First Post and Fried Chicken

Hello!

So, here it is – my first post on this equally exciting and nerve-wracking venture that’s been in the works for a while now and I’m so happy and grateful for all the love I’ve received so far – it’s your support which will really keep me going!

The idea for this blog came about when I was, to be honest, pretty sick of my old job, it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing, nor was I getting anything out of it. I was speaking to Toby (my partner and the behind the scenes partner of Joey Cooks) and he suggested about doing something with my passion of cooking. We played around with a few ideas which will hopefully play out throughout this blog, but first I wanted to keep it simple and for you guys to get to know a bit more about me.

I’ve always loved cooking, my earliest memories of me cooking were when I came home from school, my ridiculously hard working parents were either at work or, in my Mum’s case, sleeping off night shifts, I would come home, play around with whatever was in the kitchen – I vaguely remember a chicken and bacon mayonnaise salad that I swore would have put Gordon Ramsay to shame – and taking Food Tech at school, to which I found a love for cooking, but a hatred for Apricots (seriously, was it just me who had a teacher obsessed with just throwing dried Apricots into everything!)

Over the years, I’ve still cooked, just at home for friends and family, getting to explore different cultures and experiences – shout out to Dave Cheng – a wicked talented guy currently living in Hong Kong – and his amazing pork dishes! He also helped develop my love for Asian food, which will be featured heavily on this blog and on my social media account – @joeycooks – and earlier this year, I went to South Korea and The Philippines and when I tell you there is nothing like it. THERE. IS. NOTHING. LIKE. IT. You haven’t had a mango until you have had a Filipino mango, to things like Adobo and Lechon – keep your eyes out for another post shortly about my trip to Asia.

I also wanted to post my first recipe within this blog post and if my friends were to say what would sum me up, to be honest, it would probably be with fried chicken. I love the contrast of delicious crispy skin and tender, juicy dark meat. Its also such a versatile base, add things like Paprika and Cayenne for a classic Southern style, or shake things up by adding to a Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil and Brown Sugar based sauce for a Korean style. But see below for my take on the traditional style!

So introducing Joey’s Fried Chicken

I find dark meat is the best meat to use, stays tender and juicy, whilst having a delicious golden crunchy coating! I don’t make this too often, but is great for friends coming over, Drag Race finale viewing parties, Tuesday evenings… okay, it’s good whenever!

Ingredients:

8 Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs or Drumsticks

2 Litres Peanut Oil

Dry Mix

200 grams of flour

75 grams of corn flour

1 Teaspoons of smoked paprika

1 Teaspoons of cayenne pepper

1 Teaspoons of garlic and onion powder

2 Teaspoons of coarse sea salt

1 Teaspoons of black pepper 

1 Teaspoon of oregano

1 Teaspoon of thyme

Marinade

Fat Free Greek Yogurt 500Gr

1 Teaspoons of smoked paprika

1 Teaspoons of cayenne pepper

1 Teaspoons of garlic and onion powder

2 Teaspoons of coarse sea salt

1  Teaspoons of black pepper 

Method:

You’re first going to want to put something on in the background – anything you’ve seen 100 times before will do fine – into a large bowl, place your greek yoghurt and one teaspoon of smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper, two teaspoons of coarse sea salt until all mixed through, place your thighs in the yoghurt mix and marinade for as much time as you have, but preferably 2-4 hours.

For the dry mix, stir together the flour, corn flour, remainder of the other spices and add the oregano and thyme until they are all combined.

Preheat your oil (peanut is great because it has a high smoking point, which means it can withstand high temperatures without fogging up your kitchen) The temperature should reach around 180 degrees celsius (360ish degrees fahrenheit)

Add a bit of the yogurt mix to the flour mix and combine, you will see little nuggets of batter form, which will stick to the chicken for those iconic clusters of perfection.

Place the thighs into the flour mix and flip and make sure the thighs are fully coated, with those aforementioned clusters attached, and with that, the fun is about to begin.

To check the temperature is hot enough, put in a small piece of your flour batter, if it bubbles straight away, it’s good to go and you can slowly place the thighs into the oil (be careful to not overcrowd the oil as the temperature will drop, around two batches of four should be fine) allow the dark meat to cook for 5 minutes on each side, then remove onto a wire rack with paper towels beneath, they should have a slight golden colour, but we aren’t done there! They’re going to go back in for another 5 minutes to really crisp up – this is often called a double fry and will result in that insta-worthy fried chicken!

They should be ready to go, (but once again check they are cooked by finding the biggest piece, make a small slice underneath to check the meat is cooked) once out of the oil, quickly sprinkle generously with coarse sea salt. Pictured with sweet potato fries, Frank’s Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce, creamy blue cheese sauce and crudites, but keep checking back for future recipes such as Gorgeous Chilli-Butter Corn, Creamy Philadelphia Mustard Mash!

Add a few beers – at the moment, I love Brewdog’s Lost Lager – its light and crisp, which balances well with the deep flavours of the chicken. 

I really love making this and from every reaction I’ve gotten, it’s deliciously salty with a slight heat, and always remember.. Make as much mess as you want, because you won’t be the one  washing up.