New Orleans' favorite fried chicken, behind the scenes

just in general what makes great fried chicken what makes very fragile just in general so what are some of your criteria what does chicken have to be to be very crunchy what makes the first day in the morning you start with an eighth drop with ten extra wings an eyedropper basically eight pieces of each part of the chicken to eat eggs baby thighs a tweens my champion probably a whole lot of larger then other people is chicken we used like a three pound bird so the biggest couple stole my purse football a dress up in it first there's no eggs at all in it it is a wet batter and then it stretches my people are the wings they love all the chicken but they really learn a whispers by the wind stirs you're selling so much we always have to have extra wings kind of mix with a batter get all over the chicken don't get it going there fry right and look at it got it have to be cold but it's not cold it just don't taste this thing the minute it's the minute is batter we like you straight into the deep fryer because it'll get like a cake batter or if it doesn't like it's too wet and now I'll do that I go to the start alright let me catch up I like to hook up between three 4345 you know when I get the chicken out of the pan I want to mix I don't want to just throw it in the grease because I'm calls flour butter going to grease we're going down there and a burn quicker what I want to do is when I get to piece of chicken each am I find instead of using like a peanut oil or something like that the animal fats in it of better flee then I want to face the chicken out of there before I put everything on top totally so last about 20 minutes 20 minutes leaving all the time of all we would in like 12 minutes you gotta let it go our extra make sure how do you tell when it's time once this time when the chicken close to the top you know when it's time when it's at the bottom let you know it's not for the cook we want to do is stop popping up slowly they let you know whose recipe and what are you going for what would you think not a real spicy chicken because uh other restaurants have spicy chicken I wanted to kind of hit between I didn't want a real mild or real spicy I'm in the middle of the road middle of the road on the general buyer and rider well I love cooking so I've been raised up along a lot of people that cook but a long time to do this you just by working for so many years something of always one day long restaurant and this came up for sale years and years ago I jumped in so who is Chucky I'm painting a lot of England open please here all the time these tiles be styled by Waccamaw birthday how do you have been really good to us great customers who's in charge of fried chicken evening o s Kaleo as Kaleo she is my niece who came here after college Katrina wasn't the fry cook you know the multiply of the better is death you know get accustomed in that friendship good that's why I wanted to come off the fire and help me cook back here in this kitchen but I gotta get somebody to do now she can't wrap everybody there like whatever changes that made and it seems to be working for us I guess we're gonna continue be careful what you do well I think right now or how do you start do you marinate what do you do what I do I clean it all up on it so I extra fat off and then I sprinkle it with our little special seasoning which is not really special because all it is itself like that for granulated garlic and cayenne pepper and then I put some eggs over it and I put it in the cooler and I let it sit there and all of the flavors soak in and I get my marinade in it it goes all through it I feel mother used to do that when she knew we were having chicken on sandy she shut it up Friday night season it up but stick it on the fridge it stayed there till Sunday morning and then there's no secret to this I use just regular all-purpose flour and I think that might be the key I kind of cheat a little bit don't tell miss chase that so it sounds like the important thing is not to overcook it how does the boy 350 350 works for me life is brief doesn't work sorry chicken and actress doesn't work for us we're gonna want to use all effective happen because we'll come in and they'll have the nut allergy some stuff but like usually because so I stay with all that and I couldn't do that all the time you can pay attention to food in a fryer Frances button your fried oyster and when you first put him in it should the rapid rapid bubblicious and then when they finish line hello louder that's my chicken a sandwich just about everything that you drop in a by if you pay attention to it it makes a certain sound when it just goes in and you know it's Ryan but when it's quiet now it makes perfect sense as I guess it's the moisture coming down why you comin out my customers tell me that breasts are nice and moist did you there's a million places doing fried chicken people are very passionate about fried chicken as you can see from all the votes that came in you know so you want to make sure it's done right I'm getting chicken from a reputable supplier somebody you feel safe with that's given you a great product it's famous fried chicken number one thanks so much we like to think that you know we don't skimp out on the cost that we're gonna get the best chicken that's there we're gonna fry with the best oil and we're gonna use the best seasonings available basically we start off with a marinade are some seasons he's been doing for 25 years we've got our flour already seasoned we've let it marinate overnight to get those flavors really going in the chicken we're gonna go right into our flour want to go with the big pieces first everything is seasoned from the marinade to the flour to the chicken and all what really makes our chicken is we're gonna fry it and that's something a lot of people don't do and I really think that's what sets us once the chicken hips hidden fire kicks on you can really smell that peanut oil what does Peter do I'll do that special well peanut oil just has a lot of flavor it's not just it's not just covered in fat you know it's there's it's a deep aromatic flavor that comes out through the chicken all right so we got the chicken going it's gonna roughly take