Expert: Steve Hanagan - 12/12/2006

Question
We have recently opened a small drive-thru/pick up restaurant that is called "Nut'n But Chicken".  As you may guess, we serve chicken in a variety of ways - grilled, baked, southern deep fried, spice fried, chicken salad, bbq chicken, etc.  We are in a constant battle over our southern fried chicken.  If we batter it and just deep fry it, the outside is burned before the inside can get done.  THen we started preboiling it - then batter it and flash fry it to order.  This is ok but most of the plumpness and juices are gone.  I have read where you can deep fry it for about 5 minutes and then bake it.  We tried this last night (fried for 4 minutes and baked for 30 minutes at 350) and the meat was still not done.  Then I wonder what to do with it after it has been cooked in the oven until done but yet needs to be kept warm until sold?????  At this point I am wondering what we are doing opening a "chicken" restaurant!!!  My other recipes are fantastic, i.e. chicken chili, chicken tortilla soup, chicken salad, etc.  Please Help.

Answer
Pardon my delayed response.  I've been thinking about this all day.  I'm sure you are really not going through anything that every other restaurant owner hasn't gone through in one way or the other.  

I don't have THE answer for you, but let's think about this logically and see if we can't come up with a workable solution.  First, what is important:

Quality is important.  You want to serve it immediately after it has been cooked.  

Speed is important.  You just can't take 30 minutes to prepare an order of fried chicken without loosing customers.

Safety is important.  Getting the food cooked to the proper temperature - obviously critical.

Minimizing waste is important.  You want to be able to cook the amount you need without wasting a single piece.

With all of this in mind, I think that your thoughts on pre-cooking the chicken before frying it are right on target.  The hardest part, and the hardest to accurately time, is getting the chicken cooked properly.  Doing it in large batches and ahead of time makes a lot of sense.

You've done this before, but you had a problem with the chicken being dry. Here is a solution.   

Soak your chicken pieces in a brine for a few (3-4) hours before cooking them.  The brine will make the chicken a lot more "forgiving" if it is fried and then kept warm.  You can double, maybe even triple the warming tray-life of the chicken doing this.  You can add whatever spices you like to the brine, but make sure they are pungent.  The weak spices just won't penetrate and you are wasting your money.

Buy a cheap pressure cooker and use it to cook your uncoated chicken. (This is a trial, so don't invest in a big expensive one, pick up a small one at Sears for the trial.)   

Don't overcook it, but make sure you get it to the 180 degree mark - safety is critical.

Immediately after you cook the chicken, get it out of the cooker and into the FREEZER to drop the temperature quickly.  This can help prevent a loss of moisture.  You don't need to completely freeze the chicken, but you want to cool it rapidly. After the chicken is cool to the touch, remove it from the freezer and into the refrigerator or where you will be keeping it before cooking and go ahead and cook it in your normal way.  Since the chicken is already cooked, you don't need to get the internal temperature back up to 180.  Over 140 should be sufficient and you should be able to reach that temperature without overcooking the crust or violating any food sanitation rules.

Give this a try and let me know how it works, or send a follow-up question.

Steve