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Stephen Fried Chicken

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It is hard to maintain friendships with people that were a) deported to the other side of the planet and b) can be skittish at the best of times. That is unless you are Stephen Fry.

In our years of criminal exile back to our less glamourous lives in Australia, Stephie has always made sure he was checking in on us and making sure we knew that he is always there for us. It isn’t overstating it to say that Stephen Fry is a saint.

He is also a terrible liar.

He dropped by for lunch and gushed about how beautiful Brisbane was at this time of year. For such a great actor, I’m not sure why he struggles with lying? To celebrate the heat of summer and the wild storms we have been experiencing recently, we made our famous Stephen Fried Chicken to eat while we caught up.

 

Stephen Fried Chicken

 

The buttermilk marinade ensures that the chicken stays tender, while the polenta ensures that the crumb creates a fake skin that is crunchy and delicious. Oh, and the spice mix is like a dry version of Buffalo Chicken with the perfect balance of heat and sweet.

Serve with mash or fries or as a snack with blue cheese sauce or natural yoghurt…or better yet, with a generous helping of Benjamin Slaw.

Enjoy!

 

Stephen Fried Chicken

 

Stephen Fried Chicken
Serves: 4.

Ingredients
4 free range, skinless chicken breasts
vegetable oil for deep frying

Buttermilk Marinade
200ml buttermilk
10ml tabasco
15ml maple syrup
5g salt

Chicken Seasoning
15g smoked paprika
15g sweet paprika
10g celery seed
10g cayenne powder
10g table salt
5g ground cinnamon
5g ground white pepper
5g ground black pepper

Seasoned Flour
225g plain flour
25g polenta/corn meal
50g chicken seasoning

Method
Slice chicken in to large “tenders” as desired.

Combine all ingredients in buttermilk marinade and stir to dissolve salt. Pour over chicken. Gently massage to cover all surfaces of chicken.

Cover and leave in fridge for 12-24 hours…aka a decent enough time for the buttermilk to tenderise the meat.

Remove the chicken from the fridge and leave covered for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius and vegetable oil in a deep pot on the stove.

Combine flour, polenta and chicken seasoning in a large flat baking tray. Place the chicken pieces into flour. Coat well and cover all surfaces with the flour. Gently shake the excess flour off the chicken, careful not to lose the crust (this will become the healthier fake skin).

Carefully place the chicken in the oil a few pieces at a time, taking care not to splash the burning hot oil. Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the “skin” has formed and is a deep golden brown. Remove from hot oil with a perforated spoon or ladle. Place onto a roasting rack in a baking dish and place into the pre heated oven.

Repeat the frying steps with the chicken until all cooked.

Remove the chicken from the oven and season liberally with the remaining chicken seasoning.

Benjamin Slaw

Side

It is always great to catch up with Ben and even better to watch the awkward way in which non-published Ben fawns all over him. Thankfully Law is well natured enough to ignore it. Maybe he is just grateful Ben isn’t demanding to sit on his knee like when Luke visits?

Ben was in town visiting family but dropped by for a catch-up, that in retrospect I think may have actually been a welfare check. Since moving to Sydney, we haven’t seen as much of Ben with our resurgent fame keeping us busy and Ben, you know, having work to do on account of having actual talent.

To keep him on schedule for his obligations, we threw together a Benjamin Slaw as we quickly discussed our upcoming stint on Home & Away (his childhood dream), whether Germaine Greer has forgiven our feud (don’t ask and no she hasn’t) and his upcoming book (we aren’t allowed to discuss, but it will be glorious).

 

Benjamin Slaw 1

 

There is no improving on perfection, so we gracefully bowed down to the Goddess Nigella and used her New Orleans Coleslaw for the Benjamin Slaw. Ben obviously lied to Ben and told him that he had invented the recipe…but don’t tell him.

Enjoy, he did…even with the side of lies!

 

Benjamin Slaw 2

 

Benjamin Slaw (aka Nigella’s New Orleans Coleslaw)
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 white cabbage, about 1kg before trimming
2 carrots
2 sticks celery
4 spring onions
200 grams mayonnaise
4 tablespoons buttermilk
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
100 grams pecan nuts, finely chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Method
Trim and shred the cabbage, either by hand or with a food processor.

Peel and grate the carrots, and finely slice the celery and spring onions.

Whisk together the mayonnaise, buttermilk, maple syrup and vinegar and coat the shredded vegetables with this dressing.

Season, and toss through the chopped nuts.

All Our Friends Are Coming to Brisbane

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

For two antisocial people, our phones sure do seem to ring off the hook!

Benjamin Law gave us a call over the weekend to drop by for lunch while he is in town seeing family…or something. We are both antisocial and have terrible attention spans.

Ben and I first met Benjamin (who for the sake of confusion we will refer to as Ben) at different times, but because of the same series of events. You see, Ben sees Ben as a literary hero and developed the belief that by laying his head where Ben lays his head, he would absorb some greatness.

Ben came home from work one day to find Ben in his bed, madly rubbing his head into his pillow chanting “make me write goooo-ooood” like he was our close friend Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball.

(Side note: It didn’t work, clearly).

Ben being kind, generous and filled with pity called the first unlucky person in Ben’s phone (me), instead of alerting the police.

What says thanks for not alerting the police to our criminal attempts to absorb your greatness and politely returning all of our calls when Ben wanted to “catch-up” until he (evidently) Stockholm syndrome-d you into friendship?

Picture source: @mrbenjaminlaw/Twitter.