can really compete with a commercial breader in taste,color, and texture. The problem that I'm trying to overcome is the breader's stability after frying. For the moment, the only means I have of holding is in my oven @200 F on a rack. To cook up a batch enough to feed a small group, the chicken is already quite soggy and the breader falls off easily. Naturally I don't have the means to purchase special stabilizing modified food starches as the commercial products have. I'm already incorporating regular corn starch as part of the blend primarly to absorb moisture and provide a better texture. I recall that KFC at one time had a policy of holding chicken no more then 15 minutes before discarding it. Perhaps what I'm encountering is realistic in the face of not using commerical stabilizers. I'm wondering about the use of IR lights instead of the oven and if the heat and open air would be a better holding method seeing it's used so much in foodservice.
 
Any suggestions?

Hi dawn, I always wash the chicken and soak in Buttermilk. In most cases they will be holding the Chicken between 140-150. I think 200 is to hot, but what choice do you have when you doing it at home......Bill

I could be wrong but I don't believe you can hold a deep fried battered product like chicken for too long, no matter what you do. Chicken is best fried to order as you know. I have never had a customer complain about the wait. My 2 cents!

It is not the IR bulbs that are expensive. The lamps are very expensive.
 
Westinghouse makes a  commercial 250 w red shatterproof bulb that can be found in the $5-$6 range. It lasts thousands of hours.
 
Carlisle food service makes small lamps. Hard to find one for under $100. I do not know electric and for business I can't experiment so I use  commercial lamps. If anyone could figure out an alternate solution for home....that would be great.
 
You can keep an eye on this and see where it goes. That is nice.
 
http://cgi.ebay.com/Carlisle-Food-Service-Dual-Heat-Warmer-Lamp-HL7237_W0QQitemZ290362929128QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item439afaafe8
 
 
Here is my trick for home. I use a commercial food dehydrator with some shelves removed to "fix" chicken. The maximum temperature reaches 160 degrees so on lower than max the chicken warms and crisps on humid days. It won't hold a ton at a time but it fixes up a little at a time quite nicely. Cabela's has cabinet models with glass fronts. They are expensive new...but maybe can find one on Ebay if you keep an eye out. I use the dehydrator constantly for all sorts of unque things....so the investment was worth it for me. But some people buy them...never use them...put them up for sale.
 
Off-topic but did you ever solve the case of the clear duck sauce? I think about you when I pass Chinese restaurants and I always look at the boxes on recycling night!!
 
 

Only dehydrator that I had was one of those small circular plastic ones w/ the clear dome that were popular in the late 70's and 80's. Think that went out to Goodwill along with the hamburger cooker,hot air pop corn popper, and prong type hot dog cooker 15-20 years ago. Wonder if any of the kids remember those and life b4 microwaves.  Do the commercial holding cabinets offer dessication?

I looked at the Carlise heat lamp. The shipping charge is absurd! Several of the restaurant supplies offer a model made by Fusion for about $100 that looks similar. I ran this past my Dad who suggested heat lamps made for paint drying or clamp lights that have a ceramic base. The clear bulbs appear to be the same ones used for bathrooms which look like the same ones used in the two bulb standing frame models. I also see that some use the red ones, which I assume restrict visible light. This looks cheap enough to try something improvised to see if there is a difference then oven holding. Pizza screen on top of a pizza pan with a single hot light clamped above. Since this wouldn't be continuous duty for home use, it might be a cheap way to implement this and see what happens.

The duck sauce I gave up on. They do use the peach nectar and peaches. I tried many combos of vinegar,sugar, and both cornstarch and arrow root starch. They must be doing something different. Theirs doesn't lump up when refrigerated like my attempts did. Theirs has an orange tinge, others may have a pink tinge with tiny bits of peach suspended. I've bought several texts on Chinese cooking since and haven't found anything remotely similar in recipes

I got the idea while shopping and talking  molecular gastronomy equipment with an expert. The "newer" commercial dehydrator models are much more advanced from the Ronco days. Small cabinets that are the size of what  a double-decker toaster oven would be or maybe a little taller...with pull out shelves.
 
The normal cycle is maybe 12 hours for jerky. It is just warm enough and has enough dehydration properties to keep the chicken very crisp without losing breading without drying out the chicken. Since there is nothing rapid about the normal process it holds warm & crisp for a good long time. I LOVE it for keeping popcorn chicken crisp since the pc does not take up as much space as standard fried chicken and my sons adore it.
 
I am going to ask some people about the duck sauce. I bet the same MG expert has some new school magic powder in the bag of tricks as far as creating a clear base for an old school sauce. From there it is flavor. Hopefully.

The local City Market (owned by Krogers) offers fried chicken in their deli. They have a chipolte breading and a standard breading advertised as "Chesters fried chicken". They fry all day, but at the end of the day they package the stuff and place it in an infared warmer so customers can get it self serve. I've never timed it, but I'm guessing the chicken could sit there for well over an hour. I have seen deli clerks check it with a thermometer while its in the case.

Dawn,
I'm curious how long are you trying to hold the chicken and why are you trying to hold it?

My mother made wonderful chicken, and she would fry chicken for 3 or 4 people to 15 on any given Sunday.


