We are back with our series We Cook Books in this week's recipe. Today we bring you a Coca-Cola Brined Fried Chicken Recipe from the book Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey.
Although we never reviewed this book, we loved it, so we decided to share one of our favorite recipes.
This recipe uses coca-cola in the brine, which imparts its sweetness to the chicken, and the carbonic, phosphoric, and citric acids present help in mild tenderizing of the chicken flesh. Another unusual thing about this recipe is that it uses a wet batter, rarely used in frying chicken in the South.
1.250 l (5 cups) Coca-Cola
15 g (1 tablespoon) salt
10 sprigs fresh thyme
4 cloves garlic, sliced
20 g (4 teaspoons) Crystal Hot Sauce
8 small chicken thighs, preferably free-range (about 113 g / 4 ounces each)
18 g (3 teaspoons) salt
6 g (2 teaspoons) smoked hot paprika
3 g (1 teaspoon) cayenne
1.5 g (1 1/2 teaspoons) ground dried sage
0.5 g (teaspoon) ground dried rosemary
3 g (1 teaspoon) onion powder
3 g (1 teaspoon) garlic powder
272 g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
15 g (3 teaspoons) baking soda
24 g (4 teaspoons) salt
6 g (2 teaspoons) freshly ground black pepper
7.5 g (2 1/2 teaspoons) cayenne
4.5 g (1 1/2 teaspoons) onion powder
4.5 g (1 1/2 teaspoons) garlic powder
117 g (3/4 cup) water
162 g (3/4 cup) peanut oil or vegetable oil
1.7 l (8 cups) peanut oil
410 g (2 cups) lard