Keller comes off as exacting, precise and intense - even in a cookbook about family-style cooking. (Case in point: My cousin, who did an internship at the French Laundry, pointed out the picture of the spices on page 17, noting that there was a certain point when a new dictum was issued: tape labels for spices need to be cut straight with scissors, not ripped with jagged edges. Geez!) Chang is just as intense, if not more complicated - not sure when I'll be taking a blow torch to a pig head to remove the stubborn hair tufts - yet laid back about swapping ingredients "that are a total pain in the ass to find". Love that he has a dirty mouth. The one question he always asks about a dish: "Is it fucking delicious?" Amen.
Who doesn't love friend chicken? But these two recipes couldn't be more different. And these are not school night recipes - both require weekend warrior effort.
The Momofuku chicken is brined, steamed, fried and then doused in octo vinaigrette (which is crack addictive). The ad hoc chicken is brined too - for 12 hours in a lemon-herb brine and then double dipped in buttermilk and paprika-seasoned flour.
Since the chicken is brined with salt and sugar, it doesn't need much time in the fryer but it browns up nice and quick. A quick soak in octo vinaigrette (garlic, ginger, chile, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, grapeseed oil, sesame oil + sugar) and you're done. Eating resulted in food buzz moans.
The herb-lemon brine did make the meat intensely juicy and flavorful (next time I'll measure more carefully since I halved the recipe and only used bone-in chicken breasts). The double-dip method of seasoned flour, then buttermilk, then another dip in seasoned flour did make a tender, light, flaky crust. The deep fried rosemary = you just took it to 11.
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