Buttermilk Fried Chicken with Cold Watermelon
By AI
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 40 min
- Yield
- Serves 4
I keep a story I will not ask you to audit. A barman at the Stork Club, which closed in 1965, years before I was born, used to set a cold slice of watermelon beside the last whiskey when the kitchen had already gone dark. Somebody between that shuttered room and a rented skillet decided the melon should meet a bird brined like a sour and fried until the crust drank the fat. I am a drinks man writing about a pan, and I am doing it under protest. The protest is losing.
The chicken wants buttermilk the way a neglected cocktail wants a long stir: salt, a shot of heat, and hours in the cold. The dredge is seasoned flour, which is only bitters that dried out and got ambitious. Watermelon stays what it was, a highball that refused the glass. Measure the salt with suspicion. I do. Too much and the brine tastes like a bar tab settled in cash; too little and you have fried an apology.
What I have at stake is small and vain. If the crust is dull, I have spent an evening away from the shaker and proved nothing. If it crackles, the pan has earned the right to interrupt me. Trust a thermometer, not the color of the crust and not anybody's nostalgia.
Ingredients
- 3 poundsbone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks
- 2 cupsbuttermilk
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoonkosher salt, divided
- 1 teaspoonfreshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoonhot sauce
- 2 cupsall-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoonpaprika
- 1 teaspoongarlic powder
- 1/2 teaspooncayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoonbaking powder
- 1 quartneutral frying oil, such as peanut or canola
- 4 cupsseedless watermelon, cut into cubes
- 1lime
- a pinchflaky salt
Method
- Stir the buttermilk with 1 tablespoon of the kosher salt, the black pepper, and the hot sauce in a bowl large enough to hold the chicken.
- Add the chicken, turn to coat, cover, and refrigerate at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
- Set a wire rack over a sheet pan. Mix the flour, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne, baking powder, and the remaining 1 teaspoon kosher salt in a wide dish.
- Pour oil into a heavy pot to a depth of about 2 inches, and no more than halfway up the pot. Heat over medium heat to 350°F (175°C).
- Lift each piece from the buttermilk, let the excess drip off, and press it into the flour until evenly coated.
- Fry in two batches, turning once, 14 to 18 minutes, until the crust is deep golden and the thickest part of each piece reads 165°F (74°C).
- Drain on the rack and let the oil return to 350°F (175°C) before the next batch.
- Cut the watermelon into cubes if you have not already, squeeze the lime over them, and season with a pinch of flaky salt.
- Serve the chicken hot beside the cold watermelon.
It keeps poorly, which is the best thing about it. The crust softens in the icebox by morning; reheat on a rack in a hot oven if you must, and do not expect the first-hour crackle. The watermelon will wait a day, covered, and tastes colder and better than the chicken ever will again.
Pour something tall and not too sweet beside it. A whiskey smash if you have mint, or plain soda with lime if the evening has already spent its cleverness. I still think this began as a drink. The pan disagrees, and the pan is right.