Buttermilk Fried Chicken - Part TWO

So, after last night's disaster, I decided I had to do this again.  I brought the leftover chicken to work and let a couple of people try it.  They liked it so I guess this was a matter of "personal taste"...I love paprika (hot, sweet & smoked), so was surprised I disliked the "smoked" paprika sooo much!  My son said it was good too but he wasn't blown away by it either.

At work, at lunch, I bought ziplocs, more buttermilk, Frank's RedHot sauce, chicken thighs (same price - $7) and tri-color peppercorns in a grinder.  I mixed everything together in the ziploc except the chicken.  I used about 2 cups buttermilk and 1/3 of a large bottle of Frank's.  I cracked more pepper over the chicken, put it in the bag, massaged it, zipped it up and put it in the fridge.

This way it would get a minimum 6 hour marinade which it did.  I strained the oil so I could clear out last nights fried bits and start clean.  I topped the avocado oil up a wee bit.

Today, the only seasoning that went in my flour (1 cup) was:

• Garlic granules
• Onion granules
• Cayenne pepper
• Diamond Crystal kosher salt
• Freshly cracked tri-color peppercorns

I put it in a container and dredged each piece one by one.  I put them back on the same rack I did yesterday and seasoned with more S&P.

I put it back in the fridge to "set" for two hours.  So far, everything looks and feels almost exactly the same as yesterday...kinda like "Groundhog Day"...

My son worked until 10pm so I started cooking about an hour before.  I heated the oil at lower than medium tonight, so maybe low-medium?  You need to know your burners/stove.  On a different burner on my stove - low/medium would be set at medium.  This burner I used is hotter... Anyway, I didn't want it to brown so quickly this time.  I also increased the time to 10 minutes per side.  I used my timer on the stove for this.  Below is the "halfway flip" at the first 10 minutes.

So, I'm much happier with the results tonight.  The chicken was crispy, juicy, and spicy!  Most importantly though, it was cooked properly and seasoned well!  My son said, "Wow" when he tried this tonight.  He enjoyed it much better this round two, too.  This was a job well done, if I do say so myself - still nothing like my dad's wife's but I'm OK with just remembering hers with that fondness...I'm pretty sure she would have liked what I made this evening.  Next "fried adventure" for me will be 'Chicken Fried Steak'...I've never made it but it is one of my all time favourite dishes, so that is on next week's agenda.