Charles' Country Pan Fried Chicken

Charles' Country Pan Fried Chicken
2839-2841 Frederick Douglass Blvd
New York, NY 10039

1/10/2011

My trips as a child to Lexington Market in Baltimore incontrovertibly proved to me that good food becomes great when done simply and well: Utz Potato Chips, Faidley's crabcakes, and most vividly, Park's Fried Chicken.

I laughed when Hill Country conceived their gastronomic ode to Mama Els' and her famous fried chicken. Simple food become bad food when it has been extended to elaborate conclusions; why should one get fanciful over something that's taken out in a cardboard box? This made me look forward even more to a culinary field trip to an unassuming storefront in East Harlem where Charlie Gabriel has been cooking fried chicken for 25 years with a cast iron pan and seasoned all-purpose flour.

The cast iron pan is no more; according to Charlie, it has been retired to his basement and replaced with a stainless steel one of equal manhole size. But the triple-dip technique of seasoning the chicken overnight, dipping in egg wash, and dredging in seasoned flour remains the same, creating a luscious, crispy crust and chicken pieces that seethe in their own juice.

I have a traditional routine when tasting fried chicken. Thigh, wing, leg, thigh, all ordered preferably within one minute of coming out of the fryer. No breasts because they have the driest meat on the bird; two thighs since they have the best blend of fat and meat. The first two pieces had a nice crackly crust, but the skin and the meat had slightly cooled off after being out of the fryer for 20 minutes; the next two pieces were succulent, slightly spicy, and to borrow a well-worn and trademarked expression, finger-lickin' good (TM).

Despite the hubbub over fried chicken at places like the Commodore and Pies n' Thighs, there aren't too many secrets to making good fried chicken. In an underappreciated article by underappreciated food writer Francis Lam (http://www.salon.com/f...), Charlie actually provided the recipe and technique for his lauded fried chicken.
- Season chicken well ahead of time to allow the salt to work its way into the meat so the water seeps out.
- Season it well again with your flour.
- Make sure your oil is hot enough so the grease doesn't soak in.
- Make sure there is space around your chicken so that there is adequate heat circulating.

That's it. No secrets. Only technique. However, Charlie has about 25 years on you, so you might want to try his before trying it at home.