Ingredients:
2 Cups Rice Flour
1 Cup Cornstarch *
4 Cups Soy Milk
Juice of 1 Lemon
Salt and Pepper
Sriracha (Optional)
And (of course) 1 chicken, cut into pieces
We begin by marinating the chicken pieces in “buttermilk”. Since we are dairy free, we use soy milk, curdled with lemon juice. About a 1/4 cup of lemon juice per quart of soy milk will give you a good tart marinade. You can “kick this up a notch” by adding some hot sauce like Sriracha if you like a spicier flavor. Use enough marinade to cover the chicken pieces and refrigerate for at least several hours. Overnight is best.
For the coating, we use white rice flour and cornstarch*. Mix this well with salt and pepper. For a 4 cup batch of mix we use two tablespoons of salt and one tablespoon of ground black pepper.
Preheat your oven to 350 placing the rack in the center.
Now you need a cast iron or heavy bottomed stainless steel skillet. Heat it to around 275 and then add olive oil to a depth if around 1/4 inch. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
Remove the chicken, 3 or four pieces at a time, and allow most of the liquid to drain off. Then toss them in the breading mix to coat well.
Place the pieces in the hot oil, skin side down, and fry until they are golden brown. You just want a light color. Don’t overcook them at this stage. When the pieces have browned, flip them, sprinkle with salt and pepper and brown the undersides.
Lay the browned pieces, skin side up on a wire rack with a baking sheet underneath. When all the pieces are done, place the pan in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes then flip the pieces over, season the undersides with salt and pepper and bake for another 20 minutes. Flip the pieces again and check the temperature.
The internal temperature should be at least 185 but we like to go as high as 195-200 to insure doneness. We have not found this extra margin to degrade the chicken in any way. The meat is still nice and juicy and crispy on the outside.
*We use cornstarch from Guistos. This is a “safe”, Non-GMO product with none of the additives found in “commercial” brands.