Name: Tea-Brined Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Gravy
Cook time: 1 1/2 hours
Total time: 2 hours plus brining and marinating
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 1 gallon water; 38 regular black tea bags or 4 ounces loose black tea; 1 cup kosher salt; 1 cup sugar; 1 chicken (about 3 pounds), cut into 8 pieces (2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings, and 2 breasts); 2 quarts buttermilk, preferably whole-milk; 3 tablespoons hot sauce; 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1 1/2 pounds chicken skin, cut into 1/2-inch pieces; 6 cups flour, preferably Anson Mills White May Flour; 1 cup fine cornmeal, preferably Anson Mills Antebellum Fine White Cornmeal; 2 tablespoons cornstarch; 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder; 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder; 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika; 1 cup rendered fresh lard; 1 cup canola oil; 2 ounces Benton's slab bacon, diced; 2 ounces Benton's smoked ham, diced; 2 tablespoons unsalted butter; Sea salt; Gravy

Tea-Brined Buttermilk Fried Chicken and GravyPeter Frank Edwards

I've worked on my fried chicken for many years, researching every recipe that I could lay my hands on, from early antebellum instructions to the Kentucky Colonel's secret technique. This recipe uses five fats, and each one contributes to the flavor of the result.

To do the chicken right, you need an old black cast-iron skillet with a lid. Sure, you can make it in a deep fryer (like we do at the restaurant), but I prefer the old-fashioned way, which is nearly impossible to pull off in a restaurant. The skillets take up so much stove space that you can't make more than ten orders at a time. So this isn't the fried chicken you're going to eat at Husk. This is the way grandmas cook fried chicken in the South, and it's the way everyone should be making fried chicken at home.

This recipe takes a lot of time and attention, way more than most conventional approaches (the chicken must be brined for 12 hours, so plan ahead). But it's good. Be sure to ask your butcher for the chicken skins to render for fat and to save the cooking fat, which makes mighty fine gravy. I've thrown that recipe in here too, to complete the meal just like my grandma would have.

Cook's Note:

If you use a large, deep cast-iron skillet and the recommended 3-pound chicken, a small bird called a fryer, you shouldn't have any trouble frying all the chicken at one time. If that isn't possible, use two skillets and mix two batches of fat to achieve the flavor and crispness imparted by the combination of fats.

Recipe notes

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