Pepper spray, you don't even need that, use Tony Chachere. Tony Chachere's for women's self-defense. Yes. The attacker comes in the parking garage, you go ah, season. Every chef knows there
are unbreakable rules in the kitchen, but what happens when you actually break these rules? Do the good god rain
fiery vengeance upon me or are they arbitrary myths peddled from chef to chef just
waiting to get busted? To find out, I've assembled a team of highly trained culinary professionals to put the to the test. This is Myth Munchers. What happened? I heard you rise. And then it was silence. This is... Myth Munchers. All right, a highly trained
team culinary professionals so we're testing our
fried chicken myths today. Right, I love fried chicken,
you love fried chicken, we all make a fair
amount of fried chicken, we've all eaten a lot
of fried chicken here. We've never tested out myths, and there certainly are a lot of them. All right, number one, you gotta buttermilk brine your chicken. We don't know if that's true. We did the turkey, we
found out brining works, but we don't know if that
translates to fried chicken. Number two, you gotta
double dredge your chicken. Everyone advertises extra crispy, right, more breading is better. Don't know if that's the case. Number three, this is my personal one. I believe you have to
let your chicken rest with the flour on it to let it soak in, so we're gonna test out resting and number four, you
gotta fry in a cast iron because they say pan
contact from the cast iron makes it better than a deep fryer. How does the Popeye's do it? Don't worry about Popeye's,
worry about yourself. But that's good chicken. All right, and to
illustrate all these myths, I know that sounded confusing, but I've created a very simple and easy to read chart. So what what we got here. Whoa.
Easy to read? Yeah, this is how my brain works. Left to right, right to
left, how do you do this? It's like the Torah, you just go in a circle, you know, it's all, I took three
weeks of Hebrew school, I don't really know. You guys get that joke? Yeah. All right, so James, so
first we got buttermilk versus dry brine, right? And then there's so many
different routes you can go. You can go from buttermilk
to single dredge, then double dredge, but
then here you go like we do a couple dredges and then it's like how do I find the buttered milk, we're not really sure, but first, we need to find a chicken
to lend us its meat. Also, did you know that dinosaurs were on earth for like
way longer than we are. We're talking millions of years. Humans have been around
for like 2,000 years. I mean the earth's only
about 4,000 years old. I mean, watch a YouTube video, dang. But I understand this might not be the best way to understand it, so we also got, I've been told that this is easier to read for some people. To me, I see this and my mind goes blank. No idea what it says. So we're splitting up into pairs. It's me and V versus you two, but actually we're working together. I just need to find an
antagonist in my life to give me some sort of motivation. So we're gonna take step one, which is buttermilk brine
versus not buttermilk brining, then we're gonna pass off to you, almost like a relay race, right, and Nicole loves sports. She was in so many sports in high school, so it's like a relay race and then you are gonna test single dredge versus double dredge, then you're gonna come back to us with the results and we're
gonna test the recipe and then we're all gonna come together and fry it and more than anything, we're just gonna eat like 9,000 calories worth of fried chicken today, which is very exciting
for all of us I believe. I don't eat a lot of food. That sounds like it would upset my tummy. Trevor only eats Goldfish. Anyway, the point is, we are also doing to write down our own predictions 'cause I wanna see who's
gonna come the closest to what actually is the best result, so Trevor, you pass those out. We're gonna all write down on cards and then we're gonna reveal them in secret and then we're gonna find out who wins and then good news,
winner gets fried chicken. Oh, I didn't give out Sharpies, I'm sorry. So we pick one. So you're gonna pick what combination you think is gonna work the best. Do you think it's gonna be no brine, single dredge, unrested in a cast iron or do you think it's
gonna be buttermilk brine, double dredged, one hour
rested, deep fried, who knows? Write down your combination right now. We're all gonna reveal them at the end. We're gonna pick a winner and you win a $50 gift
card to Popeye's chicken. That is real. I will fund that money
out of my own pocket. I'm like Mark Cuban from the "Shark Tank." Not only is this my prediction, but this is the correct answer. It is buttermilk brined,
it is single dredged, it is rested for one hour, it is deep fried at exactly
330 degrees in peanut oil for exactly 11 minutes
until the temperature reaches 162 degrees. Also, Tony Chachere's rules. My name is Trevor. This is me. This is a chicken that I drew. I'm saying, "Mm, chicken." Today I've predicted that buttermilk brine with a double dredge,
with rested for an hour, and deep fryer fried is
going to be the best. My prediction today, butt milk. Single dredge, one hour rest and deep dry. Buttermilk, single dredge, rest one hour, deep fry. All right, y'all, we got
our plan set out right now. We owe it to the home cook to figure out what the best combination of fried chicken steps are to reach the best and juiciest chicken. Are you ready to do it? Of course.
