Unforgettable Fan Favorite Recipes: Garlic Fried Chicken and Crispy Parmesan Potatoes

[Music] Oh [Music] they come home [Music] today on Cook's Country Bridget and Julia cook Basque inspired garlic fried chicken Adam reviews inexpensive dutch ovens with Julia and Ashley makes bridget the ultimate crispy Parmesan potatoes that's all right here on Cook's Country in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue much of his crew was made up of sailors from the Basque region of Spain a second larger Basque migration happened later during the gold rush to the 1800s today California is home of the largest Basque American population in Bakersfield there's a group of restaurants referred to as the Basque triangle in the Pyrenees cafe is one of the most popular in particular there's much love for their garlic fried chicken so we headed to the Pyrenees cafe to check it out for ourselves they marinate the chicken overnight in a garlicky buttermilk mixture and then fry it over burners in a hundred-year-old vats the result is juicy flavorful crisp chicken that evokes the bold and hearty traditions of the old country [Music] now we don't have 100 year old vats but we developed an outstanding garlic fried chicken recipe that is guaranteed to spike the sale of breath mints we're going to have tons of garlic flavor and that was actually harder than a lot of people think because we didn't want garlic just on the outside we wanted to penetrate the chicken meat so let's get over to the chicken before we get to the garlic there's three pounds of chicken parts it's like a party platter wings got whole legs and whole breasts now we want to cut down the leg quarters and the breasts to smaller sizes so that these will all cook at the same rate and you'd like to go about two-thirds of the way up because this half is much skinnier than the top just cut right through and now the leg quarters you see this little demarcation of fat here you can actually find exactly where that joint is and that is that before we move on I just want to wash my hands real quick all right let's move on down to garlic town oh nice we're gonna marinate the chicken in a garlic mixture so it's going to start off with three tablespoons of olive oil and fresh garlic first this is five mince cloves hello quite a bit but we're not just going to rely on that we also want to add a tablespoon of granulated garlic which adds a much more mellow flavor now I've got a little salt and pepper here it's two teaspoons of kosher salt and two teaspoons of black pepper and I'll whisk all this together so it's almost between a marinade and I taste it notice you don't have any vinegar or anything acidic in this marinade because acidic things and marinades make the meat taste mushy what you want a good marinade is salt because salt will help the meat stay juicy perfect now as the chicken is going to sit in this marinade it's going to exude some of its juices because of that salt granulated garlic is water-soluble so as that water comes out of the chicken it's gonna mix with that granulated garlic and really bloom the flavor have very clever just give this a good toss make sure it's well coated if you can me a little piece of plastic wrap there cover it up it's going to go into the fridge for at least an hour but it can go in for up to 24 hours I took the chicken out of the bowl it's marinated enough but I do want to take some paper towels and get any big pieces of garlic because we don't want that to scorch in the oil let's talk breading all right what I've got here is four egg whites just take a fork and lightly beat them sometimes we just use whole legs why take the yolks out of this we got rid of the egg yolks because they contain fat and the fat prevented the flour coating from really sticking to the chicken plus later on we also are going to add this garlic butter mixture oh hello so we need a real substantial crust to hold up to that let's talk a little bit about our flour it's 2 cups of all-purpose flour the tablespoon of granulated garlic more garlic flavor more and more we have 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and 2 more teaspoons of black pepper oh hello a little kick to it it does let's start dredging start with my favorite part oh yeah the chicken wing get it really well coated with that egg white all over always a good idea to let any excess drip off and then into the flour so if you want to help me out go ahead and get in there get that wing but I want you to press some of that flour on to the chicken oh really like really just press it on we want to make sure that that coating adheres I see I got the messy part it's not fried chicken unless you get lots and lots of breading on your apron I agree I mean the kernel was covered in flour it was actually a brown suit yeah that's right that looks perfect all right and we are placing these on a wire rack because we want them to kind of dry out a little bit and I'll explain that just a moment after we get finished with our breading we're gonna let this in the refrigerator uncovered while it's in there some of that moisture is going to be drawn out from both the chicken and the egg whites gonna mix with that flour and really form a glue you don't want to skip this step needs