Deep fried chicken drumsticks and the fear of new experiences
News always scare me a little bit. Even more than a little bit to be honest. What is strange is that I also like the news, like a lot. I am always looking for something new, I hope that something will change, I hope to be surprised by new and unexpected things that give spice to life. And when they finally arrive, I am scared, I need time to get used to that.
I like to create my small personal routines that welcome in the morning and give me self-confidence during the day, so when something breaks the routine, well it makes me lose my balance. And that scares me. But on the other hand I am the first one aiming to break this balance – I try constantly even without realizing it – because this is what keeps you going and makes you discover other aspects of yourself and the outer world you would not know otherwise.
I made these reflections while using for the first time Takaje, the vacuum system by TreSpade, received in November… I mean, November. It’s April now. A lapse of time that can make you perfectly realize how long it takes me to use something completely new and out of my habits. I faced the news with the only approach I have: books and more books on sous vide cooking. Yet I was blocked by the news, by the fear of not having all the right tools to embrace fully prepared a new experience.
The answer came a few days ago. Move around the obstacle and move forward, or rather deal with fear in a creative way. If you do not have all you need to cook sous vide, use your machine to marinate the chicken drumsticks and then deep fry them. Simple, fast, clean and above all tasty.
Deep fried chicken drumsticks
Print Recipe Pin Recipe Share by EmailIngredients
- 4 chicken drumsticks
- 1 tsp of sweet paprika
- 2 tsp of salt
- 1/2 tsp of ground black pepper
- 4 tbsp of flour
- 4 tbsp of breadcrumbs
- 1 litre of oil for frying, according to your mood, a good extra virgin olive oil, or at least a good organic seed oil
- Salt and pepper to season
Instructions
- Remove the skin from chicken thighs, rinse under running water and pat them dry with a paper towel.
- If you can use a vacuum system machine, season the chicken with salt, pepper and paprika, rub the drumsticks and put them into the appropriate bags. Forget them for one night in the fridge. If you do not have vacuum machine, no fear! put them in a bowl, cover with cold water, add salt, pepper and paprika and stash again in the fridge overnight.
- The next day, remove the chicken thighs from the sous vide bag or drain from the marinade. Pat them dry. Put flour, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper in a bag and then add the chicken thighs. Close the bag and shake happily.
- Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown on each side. Serve hot.
And now it’s your turn!
Do you have experience with sous vide cooking? Recipes to suggest? Tips, tricks and practices that you want to share? And also, since I’m interested in the same way, how do you deal with news?
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They look great – really great. Properly made me hungry that has.
Have you considered actually cooking them in a water bath? You’ve got them ready to go on those bags – you could cook them in a water bath and then finish them off deep fried. That might be worth trying as you’d get that nice contrast between the juicy sous vide cooked chicken and the crunchy twang of the deep fry.
Either way – they look great. Good stuff.
Hi John! I was really looking forward comments on sous vide cooking!
So the thing is: how can I cook it in a water bath? Is it enough a pot and a good thermometer? As I do not have the proper pot to cook sous vide but I would really experiment this combination.. mmh!!
You can achieve waterbath cooking without sous vide equipment (although it is easier with it). You need a big, cast iron pot and a decent thermometer – bring the water up to around 66c, pop in your chicken (in its bag) and leave for an hour or so (there’s plenty of posts on the internet about exactly the right temperature and length of cooking but I would say 66c for 1 hour is a good start).
Put the lid on to try to keep the temperature up and then test the temperature every few minutes to make sure it hasn’t dropped (it will drop to begin with when you put the chicken in). When it does drop, just give it a little heat over the hob. Try to heat one side of the pan and keep the chicken in the other side and use your thermometer to stir the water round – you don’t want the heat to suddenly jump too high.
It’s just a matter of trying to keep the water at the same temperature.
Another option if you’re cooking something for longer is to place the pot of water in the oven and bring the oven up to around 90c.. Then test to see the temperature of the water (it will be substantially lower than 90c).. But – once you’ve got the water to, for example, 56c, you can then keep it at that temperature and cook something like shoulder of lamb for 10 hours (vacuum sealed or even just wrapped in cling-film).
For fish where you don’t need to cook it for so long, you can use a cool-box that will hold the temperature for long enough to cook the fish without needing to add more heat.
It’s worth experimenting with.
Just make sure with chicken, you’re happy it’s cooked through but that final fry you give it will help.
Thank you VERY much!
Great site by the way – you’ve got plenty of recipes I’ll be trying. Loving your fresh pasta dishes.
I am also scared of new experiences…
Those drum stick smut taste wonderful! This is a practicul kitchen appliance.
Cheers,
Rosa
Giulia, thanks for posting this! I feel the same way as you, and I have been meaning to try this method for some time. Thank you John for explaining the sous vide process to us, now it’s not so scary.
These look delicious, and I am always interested in checking out new techniques 🙂