Yes. Because is... Myth Munchers. Superstar. V Jobs.
Yes. You're back in the turtleneck? Yes, I am. I love that for us. So we are testing out buttermilk brining versus not buttermilk brining. Yes. They say that to get the juiciest most tenderest chicken, you gotta brine it in buttermilk 'cause there are acids
and enzymes in buttermilk and that gets the seasoning
all the way through, gives you some juicy tender bird meat. Okay. So there's obviously a
ton of different variables to fried chicken, but for this purpose, we are establishing a control method that most restaurants are probably using, so that's a single dredged fried chicken fried somewhere between 330 and 350 in a deep fryer. That is what we're going for today just to test out the juiciest and isolate that variable. 'Cause this is science V. You're V Jobs. You're a scientist. Except-
Uh, I'm an artist. That's actually true. I create things. Steve Jobs didn't even know how to code. No, he didn't actually. I'm the Josh Wozniak to your V Jobs. I will happily accept that. Okay, and also as far as control goes, we need a universal seasoning and what better universal seasoning than Tony Chachere's. Tony Chachere. The greatest seasoning known to mankind. We've consumed so much of it. We've inhaled so much of it. They're not a sponsor. But they should be. I'm winking. Wait, we gotta wink on three, one, two. So, you're gonna season two
of those chicken legs up and just get them resting in a bowl and I'm gonna get going
with this buttermilk brine. Okay. The ratio that we have found is that one quart of buttermilk to one and a half tablespoons
of Tony Chachere's is the way to go and again, maybe use a mask. I know I got like 12 of them. Well . Oh, you're breathing it in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we made up a song about Tony Chachere's gets in your lungs. Trevor will sing it later. We don't want to bore you with the song. Oh, I'm just hoping my
boogers don't come out. No, no, it's great. It's seasons the boogies. All right, so always season
your buttermilk brines. This is what really gets
all that salt in there. We got that chicken seasoned up . I mean that's what makes it so good. We get the garlic powder into
the alveoli in your lungs. I don't know what that is, but this is... It's like ravioli, but alveoli. Pepper spray, you don't even need to use Tony Chachere. Tony Chachere's for women's self-defense. Yes. The attacker comes in the parking garage, you ah, seasoned. Coming 2024. Garlic powder. All right, so all we're gonna do , all we're gonna do is we're gonna get these chicken legs soaked in this brine. Always when you're buttermilk brining, make sure that you're
giving like ample room for the chicken to swim around. If you pack it, then
the brine's not really gonna get in there. Give it a nice little cover. Now we're gonna let this rest. I am a fan of brining
for at least 12 hours. People say you can do it for as little as like four or something. We're gonna let both these rest overnight and then we're gonna come back and we're gonna go fight
with Tony Chachere's in the parking lot. We're gonna have a little Tony C's duel. Yes, I might win. Pocket sand. So we got this flour that
is very heavily seasoned with Tony Chachere's. Always season your flour
when you're frying chicken. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take the buttermilk brine that's been sitting overnight. I'm gonna give it a nice little shake to get some of that excess liquid off, get it in the flour and
then drop it in the fryer. Even if you are just dry brining chicken, you need to get some sort of wet on it for the flour to stick.
