Notes: Honey Fried Chicken and Northern Corn Bread

3 May 2015

Prep

• I have made the Honey Fried Chicken before and have fond memories of it.
• My Cook's Illustrated Baking Book has three recipes for corn bread: southern style, northern style, and all-purpose. I meant to make the all-purpose but didn't look at the right recipe when making the shopping list, so northern style it is.
• Diane prefers sweet, northern-style corn bread while I am partial to the southern savory style, thus the desire to try the all-purpose recipe.
• The recipe calls for a 9-inch baking dish, the closest we have is an 8-inch Corning ware; it will have to do.
• I used buttermilk baking mix instead of buying buttermilk.
• For corn meal I used Bob's Red Mill Stone Ground Corn Meal, medium grind.
• I made the corn bread first then proceeded with the chicken and the first step, cutting up the whole chicken. Since the chicken has to brine for 30 minutes, I should have started with the chicken instead of the corn bread. 
• I bought a whole 5-pound chicken (the smallest I found at the supermarket) and broke it down into 8 pieces: 2 drum sticks, 2 thighs, 4 half split breasts, all bone-in and skin-on.
• I bought a Kale Waldorf salad at the supermarket.
• The glaze is made from honey and Sriracha.
• The oil seemed to stay at the right temperature, 350°, with a burner setting around 6. When I put in the chicken I turned it up to 10 which did a good job keeping the temperature of the oil above 325°. 
• I did not take the temperature of the chicken to determine when it was done. That would have been difficult with my only instant-read thermometer measuring the temperature of the oil. Instead I relied on the times given in the recipe.
• I was in the kitchen for a little over two hours making dinner.
• I filled up the dishwasher with bowls, it seemed, when all was done, and used a lot of corn starch.

Eat

• The chicken came out very nice, though it didn't have the rich golden color of, say, KFC. It was done all the way to the bone, crispy, tender, and moist.
• The glaze was good, not at all spicy or overly sweet. It might have been even better if it were a little spicier.
• The salad was nothing special, perhaps more interesting than cole slaw but not much.
• The corn bread was disappointing. It was cold by the time it was served and not done in the middle. I should probably invest in a new 9-inch baking dish.
• I thought the texture was good using the medium grind corn meal.
• Served with Pinot Grigio. 

Eat as leftovers 

• I will be eating the corn bread for breakfast. When having it again I thought the texture a bit coarse.
• Some of the middle pieces of the corn bread I discarded, just not cooked enough.
• The chicken was simply warmed in the microwave. The skin was no longer crispy but the chicken was still good. We saved some of the honey/Sriracha glaze and added that, too, which was good.