The Art of Creating Chili Lime Fried Chicken: A Recipe and Technique to Perfection

When it comes to creating the perfect chili lime fried chicken, one must understand the importance of each ingredient and technique involved. In this recipe, we will be working with dried chilies that have been toasted and seasoned with lime zest, garlic powder, and a pinch of salt. These ingredients come together to create a unique and delicious flavor profile that will elevate your fried chicken game.

To begin, let's start by toasting the dried chilies in our pan. This step is crucial as it brings out the natural oils and flavors within the chili. Once toasted, we add a few drops of lime juice to help keep the chicken moist and add an extra layer of flavor. We also add a teaspoon of sugar to balance out the acidity of the lime and create a sweet and tangy taste experience.

Now that our chilies are ready, let's move on to preparing our chicken. We have a whole chicken cut up into pieces, which will be seasoned with a blend of ingredients including our chili mixture, garlic powder, salt, and a few other spices. The key is to massage the flavors into the meat, ensuring that each piece is coated evenly.

Next, we need to create a wet marinade by mixing two eggs together with a small amount of milk. This will help to tenderize the chicken while also adding moisture and flavor. We then add our seasoned chili mixture to this wet marinade, stirring well to combine. The purpose of this step is to incorporate the flavors of our chili mixture into the meat while keeping it moist.

Now that we have our wet marinade ready, let's move on to the dry seasoning. In a separate bowl, we mix together flour and cornstarch. This is where things get interesting, as cornstarch is not typically used in traditional fried chicken recipes. However, this ingredient creates air bubbles when heated, resulting in a crispy exterior and juicy interior.

We will then add our seasoned chili mixture to the dry seasoning mixture, stirring well to combine. The goal here is to create a cohesive flavor profile that complements our wet marinade without overpowering it. Finally, we add a pinch of salt and pepper to season our chicken, ensuring that each piece is balanced and flavorful.

With our wet and dry seasoning mixtures ready, let's move on to the final step: frying our chicken. We heat our oil in a pan to 360 degrees, which may seem high, but it's actually crucial for achieving the perfect balance of crispy exterior and juicy interior. Once hot, we add our chicken pieces one at a time, shaking off any excess oil before adding them to the pan.

As we fry our chicken, we want to make sure that each piece is coated evenly in our seasoning mixture. This can be achieved by gently tossing the chicken pieces in the pan while they're still wet, ensuring that all sides are well-coated. We also want to avoid overcrowding the pan, as this can lower the oil temperature and result in greasy or undercooked chicken.

Finally, we remove our fried chicken from the pan and place it on a paper towel-lined plate to drain any excess oil. And just like that, our chili lime fried chicken is complete! With its crispy exterior and juicy interior, this dish is sure to become a favorite among friends and family.