at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours okay I'm gonna go wash my hands down good [Music] it's frying time at your party and fry if you want it I love the frying just about anything the fried chicken is definitely the best thing so this is out of the fridge and you can see it's changed in the way it looks a little bit the flour and some of the moisture from that egg wash it's kind of clinging together definitely going to stick to the chicken so we've got three quarts of peanut oil you can use vegetable oil if you rather we've heated it to 325 degrees we're gonna fry the chicken and two batches that way we don't crowd the pan the oil temperature isn't going to drop too much if it drops too much and this is a common mistake that a lot of people make you can end up with really really greasy fried chicken we want to stay between 300 and 325 also don't want it to climb much above 325 because you'll end up with a burnt coating and underdone chicken these are going to need to cook for about 15 minutes and what we're looking for is the breast meat to cook to around 160 degrees and then the drumsticks and the thighs to come out right around 170 175 of course the wings might come out a little bit sooner it's always a good idea to temp that chicken these have been cooking about 15 minutes time to get them out of that hot oil oh goodness they're gorgeous Bridget oh yeah we're gonna let these rest on paper towels got that over a wire rack so first batch out and now we're going to fry the second batch exactly the same I do want to let this oil come back up to 325 before I add the rest of the chicken and they'll go about 15 minutes [Music] let's get this second batch that means it's close to eatin time that's right out of the oil into our mouths and we'll let this hot fried chicken fat just cool down before I take a bath in it a little later on in the meantime or making a garlic butter exactly hello one of the things that we worried about was when we melted all the butter it just made the whole chicken very greasy and also sogged out that crust so we're going to do a little bit of a clever trick just start off with softened butter it's 7 tablespoons of unsalted butter mix in a little bit of parsley it's 2 tablespoons of minced parsley 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper and I'll go ahead and mash all this together you can see it's going to be really difficult to spread this all over fried chicken so we're gonna need to do something about this I move with me over here I've got you moving all over the place we're going to add another tablespoon of butter to a skillet so this melted butter is going to mix with that softened butter and it's going to make an emulsion so it's going to sit on top of the chicken and be really creamy instead of greasing that is clever I think it is so we're not just going to cook butter over here we're gonna cook 8 cloves of garlic that I minced garlic well cooking it's going to soften the flavor but we don't want it to scorch so we're also going to add a tablespoon of water that's gonna give that garlic time to kind of lend some of its flavor to the butter and also soften its bite so just a minute or two really until we start to really get a good whiff of garlic it's almost there let's move this hot butter mixture to our cold butter mixture if you wouldn't mind whisking that together for me you can see it's a really creamy texture yeah doesn't look like melted butter at all no very clever so I'll go ahead and platter up our beautiful fried chicken as I move it you can really hear that crackling yeah that coating is really on there I'm gonna screw this right over the top this is amazing I know it looks awful doesn't we should just eat it and get rid of it all for everyone else I'm gonna be barely able to eat half of that good Chuck and Julia goodness this is so good the garlic is really all the way through the chicken but like you said it's not knocking my head off and listen to this still crispy yeah that's what's so amazing I mean the butter is on top but the chicken crust is still Christmas hmm to make this garlicky Basque style fried chicken start by marinating the chicken for at least one hour and a mixture of olive oil minced fresh garlic and granulated garlic along with some salt and pepper then after brushing off the marinade coat the chicken with egg whites and dredge it and flour seasoned with four garlic let the coated chicken chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes then deep fry it till golden brown and crisp and last but not least spoon garlicky butter over the chicken just before serving and there you have it the ultimate recipe for garlic fried chicken I'm on my second piece [Music] everyone here at cooks country loves these large lake crusade Evans but they cost a pretty penny so the question today for Adam is are there any less expensive options on the market in fact there are many less expensive diamonds on the market Julia you know that one is a fantastic Dutch oven but it's 360 Wow not everybody can make that kind of investment we were trying to find a good alternative we came up with this lineup of seven pots we set a price cap of 125 dollars so none of them are more than a third the cost of the Lakers a yeah and we chose pots that were six to eight