between 13 and 15 minutes oh we have to fryer on at 350 I guess we're gonna check on it about 13 minutes see where we're at you know it's very important not to under do it but it's us it's more important not to overdo it nothing worse than dry fried chicken well miss dad has a couple places we have a mr. Ed's in Bucktown that's on Live Oak that's been there for 25 going on 30 years or that's really where mr. edge started from a lot of people in Metairie you know they associate a lot of good times there and we recently opened about five years ago mr. Ed's in Kenner how much Fried Chicken do you go through a week um a few make um between just just in Kenner I would imagine we go through between 400 and 600 pounds of chicken is that right wow it's a lot Smolin color the chickens no real good way to tell if the chicken is fully cooked is that it's floating fully cooked it's ready to go your chickens sinking a little bit it's not quite ready yet but when it's at a full float like that we we know and there you go there you go mr. heads famous fried chicken the in New Orleans is a coach pop artistic culture in your audience from football with the Saints to LSU to my Tigre my to grasp on our biggest times of the year it's so popular we have to open up early we open up for five o'clock in the morning is that right my radhe how about that just to get ready for the for the parades and the people going out for the parades and the people that start a riot on the fruits well I've been doing this with over 30 years so if I can look at the papaya heads and I can see the crust and underseater the kernels popping off the chicken and then when you bite into it it's that flavor cuz it hit you all at once it's the undeniable it's a very distinctive flavor that papaya diversified foods as we get our spicy season from it's so secretive that you have two buildings with a group of people makes them season one group they never have lunch with other groups and they'll do their part and then slide the ingredients what they completed over to the next room and then they finished so it's a big secret so you could not duplicate Popeyes it's not just cooking chicken and shortening it's a it's a science behind it's a it's something we called a thermal barrier that's the temperature of the shortening and once you put that chicken in the shot and the temperature goes down but they have a curve on cooking curve and that's what makes the chicken crispy and in all our fried chicken don't have that how does the oil 340 degrees and the gas price interesting and how long does popeyes chicken chicken cook for 12 it looks like mild and spicy transit zone boy yes there's ever a spy surprises of Guatemala five and I guess why do you have different oils for each guy miss - the season cost at least the $10 so that's my goose is more lighter than the responsibility I see how much chicken do you go through fool on in cases we'd probably go through a hundred cases at this location I don't know what a case it's a lot of the vice-president of operation yes now started out left the pipelines over a schoolboy unware I'll read before first job out of high school is that right yeah first job everybody in the pin1 send a favor papa and it's all about your Popeyes and are they different they were saying but I think it's I think it's the atmosphere and the people you connect with what makes great fried chicken what does it have to be to be great pressure well it's got to be seeing well of course - I mean chicken itself doesn't have a taste - you don't put nothing on it it would be real learn without revealing the recipe what are some of the seasoning things that you the seasoning things you go by how many ways just as simple as cayenne pepper it's not mostly how much stuff we put in a Buddhist the right amounts of a so I mean we're all telling you everything cayenne pepper it brings the world of taste to a position we have a web there I mean that's right it's a whether we look for a certain color and a color we looking for the color doesn't want the chicken to come out at the dock the banner is - thought it's gonna come out dog ft is fried up so even if it comes out light enough in a perfect color and it comes out there perfect golden brown that you know everybody's just looking at all right there sorry [Music] okay Friday at 350 we have to put the degree put it in the web there and when we drop it in the deep fryer you know you got to drop it in the emotion so it won't fall off so I mean it's just as if a science to when you get to do it a couple of times and you're going with like it's nothing you know but first you wouldn't know you don't want that all of that in the fall really bad that's what that's what makes the chicken we're gonna be evolved in front of hundreds of time and then you cook it at the right temperature so that it comes out that's right but just as juicy enough so you can take the full flavor option to me I mean on a normal day we've never really fried to water because we did not a lot of consistent artisan so we drop a certain amount at a time because you know who wants to sit around waiting 50 times no chicken ever time whatever so me the crust is the most important part I mean because without the cross it would be for fried chicken the crust day they have to flavor from the taste of it that you put all the seasons on it it holds the flavor and it took me just you know copy mr. flavor of the cross I hadn't liked breasts and big piece of chicken he's not more flavor in a crust you just write them on a chicken so it's not a it's not a one over one other you know when you get a breast you might have a little piece of crust but it's more you know of the meat it's done of the crust sauce it takes a lot I mean it's not the normal chicken is not your average everyday you know fast food synchronicity is your great-grandmother's chicken yeah so it's a true family recipe [Music]

Channel: NOLA.com

Views: 1,868,325

Rating: 4.7654495 out of 5

Keywords: 3769501319001, chubbie's, cat2_Food and Cooking, cat1_Entertainment, Art, pop eye's, food, willie mae's, DIning, cooky chase's, entertainment, best fried chicken 2014, mr. ed's

Id: IE-5kQW8n40

Length: 16min 27sec (987 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 05 2014