In conclusion, creating the perfect chili lime fried chicken requires attention to detail and a willingness to experiment with new ingredients and techniques. By following this recipe and technique, you'll be well on your way to creating a delicious and memorable dish that's sure to impress even the pickiest eaters.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right so on my chili lime fried chicken i'm working with some chilies i've got dried chilies here all right so i'm going to let these kind of toast and get warm in my pan here all right so i've got my chicken out of the fridge it's a whole chicken cut up and i brined it in some water brining is something that you can do it's kind of like a marinade but just usually water salt and something else i do sugar to kind of keep it a little sweet so we've got the chili lime thing going on i also put some lime juice in there just soak it overnight it helps it stay nice and moist i'm going to get some limes because that's going to go into my chili lime fried chicken just the zest though all the essential oils really really good all right so i've got the rest of that in there just about a teaspoon of garlic powder you don't want to use fresh garlic because we're frying here and it's just not good to fry it all brown and bitter and then i'm just going to get in my chili's here toasted really quick they're going to be a little bit moist because the oil is coming alive and then just a little pinch of salt and i'm going to blitz and that's it look at this all right so this is perfect i'm going to get this into my bowl and ready to coat my chicken you can smell it now all right come on babies one whole chicken cut up well you know four people could eat this i'm just gonna go ahead and massage the flavor into my chicken here two eggs in here and then to this i'm gonna add just a little bit of milk kind of loosen up the eggs and this is gonna be kind of like the mid station for the dredging as far as my fried chicken goes i'm going to add a little bit of salt to that just to season it up a bit i like to season all around remember my rub has a little bit of salt the lime zest my chilies that i toasted up in there and some garlic powder and then i also i'm going to put some salt in my dry part of the dredge which is gonna be flour and my grandma's new favorite ingredient when she fries chicken cornstarch who knew grandma was watching and learning i just love it i love my grandma she makes the best cornbread all right so i've got some flour in here and then i've got some cornstarch now this is the new ingredient for my grandma but i've been doing this for quite a while it creates air bubbles i learned this from a lot of asian cooking and frying it's usually just a hundred percent corn starch let me just put a little bit more when it hits the heat the pockets that it creates creates what you really love about fried chicken which is the crunch all right so here again some salt and maybe a little pinch of pepper as well now i've got uh some oil in my pan over there that's getting nice to temperature 360 degrees but we want to fry in the safety zone at 350 but the cool thing about 360. once you add in your first pieces of chicken it'll kind of go down a few degrees and it'll get you right to the zone that you want to be in all right so first things first into the flour cornstarch mixture and then what i want to do is get it into my egg and milk mixture right here and then right back into my bag let me get this out look at this i'm gonna get it right back in to my bag with a nice little shake got a wing there some good stuff and don't worry about the chilies it's not super spicy but it's got this great smoky undertone of chili flavor all right so one last little shake and i'm gonna come over here and get them into my oil don't overcrowd the situation just shake it up and get it in shake it up like rick okasick i'm showing my age all right right into the oil what we're going for here is 350 degrees you don't want to have it too high it'll cook the outside first and then not the inside and that'll make everybody sick at the game brined and juicy it's coated in super crunchy dried chili breading with a drizzle of yeah honey youall right so on my chili lime fried chicken i'm working with some chilies i've got dried chilies here all right so i'm going to let these kind of toast and get warm in my pan here all right so i've got my chicken out of the fridge it's a whole chicken cut up and i brined it in some water brining is something that you can do it's kind of like a marinade but just usually water salt and something else i do sugar to kind of keep it a little sweet so we've got the chili lime thing going on i also put some lime juice in there just soak it overnight it helps it stay nice and moist i'm going to get some limes because that's going to go into my chili lime fried chicken just the zest though all the essential oils really really good all right so i've got the rest of that in there just about a teaspoon of garlic powder you don't want to use fresh garlic because we're frying here and it's just not good to fry it all brown and bitter and then i'm just going to get in my chili's here toasted really quick they're going to be a little bit moist because the oil is coming alive and then just a little pinch of salt and i'm going to blitz and that's it look at this all right so this is perfect i'm going to get this into my bowl and ready to coat my chicken you can smell it now all right come on babies one whole chicken cut up well you know four people could eat this i'm just gonna go ahead and massage the flavor into my chicken here two eggs in here and then to this i'm gonna add just a little bit of milk kind of loosen up the eggs and this is gonna be kind of like the mid station for the dredging as far as my fried chicken goes i'm going to add a little bit of salt to that just to season it up a bit i like to season all around remember my rub has a little bit of salt the lime zest my chilies that i toasted up in there and some garlic powder and then i also i'm going to put some salt in my dry part of the dredge which is gonna be flour and my grandma's new favorite ingredient when she fries chicken cornstarch who knew grandma was watching and learning i just love it i love my grandma she makes the best cornbread all right so i've got some flour in here and then i've got some cornstarch now this is the new ingredient for my grandma but i've been doing this for quite a while it creates air bubbles i learned this from a lot of asian cooking and frying it's usually just a hundred percent corn starch let me just put a little bit more when it hits the heat the pockets that it creates creates what you really love about fried chicken which is the crunch all right so here again some salt and maybe a little pinch of pepper as well now i've got uh some oil in my pan over there that's getting nice to temperature 360 degrees but we want to fry in the safety zone at 350 but the cool thing about 360. once you add in your first pieces of chicken it'll kind of go down a few degrees and it'll get you right to the zone that you want to be in all right so first things first into the flour cornstarch mixture and then what i want to do is get it into my egg and milk mixture right here and then right back into my bag let me get this out look at this i'm gonna get it right back in to my bag with a nice little shake got a wing there some good stuff and don't worry about the chilies it's not super spicy but it's got this great smoky undertone of chili flavor all right so one last little shake and i'm gonna come over here and get them into my oil don't overcrowd the situation just shake it up and get it in shake it up like rick okasick i'm showing my age all right right into the oil what we're going for here is 350 degrees you don't want to have it too high it'll cook the outside first and then not the inside and that'll make everybody sick at the game brined and juicy it's coated in super crunchy dried chili breading with a drizzle of yeah honey you\n"