How to Cook Fried Chicken | "JFC" | Jamie Oliver

Southern fried chicken, yes. Super crispy on the outside, ultra juicy and tender on the inside. This isn't about bargain buckets my friends, this is about soul food. Comes in three parts ladies and gents. We've got the brining, we've got buttermilking and flouring. It's gonna be incredible. So part one, brine. It's gonna flavour the meat, it's gonna hydrate the meat, so you're gonna get a juicy poultry bird. It's really, really clever. Use a handful of black peppercorns, a few sprigs of thyme, four fresh bay leaves and four garlic cloves. Add a hundred grams of salt and a hundred grams of brown sugar. Finish with four hundred mils of water. Give it all a stir and bring it to the boil. Then take it off the heat. Add another four hundred millilitres of water in there, let this fully cool down. Then go in with the chicken. Four free range chicken drumsticks and four thighs. Keep the skin on and score right down to the bone. So in with the thighs and in with the drumsticks. So just cover that with some greaseproof paper or cling film it. Whack it in the fridge and I put it in there overnight, twelve hours minimum and that's the beginning of the incredible flavour process. Now it feels slightly firmer, it's hydrated, it's probably gained about ten percent. Give it a little shake and straight into a Ziploc bag. Then guys, you're ready for stage two. Buttermilk, you can get it in all the supermarkets. It's kind of like a liquid yoghurt and it's going to help to flavour and tenderise this chicken. So I'm going to squeeze the air out of the bag and we put that in the fridge for another eight hours and you might be thinking is it worth it, why would we do it? Of course, just get a bit of chicken, just put it in flour and fry it. It won't taste anything like this. You know, you can always cheat but fantastic feasts at the weekend are about preparing for it. This is the kind of secret spice bit that they say, you know, so many secret blended spices and stuff like that. It's not that secret, I'll give it to you. Start with 200 grams of plain flour, then it's just one teaspoon each of baking powder, smoked paprika, cayenne and onion and garlic powder. Season with salt and pepper and give it a good old mix. Then go in with the chicken. Just get your fingers in and have a good old toss around. You've given this chicken some serious TLC, now it's time to fry. Half fill a sturdy pan with sunflower oil and heat to 180 degrees Celsius. Drumsticks first, slowly put them in, colour it up and get it crispy in the oil. As soon as it looks nice and golden and gorgeous, after about five minutes, put it in the tray. Do the same with the thighs. Grab a few sprigs of thyme, dip in some excess oil in the tray and then sprinkle it all over the chicken. Whack this in the oven now at 170 degrees Celsius for about half an hour until the meat comes away from the bone and it'll be gorgeous. Look at that, incredible crispy chicken. I'm so excited. What I love about this and the whole kind of idea of this is you take something junk and you apply the old values, love, care, attention, the brining, the marinating, the flour with the secret blend or not so secret blend and we create a mountain of delicious, loved food. This is finger licking chicken like you've never tasted before and to set it off perfectly, I'm serving it with baked sweet potatoes, peppery watercress, wedges of lemon and a crunchy, vibrant fresh pickle. This is the most fantastically indulgent weekend feast that everyone will love. Let's take a bit of that beautiful chicken, a little squeeze of lemon juice. Oh my god, it's just tender, crispy outside and look, it's fried so it is rich but then when you bang that, in you go. Oh my god, it's so delicious. I love it. This is stuff that makes me really, really happy, guaranteed.