What do you do when you have left over duck fat from the slow-roasted barbeque pulled duck sliders you did for your company’s pot-luck? Why you deep fry stuff in it of course! Katt is the fried chicken connoisseur around here so when she said she wanted to make fried chicken I decided to take it to the next level and make it ridiculous. I did and my heart will never be the same. What I ended up with is buttermilk battered duck fried chicken with a bacon, onion and mushroom white gravy. Hit the jump for a run down.
When one of those online calorie calculators warned me of impending doom after giving it the ingredients list I knew I was on the right track! It went something like this.
Duck Fried Buttermilk Chicken:
1 Fryer chicken, cut into 6 or 8 pieces
2 cups buttermilk
½ cup Crystal’s hot sauce
1tbsp Zatarain’s or Old Bay seasoning
2tbsp cracked black pepper
Flour, for dredging
Kosher Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
Place the chicken pieces in a quart size plastic bag along with the buttermilk, Crystal’s, Zatarain’s, and the cracked black pepper. Place in the refrigerator overnight.
Melt enough duck fat or lard to come ¼ to ½ an inch up the side of a heavy cast iron skillet or pan. Start over low heat until the fat melts then raise the heat to about medium to medium high, you are looking for about 325 degrees F.
Remove the chicken pieces from the buttermilk and place in a colander or bowl. Pour some of the buttermilk mixture from the bag into a bowl and in a second bowl combine the flour, salt and pepper. Start by dredging the chicken in the seasoned flour, shake off the excess and place back into the buttermilk. Now dredge in the flour a second time and shake off the excess flour once again. I personally like the double dip method and I find that the flour helps the buttermilk stick and the buttermilk helps the flour stick, it’s a win-win.
Place the chicken pieces skin side down into the pan making sure not to over crowd the pan. Cook the chicken for approximately 10-12 minutes per side until nice and golden brown and the chicken reads an internal temperature of 165F-180F. Make sure to monitor the fat temp every couple of minutes, don’t try to chase it too much but make sure it’s around 325F. This is also a good time to have one of those splatter screens, especially if you’re a nudist (hot oils hurts people).
When the chicken is done remove to a drying rack over a sheet pan to drain, do not place onto paper towels as this will cause the chicken skin to get soggy (not good).
White Gravy:
Slab Bacon, about ½ cup in a ¼ inch dice
½ Vidalia or Sweet onion diced
¼ chopped mushrooms (dealer’s choice)
4tbsp duck fat
4tbsp flour
2 cups whole milk
Kosher salt to taste
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
In a 12 inch frying pan over medium heat fry the bacon until it renders some of its fat but is not yet crispy. Add the onions and mushrooms and cook until they are slightly soft, about 5 minutes. Add duck fat to the pan until, when combined with the bacon fat, you have about 6tbsp of fat total. Turn the heat to high and whisk in the flour, continue whisking and cooking for about 3 minutes until the roux takes on a slightly yellow color but not brown. With the heat on high, slowly add the milk while whisking constantly. Bring the gravy to a boil then reduce the heat to medium low. Season the gravy with salt and liberal amounts of black pepper. Continue to cook for about 8-10 minutes, if the gravy is to thick add a little water to thin it.
Plate the chicken and cover with the white gravy, eat, and finally grab chest as the fat congeals in your veins. To make things worse I served this with mashed potatoes that I made with heavy cream, butter, some of the gravy, peas and baked into a pie crust. Now I understand that this isn’t the kind of meal that you can eat every day (well at least if you don’t want your heart to explode) but don’t you owe it to yourself to splurge every once in a while?
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