quarts in capacity now the cooking tests testers boiled water cooked rice fried french fries braised meat and even baked bread in these guys there was also some abuse testing that went on to try and get at the durability of an enamel coating if there was one so testers scrubbed at them repeatedly and hard with an abrasive sponge they took a metal spoon and whacked the rims no so sad for them and you're ready for this one you know what's coming up testers took the lids and slammed them down onto the pot repeatedly just like are you ready yep look what happened with some of these you get flakes of enamel that would not stand the test of time no it certainly would not now in terms of the cooking tests most of the cast iron contestants performed on par but there were a couple of design factors that testers identified that made a real difference and one of them was they preferred pans that had straight sides as opposed to pens like this one where the sides curved in to meet the bottom of the pan so the difference was 10 inches of usable cooking surface on the straight sided pan versus seven and a half inches here oh wow that makes a real difference in cooking if you're browning meat for stew that can be the difference between two batches and three or four that can save you up to 15 minutes absolutely two of the pots in the in the lineup were aluminum they're the two right in front of you the silver one and the red one why don't you pick that one up whoa really lightweight it was just about four pounds it was also the least expensive one here at just $24.25 that one tended to scorch and in the durability tests it dented now there was another important design factor and that was the handles you know if you are pulling a Dutch oven full of stew or a braise out of the oven those are not good moments to lose your grip I want you to put on those oven mitts and try the little tiny skimpy handles on that silver touch of it that doesn't feel so secure it does no slippery a little small the handles have got to be bigger and sure for a really firm grip in the end we did identify a really good Dutch oven that's a lot less expensive than the luke jose and that one is the cuisinart 7 quart round covered casserole it's a hundred and twenty-two dollars and it did a terrific job it cooked on par with the look Jose it's got the shape that we like you've got a broad cooking surface it was good and solid and at just one hundred and twenty-two dollars it's really a good deal there you have it although we will always love our late crusade dutch ovens for just a third of the cost look out for a cuisinart seven quart round covered casserole [Music] here at Cook's Country we've got a most requested list for the foods and recipes that viewers you guys cannot get enough of now among those greatest hits are potatoes and cheese specifically parmesan and when you add the word crisp to the equation well you've got a Hall of Fame chart-topper so this recipe goes out to all you crispy potato parmesan lovers out there and you know who you want but first I want you to taste one of these this is called freako and this is the result of when you finally grate really good-quality Parmesan cheese and you melt it in a non-stick skillet or an oven and it melts into the most beautiful lacy cracker the best cracker you could ever have because it's made just for cheese right what I'm gonna be showing you here today is how to put this freako onto these sliced potatoes not just gonna dump them right on no we're gonna start with Yukon Gold potatoes because they're much creamier they're not as starchy as russet potatoes it's two pounds and make sure you're getting large ones that are about two to three inches apiece that's gonna ensure that they're all gonna cook at the same rate you're gonna see that they are rounded on either side and just to make sure that you are safe cut the top and bottom and that's gonna give a nice flat surface so that this isn't rocking around anymore very very safe I'm gonna just continue to cut these potatoes into half-inch thick slices next mix two teaspoons of cornstarch one teaspoon salt and one teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper now the cornstarch is just as important as the potatoes and the cheese in this recipe it's going to act as a moisture absorber and it's also going to act as a glue for the Parmesan cheese to make sure that freako forms on these potatoes so this helps with the crispy part of the equation yep that's exactly right so I'm just gonna mix this here with a fork and I'm gonna add them to my sliced potatoes here and using this rubber spatula I'm just gonna mix this all together so that the cornstarch evenly coats each piece so there's hardly any cornstarch that went in there so really taking the time to make sure that it's all coated it's very important hmm now you'll see we have one tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil so I'm just gonna drizzle that on here and do the same again just make sure everything's nice and coated all right mm-hmm here you can see we have a thank you you're into baking sheet that we've sprayed really liberally with some vegetable oil spray now don't skip this step if you make it at home it takes a long time to scrape Parmesan cheese off of the bottom of