Got it. So you're gonna give it a brief dip in the buttermilk, then you're gonna shake it off and then you're gonna dredge that and then we'll put them in the fryer at the same time. Cool, bath, dry off, Jacuzzi. That is how I do it at home, yeah, yeah. Okay, great. I used to actually sneak into the Ritz-Carlton Jacuzzi,
back in high school. I used to hope the fence. Really? Yeah, yeah, and the
manager would sometimes like sometimes accost us and I'd be like, "Do you know who my father is?" And it was pretty fun. Give it a nice little shake and we're gonna get both these in there. Always make sure to like pack the flour in when you're frying chicken, 'cause that buttermilk's
gonna absorb a lot of it, so really like get in there
and kind of massage it. You know like when you're drying off, you get like a nice massage and then you jump in the Jacuzzi. Yeah, sure. All right, so I got these. I'm gonna drop them in the front because- Okay, wait. You gotta wait for me. This is quick drop.
yeah, quick drop. Quick drop. Yeah, there you go, shake
it, shake it, shake it like a Polaroid picture. Yeah, shake it, shake
it, shake it, shake it. Yes, yes, yes. Okay, I'm ready. One. Two, three. Drop in the walkway. Like a LeBron, ooh. Oh, Tony Chachere's, oh, no. Nose pepper spray. There is a clear difference
in both of these. Yeah, you can definitely see
the buttermilk got darker but we're not testing for looks right now, we're not testing for batter
Right. We are solely testing for
juiciness and tenderness. Ah, say less, say less. All right, all right,
which one are we doing, which one are we doing? Should we go buttermilk first? Let's do this. No, no, let's do the other one. Okay. What do I do?
My side, my side, my side. Cheers.
All right. Wow, juice. Oh, my God. Oh, God, it's so good. It is so good. I miss fried chicken. I didn't eat breakfast
either, this is great. What a treat. I can't imagine a juicier
or more tender chicken and these are cooked in
the same temperature, God, that's good. I know, I just wanna keep eating it. You know what I think
we're gonna learn today? What? Is that fried chicken is just really good. Yes, that is the main point, okay. So we got that there. Buttermilk. Pick up the buttermilk. I'm sorry for taking the bigger one. It's, no judgment whatsoever. All right, all right. Mm. Whoa. Okay.
That's really interesting. The thing with the buttermilk is it's not more tender and it's not more juicy. All it does is it tastes like buttermilk. There's a little bit of like acid and sourness to it. I prefer the dry brine. Really? What do you prefer? I'm gonna have to agree with you that the dry brine tastes like a little bit better. To me, all you're getting is a slightly distracting
flavor from buttermilk. Again, if you're doing white meat, this might be different, because we tested this with turkey and we found out that the wet brine for the turkey didn't make the white meat a lot juicier, but for dark meat, I mean, I'm purely a dark
meat fried chicken person. I love me a fried chicken breast and I love wings, but
like to me legs and thighs are really where it's at. That one just tastes like
really buttery to me. So this one just kind of has like a very settling taste, so I like that one. Yeah, I think this dry
brine for me is the winner. I'm calling it, are
you willing to call it? Hell, yeah. Hell, yeah. Hell, yeah.
Cool. Okay, so I'm gonna text, Trevor and Nicole are
in the other kitchen. This to me is an upset. Why? I thought buttermilk fried chicken was gonna win. I thought so, too, I'm not gonna lie. But we're texting no brine. Trevor renamed our group chat to Tony C's Glamor Girls, god dang it. Yeah, I will take that. All right, I texted Trevor. I feel like saying Trevor, Nicole! I can't open this, it's too greasy. No buttermilk. Boop, boop, Nicole, we
received a text from Josh. Let me see. It's incomprehensible. He said dur B and B. That means dry brine won. How? I'm fluent in Joshanese. Okay, yeah, it looks like dry brine won. What a trip. But let's get started, shall we? So we are testing single
dredge versus double dredge. Apparently the myth is that double dredge is always better. Yeah.
Yeah. Isn't it supposed to bet crispier? Yeah, like crispier and
there's like layers to it and when it crunches, like
it's really, really crunchy. So we have our dry brine chickens here. I think we should make a little bit of a buttermilk brine just to dip it so the second dredge will
stick on the chicken. Stick on the chicken. Stick on the chicken. So are you gonna tell everybody at home what the Tony Chachere song is? Oh, yes. ♪ Tony Chachere ♪ ♪ It gets in your lungs ♪ ♪ Makes it so you can't breathe ♪ ♪ Tony, Tony Chachere ♪ ♪ Tony Chachere ♪ Yeah, see, it's already happening. What do you want me to do? You can go ahead and single dredge and I'm gonna double dredge. You'll be responsible for the single. Okay, do you want me to dip the single in buttermilk or do you just want wet
chicken to go in the flour? No, I think wet chicken going in flour. Okay. We don't want any influence
from the buttermilk. No influence.
