Outdoor Fried Chicken for a Crowd
- Total Time
- About 1 hour, plus at least 12 hours’ soaking
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 8pounds (about 21) bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- About 1 quart buttermilk
- ¾cup loosely packed rubbed sage leaves
- ¼cup Old Bay seasoning
- 1tablespoon kosher salt
- ⅓cup freshly cracked black pepper
- 2cups all-purpose flour
- 1tablespoon baking powder
- 3cups vegetable oil
- 3strips thick-cut bacon
Preparation
- Step 1
Put thighs in a large roasting pan or other flat pan that will hold them all in a single layer. Add buttermilk to cover, cover pan tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 12 hours and up to 24, turning once or twice.
- Step 2
Heat oven to 250 degrees. Combine sage, Old Bay, salt and pepper; mix well. Remove thighs from buttermilk, drain, then sprinkle on both sides with spice mix, rubbing lightly to make sure it adheres. Put flour and baking powder in a big paper bag and shake to mix. Working in batches, add about a third of the thighs and shake to coat with flour mixture; remove thighs from bag and repeat with next 2 batches.
- Step 3
Put vegetable oil and bacon in a 20-inch skillet. Set skillet over high flame; keep an eye on the thermometer because you want to be ready to fry when oil hits about 370 degrees.
- Step 4
When oil is up to heat, remove bacon and drain it to eat later. Shake excess flour off 1 thigh and add thigh to oil; there should be intense bubbling. Shake excess flour off half the remaining thighs and add them to pan, skin side down; oil should come about halfway up sides of thighs. Cook until golden brown on the side facing down, about 7 to 9 minutes. Flip over and cook until golden brown on the second side, another 5 to 7 minutes. Remove and drain on a paper towel.
- Step 5
Allow oil to come back up to 370 degrees and repeat with remaining thighs. They may take 1 to 2 minutes less per side to brown.
- Step 6
Put browned thighs in a roasting pan or a large sheet pan and cook in oven until cooked through with no trace of pink, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and serve warm, or wait up to 2 hours and serve at room temperature.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
sounds good but, I don't get it - where's the steps for on the grill? I read directions only for the oven and frying.
steps 3 - 5
I like to make fried chicken (and other fried things, like onion rings) on the side burner of my outdoor grill. For chicken, I follow the suggestions here about finishing the cooking on a sheetpan, but I actaully put a rack on a half sheet pan, and put it on my gas grill on low-to-medium. Give the chicken a quick fry and move the pieces to the inside of the grill on the sheet pan. They finish cooking like an oven with the grill lid shut. Careful with oil - impossible to remove from bluestone.
For those of us who prefer white meat, can this be made successfully with chicken breasts at a slightly shortened cooking time?
some gas grills have a burner e,g. For boiling your spaghetti. I wish someone would make this for me. :)
Eh. I've had better fried chicken.
I love this idea! With frying, I find it difficult to get the dark meat to cook through without burning the batter. Finishing it in the oven solves the problem! Thanks!
The outdoor cooking referred as frying with a CAMP CHEF (PROPANE) outdoor deep fryer.
What are rubbed sage leaves?
You take the sage leaf, and rub it between your index and thumb, not so hard as to tear it, bit to bruise it to bring out the fragrant oils.
I like to make fried chicken (and other fried things, like onion rings) on the side burner of my outdoor grill. For chicken, I follow the suggestions here about finishing the cooking on a sheetpan, but I actaully put a rack on a half sheet pan, and put it on my gas grill on low-to-medium. Give the chicken a quick fry and move the pieces to the inside of the grill on the sheet pan. They finish cooking like an oven with the grill lid shut. Careful with oil - impossible to remove from bluestone.
I take it you are meant to brown the chicken in oil outdoors, then carry it inside to finish cooking in your oven and then back outside to feed the hungry crowd, who by this time are going nuts from the tantalizing smell
For those of us who prefer white meat, can this be made successfully with chicken breasts at a slightly shortened cooking time?
Sure, but it is more likely to come out dry, so an insertion thermometer may help.
sounds good but, I don't get it - where's the steps for on the grill? I read directions only for the oven and frying.
steps 3 - 5
Thank you, KW. Given that the term "Outdoor" is in the title of the recipe, this time I reread the directions and presumed "high flame" refers to that of a grill rather than a stovetop. Putting those two indications together seems to be the only way to tell. Think I will wait until next summer but, it sounds fun.
From the first sentence of the description:
Chicken thighs are cooked in two stages in this recipe, which was designed to be made outdoors on a propane burner.
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