My KFC-style Fried Chicken

Day 2 and the last evening at my sister’s place, home-sitting for her, along with my parents. What do I cook today? I was too tired after a hard day at work and did not feel like cooking anything elaborate. Besides, the parents have turned really sparse eaters and preferred light food.

I decided to carry out my previous evening’s plan of making my sis’s crumb-fried whole chicken legs. This time I went to the shop and thankfully, the chicken legs were available this time around. I thought I had the rest of the ingredients at home and happily came back from the market.

If there is any moral to be learnt, it is this – never make any assumptions. There was no egg at home, required for the dish. Nor was there any bread to make breadcrumbs, but that could be taken care of. I usually fall back on Marie biscuits to do the trick.

So, in the absence of these two ingredients, I decided to play around with the recipe a bit. If it turned out right, I will call it my version of KFC-style fried chicken. And I think it did, hence I will go with the name. Here, let me present to you -

My KFC-style Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

2 whole legs of chicken (I used skinless ones)

1 teaspoon ginger juice

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

1 teaspoon lime juice

1 tablespoon tomato ketchup

1 tablespoon dark soya sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

 ½ cup Marie biscuits, ground coarsely

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons refined oil for frying 

Method:

Marinate the chicken with the ginger juice, crushed garlic, lime juice, tomato ketchup, soya sauce and pepper for minimum 2 hours. The more hours you marinate, the better the flavour. Add a pinch of salt at the end, just before cooking the chicken.

You can also add some crushed green chillies or chilli flakes, depending upon the amount of heat you want in the dish.

Since there was no egg, I decided to let the biscuit crumbs work up a sweat. Mix the biscuit crumbs well with the flour and season lightly with a little salt and pepper.

Dredge the chicken leg on a plate of crumbs till it is evenly coated. Shake off the excess crumbs. Now, heat oil in a pan and fry the crumb-coated chicken legs. Flip over once one side is done and fry the other side. Remove the chicken legs when cooked and place them on paper napkins to absorb the oil. There you are, KFC-style chicken is ready - crispy on the outside and tender and juicy inside!

Now, what I did was:

I fried the chicken on a non-stick pan with just a teaspoon of oil for each leg. I alternated between cooking covered and uncovered as I wanted the chicken to be properly cooked and at the same time, have a crisp outer layer.

Alternatively, (I think) what you can do:

• Bake the chicken in an oven, instead of frying.
• Or, fry the legs till they assume a beautiful brown colour on both sides and then pop them in the oven till they are fully cooked.

It did not take me more than 15-20 minutes to get the chicken legs on the dinner table. Deta (my father) had the first bite and told me Masterchef style that the crumb coating was truly delicious. I think the biscuits were orange flavoured as I caught a slight citrus-y taste. Ma chipped in with her bit about the ginger juice and lime juice marinade packing quite a flavour. 

Well, the pictures turned out horrible, as expected. I stood below the tube-light in the living room to catch some light. Still, a phone camera does not do the same job as a DSLR. Maybe I will make these again and change the pictures then!

Do try the recipe and tell me your spin on the dish. Take care!

Sending this to Ali's Recipe Sharing Monday party!