No buttermilk influence. And Josh always tells me you gotta pack your chicken. You gotta gently caress it in the flour. Wow, you are doing a great job. So it gets in the crevices. Wow, look at those crevices. Yeah, all right, there's my chicken. Beautiful, let me go ahead and do mine so we got single. I'm pretty sure this is
gonna make more crevices and more little crunchy bits. It is gonna make, I don't know how the Popeye's does it, but I like it at the Popeye's. Do you know how they do it? Why are you slapping the chicken? Listen. You can hear Tony Chachere. Okay, really, really-
He's still out there. Quick, get in the... Oh, my God, that's so aggressive. Yeah, I gotta be aggressive. Oh, my goodness, are we
going into the fryer? Yeah, I think we should
wash our hands maybe or nah, screw it. I'm gonna go in the frontsies and you'll go in the backsies. Okay . Tony Chachere, where are you. Right over here. Okay. One, two, three. Okay. And now we wait. Nicole? Yeah. There seems to be some sort of weather phenomenon going on outside. Yes, it is as though the water is coming down from the sky. How bizarre.
The gods are angry. Why? What did we do? The chicken gods are angry that we chose dry brine
over the buttermilk. But what if we're right? Let's see, single dredge. Single dredge. Okay.
Okay. This like looks, so we're
testing for crispiness, right? Yeah, this looks sad. Okay, this looks really sad and not very crispy, but. Wow. No crispiness. I give it a crisp factor of zero. I give it about a one. 0.5.
Great flavor, though. It does taste good. No, no, no, no. Now this beautiful gorgeous model. Oh, my God, all right. Stunning. Mm, gaw, wow, so crispity, so crunchity. It's so juicy that I
think they chose right. This is very juicy. Yeah, I think-
But it's crisp. I think we're on the road to finding chicken
nirvana, just as Josh said. Nicole, I think double dredge is, I don't think, we know. We know.
For a fact. Double dredge is far and
away the better option. One million percent, we should let them know. Okay. When I say double, you say dredge. Double.
Dredge. Double.
Dredge. When I say double you say dredge. Double, what? Dredge. See, we've learned a lot today. So we have learned the buttermilk brine did not win and that dry brining is the way to go. We have learned that double dredge is better than single dredge. So now we have to test for the resting factor. So we got some double dredged chicken here that has been rested for an hour and my belief is that this will make the flour cling to the chicken better, so you're not gonna get
those little gaps in there. You don't let steam escape through, but the biggest thing that we learned, Trevor's got the voice of an angel. Yes, he really does. He needs to be a gospel singer. But... See, I got a little ditty for you. Oh, really? ♪ Tony Chachere's ♪ ♪ Seasons chicken so clean ♪ ♪ The best seasoning ♪ ♪ Still no MSG ♪ Ooh, I felt that in my soul. Someone auto tune that, though. So, we got the rest of the chicken and I need you to take this and we're gonna double dredge this fresh so that's gonna go into the buttermilk. Butter. Shake it off.
Shake it. Into the flour, back to the buttermilk, shake it off, back in the flour. Let's do it. And then we're gonna do
this at the same time. Here, you want me to do one? Yeah, why not. We can hear them through the wall, they're doing cheerleading chants. Yes, we are. I can do the splits. I do not want to see what that looks like. Oh, no, you wanna see
it, it's real impressive. All right, cool, so I'm gonna drop this. Curry powder everywhere. All right, so we got on three. Three!