But she held everything else mashed poatoes, gravy, corn, vegies, but never the chicken for more than a few minutes. Her chicken was always very, very crisp and so juicy, but that's in the way that it's fried not in the holding.

Jack

The trick is to wash/bread the chicken the night before and refrigerate overnight.   My grandmother worked many church dinners, and school cafeteria for dozens of years.

Also, to make the best dumplings, cook til done, then shock them with a full cup of ice water, then bring back up to temperature.

First off to Jack. I'm not talking a family size yield. This is more like 60 people. I'm further limited to a tabletop immersion fryer that takes approx. 1/2 of a 17lb jug of oil. I rotate as a cook at our church and the kitchen is limited. I would have to cook in batches and hold. It would be nice to have a 35lb immersion fryer and knock this off in one shot, but that's not possible. Furthermore to Bwave's statement, I'm shooting for a commercial taste with a commercial texture and this is sort of my proving ground. Much of what works for pan fried chicken doesn't work w/ immersion or pressure frying using all purpose flour. You end up with a hard shell that breaks from the steam build up. This idea of "crispy fried chicken" isn't what people equate with chain chicken. You don't get that effect pan fried b/c moisture escapes on the uncooked soft side. You need a lower gluten flour, you need a starch binder. Overnight is best left to brining and tenderizing with some sort of dairy product in the brine. The chains do that with phosphates, but any kind of milk even powdered added to the brine works great. Even the breading has to be differently done. What appears to be double coating by the chains really isn't. The first breader is often re-immersed in water or they use a commercial flour & startch thin slurry undercoat like Drake or Sysco's b4 the final breading. This is all well and good to create a chain tasting chicken that the home recipe books don't tell you about. I'm not interested in making Grandma's chicken, I'm narrowing in on the chain product.  Problem is that the chains have special modified food starches in the breader and other food lab chemistry that make holding chicken longer w/o moisture ruining the product. My preliminary tests at home the past week  show that using a single hot light over a pizza screen sitting on a pan seems to hold chicken and fries much better then an oven sitting at 200 degrees. According to Dave Thomas in the early days of KFC franchises, they struggled with a similar problem that was further exacerbated with packing the chicken in the buckets. By the time the chicken made it home, the breading was falling off and hydrated. Sander's specified that the chicken was not to be held any longer then 15 minutes b4 being disgarded. Take out became a challenge.

dwt

During your research have you explored the concept of the other KFC...Korean Fried Chicken?
 
It is  very popular somewhat new to this area. Some places serve it already sauced. Some without sauce.
 
It may not be the exact style you are going for (may be nothing like it) but it is usually crispy juicy not at all greasy and delicious. There may or may not be clues along the way in different techniques and at the very least it is interesting.
 
 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/dining/07fried.html?ex=1328504400&en=69267e357f603cce&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
 
 

Yes I have CC. Seems like they favor a two step blanching processs. They also use small chicken parts like wings and drumettes from what I gather. The coating is made from a very thin slurry of mostly starch. I've never had it, but around '07 it was making news in the local paper and I did some reading on the process. I remember in one article that I read that they serve the chicken covered in a sauce and the blanching kept it crispy. Makes me think of my mother-in-law. She pan fries her "crispy chicken" in a cast iron chicken fryer skillet and then serves it covered with milk gravy.

It is really good...and I am not a big fan of fried chicken. Without the sauce it is really crispy and juicy. The first time I brought some  home (without the sauce) from NYC for my son (who adores fried chicken) I was thinking I would really have to trick it back to into shape because of the drve time. No need...still crispy. Not hot but still crispy.  

at my restaurant here in hales corners, every order is cooked fresh. my customers don't mind the 15-20 minute wait.

goldenchicken


at my restaurant here in hales corners, every order is cooked fresh. my customers don't mind the 15-20 minute wait.

Around here, 20 minutes is just expected at most Mom and Pop's places. Just enough time to get your fill of corn bread and sweet tea.
Best chicken I ever had was in NJ -  yes, NJ - a real surprise for a southern boy. Delta's in New Brunswick near Rutgers. They call it a soul food place but it's just down home southern comfort food. I've driven from Philly (there on business) just to get their chicken and ribs plate - greens, sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas and red velvet cake. Uh-oh, time to raid the fridge.

goldenchicken


at my restaurant here in hales corners, every order is cooked fresh. my customers don't mind the 15-20 minute wait.

Welcome to Roadfood goldenchicken.
 
How do you package for delivery to keep the chicken in great shape?

DawnT


Yes I have CC. Seems like they favor a two step blanching processs. They also use small chicken parts like wings and drumettes from what I gather. The coating is made from a very thin slurry of mostly starch. I've never had it, but around '07 it was making news in the local paper and I did some reading on the process. I remember in one article that I read that they serve the chicken covered in a sauce and the blanching kept it crispy. Makes me think of my mother-in-law. She pan fries her "crispy chicken" in a cast iron chicken fryer skillet and then serves it covered with milk gravy.

Hi Dawn, We do a version of your mother-in-laws recipe called "Maryland Fried Chicken". We us a boneless chicken thigh marinated in buttermilk, breaded and deep fried served with country gravy. I use the boneless thighs because they stay moist and  crispy and easy to eat when cutting. It's a nice comfort food special with mashed potatoes and buttered corn.........we sell it for $4.75 what a deal............Bill