your rimmed baking sheet well transfer these here every little bit from the bowl using this rubber spatula I'm just gonna move these slices around so they all get contact with the sheet pan I have a preheated 500 degree oven and these are gonna go in there for about 20 minutes until nice and golden-brown super hot super hot okay so what goes better with any chip on a proper dip yeah cuz these are kind of like chips right exactly they're super super crispy here we're gonna make a sour cream based dip so we have 1 cup of sour cream quarter cup of minced fresh chives half a teaspoon of minced fresh rosemary half a teaspoon of salt half a teaspoon of pepper 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder and a quarter teaspoon of onion powder so I'm just gonna whisk this until combined I'm gonna warn you now this is some addictive stuff ok that looks great now I'm gonna cover this put this in the fridge for about 30 minutes to chill ok now it's time to make the cheesy part of the crispy Parmesan potatoes here we have a 6 ounce wedge of really good-quality Parmesan cheese it's really important just to spend the extra dollar or so to get the good quality stuff go big or go home exactly my kind of girl I am going to start by cutting off this rind and I like to freeze any Parmesan rides because it's really good to add to soups or any kind of tomato sauces that I'm gonna make in the future I'm gonna cut these into 1-inch cubes add these to the food processor here we have 2 teaspoons of minced fresh rosemary and the remaining 2 teaspoons of corn starch 1/2 a teaspoon of black pepper and I'm gonna process this until everything is finely grated which will take about 1 minute okay let's cheese looks nice and finely grated I'm gonna leave this cheese over here but in the meantime I'm gonna grab those potatoes I can hear them singing to it yes now we have crispy potatoes but not crispy parm right now all of this cheese is about to go all over these potatoes and you can be as messy as you want because you want the cheese to fall in between each and every piece I love that we're not stingy here at Cook's Country absolutely smothering these potatoes with that cheese mixture which by the way smells incredible yeah would that rosemary yeah so using this dinner spoon I'm gonna go along to each slice and press the cheese into it being sure not to move to the potatoes too much cuz you want to keep that cheese surrounding it and to make you wait even longer using these two forks I'm gonna go through and flip each one so that the cheese I just pressed in is gonna hit the rim baking sheet I'm gonna put these back into the oven for five to seven minutes until I see everything nice and golden-brown oh yeah bubbling bubbling crispy crispy potatoes hmm unfortunately we have to let these cool so after 15 minutes we'll come back and we will be ready to eat [Music] okay it's been 15 minutes and using a spatula I'm gonna shimmy my way through and release the freako from the sheet pan all right I no doubt about it the freako is sticking to the potatoes just for good measure I'm just gonna release a few more bits I'm so excited yes no a little sauce on the side on the potatoes please right on the potatoes thank you all right see that that's beautiful just a crispy potato you know nice and brown hello go on that side that is incredible so I lied I'm gonna take to crunch check check I can't even talk is this like I'm trying to think cheese fries mm-hmm twice baked potato fried chicken and chip and dip chips and dip oh my gosh you can be chip and I'll be do I like that Halloween next year I'm Matt and that sauce though it's so nice and creamy you're right it's very addictive mm-hmm Ashley you've changed my world my new very favorite potato dish thank you thank you definitely thank you for the best crispy Parmesan potatoes and I mean best you've got to start with two pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes and cut them into half-inch slices season them with salt and pepper and toss with corn starch to help those spuds stay crispy in the oven then whip up a quick and easy and delicious sour cream dip with plenty of fresh chives powdered onion and granulated garlic sprinkle the potatoes with lots of parmesan and throw them back in the oven until that cheese is golden and forms the beautiful frigo that we are all looking for so there you have it from Cook's Country the very best crispy Parmesan potatoes you need this recipe and you can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season along with our testings tastings and selected episodes at cookscountry.com thanks for watching cooks country from America's Test Kitchen so what'd you think leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or just say I now you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our Channel see you later alligator [Laughter]

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 434,000

Keywords: fried chicken, garlic fried chicken, homemade, garlic, garlicky, fried, deep frying, deep fried, crispy fried chicken, crispy potatoes, parmesan, potato, roasted potato, parm, roasted parm potatoes, crispy parmesan potatoes, cook's country

Id: X4_g9SAyJA8

Length: 23min 7sec (1387 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 30 2018