Wait! Till I god dang it. I'm so sorry for yelling. I've been yelling a lot lately and I'm trying to stop. Three... Two. One. Bombs away, oh gosh. Oh, that sound. It's so beautiful. ♪ Chicken fried ♪ I wasn't talking about your voice. I was talking-
I'm sorry. About the chicken frying. I thought we were back to the voice thing. No. These theme songs. No. V, I'm not much one for saying grace, but I just wanna say how thankful I am that is our job today to
eat all this fried chicken. We truly are blessed for all this chicken. Amen, 'cause this is exciting. So we got the one hour rested here, the zero minute rest here, now we can start getting into it. And we're testing for structure here because I believe that
you can get air pockets when you don't rest it and when you rest it,
it lets the flour absorb some of the moisture. But I mean, they look kind of similar, but you do see some more uneven crags on this one, which is wait a second. Sorry, you gotta educate me first, sorry. Let's try the unrested
double dredge first. This is what Trevor and
Nicole decided was the best. Okay. I mean, this looks good. To me, this is the look of
fried chicken right here. Aw, so crispy. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Or but, air pockets, right, it's falling off a little bit. You know and then . Oh, there's my air pocket. Okay, right there. Okay, so we saw some air pockets. Again, I can't imagine like a better fried chicken than that. That is so good, though. Let's get into the rested one, 'cause this is what I do
with my fried chicken. Okay, wait, I wasn't done with that one. But now I'm ready. We got science to do, dude. Sorry. So you've seen like some of
the buttermilk came through. All right, you're just
going, that's just fine. I'll talk, I'll talk, don't mind me. Even some of the buttermilk came through which like actually
caramelized in the fryer. That's what you want anyway. This one has way more flavor. I'm trying to look at these right now. This almost seems to get, okay, so I think this one is
like kind of crispier, the coating on it and then this one, I mean you do see it literally as adhering to the chicken better, right? Like push up on this,
the breading comes off. Push up on this, the breading doesn't. Oh, I see what you mean, okay. The rested one I'm not
getting the flakiness that I want. Mm-hmm. I gotta bite this one again. Oh, oh, God, it's so good. That is incredible. I got way too much chicken in my teeth. Even though this was my myth, I was pretty skeptical of it, but the resting did its job. This is the more
structurally sound chicken and that came through in the flavor 'cause you get all the flavors
in one bite even cleaner. So we gotta tell Trevor and Nicole they gotta come over here and we gotta test the final myth. Yes. Where my paper airplane? Right here, right here. I got chicken grease, but you grab it. No, no, the grease is gonna, all right, I can't even grab the Sharpie I'm so greasy. I'm slippin', oh, God. You are messing it up completely. Rest. Fly like paper, get high like planes. It is a pretty good throw actually. It might get there. I think the grease helped it go, it's getting to them. Yeah, okay. I have received your correspondence. Did you send the carrier pigeon back? Yeah, these are the carrier pigeons we have butchered and slaughtered. No, so we figured out the best route to fried chicken, right. It's a dry brine, it's double dredged, that's been rested an hour, but now is the final myth. We gotta test cast iron versus your standard deep fryer. So switching from the deep fryer because we figured most
people at home, right, they're deep frying in a pot. You're getting pretty
much the same effects as the deep fryer and we're testing that against a shallow fry in a cast iron. A lot of people insist that chicken has to be fried in a cast iron or some heavy bottom pot because you're getting pan contact with the fried chicken that adds browning, right, Maillard reactions,
flavors, V Jobs, you know, science, sitism,
Neil deGrasse Tyson, he's out there with the
planets doing God knows what. What I'm saying is, we
should fry some chicken. Yes. Okay, let's do it. So, I'm gonna drop, just pour chicken legs into the deep fryer. We're doing this at both
the same temperature and then Nicole, you're
gonna drop four in there and you gotta move it
around about every minute. Okay. So you're constantly
sort of flipping there. Can I use tongs? No, use your hands. No, I'm. And into the fryer Nicole, you gotta go quick, you gotta go quick, you gotta go quick, you gotta go quick, you gotta go quick. So I have these dropped in the deep fryer. We're gonna get a little
oil on the fingies. Yeah, yeah, that's nice. You see you've got some of
that chicken sticking out there and then about every minute, you're gonna flip that over, 'cause you can see it's actually resting into the pan, so we're gonna test what creates the best flavor. Myth Munchers. I'm sticky. All right, let's flip it. Flip it. Wow, look at that Maillard reaction. Maillard reaction. Wow, who's Maillard and what's
his reaction, am I right? He's like a guy. Dude, are you okay? No, I think I went deaf in my left ear. So you see like this browning here, right, that's what people say
cast iron does better, but I don't know if that's actually going to create a more flavorful chicken. Why do we have all four of us here? I feel like I'm hugging all my children. 'Cause we love each other. Please don't touch me. I get anxious when people touch me. So if you see the browning right here, that's why people say cast
iron has the advantage because you're getting, you know, the extra flavor bits from those slightly darker pieces. So I think you're gonna get a more even coating on this one, but this one,
maybe you'll get more flavor. Please no one touch me. All right, so we got the
deep fried chicken out and we got the cast
iron fried chicken out. You see there's like some
more excess browning on that, so the cast iron definitely did its job. These are probably gonna taste different. Should we start with the deep fryer? Yeah, that's a great idea.
Great. I'm a take the baby one.
All right. I'll take this one. Do you smell it? Yeah, of course.
It smell like chicken? Mm. I mean, it's good fried chicken, you know. Did you guys learn that
eating fried chicken is just a fun time? Yeah.
That's what we learned. I learned that I love my job for reasons such as this. Or classic, evenly fried crispy, breading stays on there. Now let's try this cast iron. Am in going for the big honking... Yeah, yeah. How about we stay in the same... Well, you touched my chicken, but I'm a eat it anyway.
Oh, I did. I think we maybe got a little more grease soakage in this. Let's focus on the flavor. Hot. Mm.
Oh, my goodness. Look at this steam coming out. I have to smell this one. Smell the difference. You smell a difference? There's a noticeable like roasty toasty, not only smell on the cast iron, but then that aroma, it
comes through in the flavor. Like you're getting these kind of like, it's not burnt, I mean it really just is browning flavor that I didn't think would affect anything, but like now that I'm
eating them side by side. Oh, my mouth is hot. The cast iron is like next level. Next level. Yeah.
Yeah. So much juicier. The chicken itself is a juice bomb. And the skin difference
is like so noticeable, It gets crispier because of that pan contact. You're getting that extra crunch on there. Dang, that ain't no myth. That hits, that is good. Big hitter. All right, so as we found out, cast iron is the way to go. It does create a more
flavorful fried chicken. Definitely. You're not seeing half this- My microphone. Half the episode is just like grunting. All right, so that makes our top at home fried chicken preparation a dry brine, double dredge, one-hour rest, cast iron fried, slathered all over with Tony Chachere's fried chicken. Please go out there and
make some fried chicken. I don't have to lobby for fried chicken. The world loves it. So everyone take out your wieners and let's see what we wrote
down at the beginning. What were your predictions? Buttermilk.
Anh! Single dredge.
Anh! Single rest.
Well. I said cast iron and then I crossed it out and I said deep fry. I said butt milk for the first one, single dredge, one-hour rest and deep fry. I said buttermilk brine, double dredge, rested
within the deep fryer. Me and V got the same one, oh, my God, it's like the "Newlywed Game." I said butt milk, single
dredge, one-hour rest, deep fry. We all guessed butt milk. We all guessed butt milk.
Sure did. We all gave into the
myths of big buttermilk without having done the science ourselves but now that we know, we, like Plato's cave, we have been liberated. We now do not only see
the shadows flickering against the walls, we were able to experience some real
world fried chicken. If I told you that everything that you had been raised with was a lie. "Matrix." Thank you.
Yeah, it got it. Lawrence Fishburne.
Yes. So what, what have we
all really learned today? Was it about fried chicken? Is it about friendship? Is it about the scientific process? Is it about the fact that the planets are all orbiting around the sun that when we all look up into the stars we see the same moon, but on one side of the earth, we are still viewing the same light that has traveled for millions of years and that, my friends, that
is the real fried chicken of your heart. Thank you so much for stopping by the Mythical Kitchen. We have new episodes every week. We have new, settle, episodes of our podcast, "A Hot Dog's a Sandwich" every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts. Hit us up- We're still amateurs. On Instagram @mythicalkitchen with pictures of your mythical dishes under #dreamsbecomefood. We, oh, yes, we will see you next time. Get as messy as you want in your own kitchen when you have the Mythical Kitchen towel, available now at mythical.com.
Which Tony Chachere’s? The original Creole?
Even as a vegan I watched this. Amazing 👏❤
I love the ending, how they all sneak up and touch "untouchable" Josh. And he does an amazing job of keeping calm through it! Very sweet.
And now ... I'm hungry.
Fantastic episode! I want to attempt this exact recipe. Do they post a written form anywhere so I don't have to try to transcribe it from the video?