Morgan's fried chicken is double-coated in a spiced three-flour blend, fried at 180°C and tossed in a hot fat masala dip with Nashville spice. Serves 4.
Morgan's Hot Fried Chicken
Rated 5.0 stars by 1 users, click here to rate this recipe.
Category
Lunch
Servings
4
Prep time
3 hours 30 minutes
Cook time
20 minutes
Fried chicken isn’t an everyday thing so when you do it, make it worth it. This recipe brings proper crunch, bold spice, and a serious flavour bomb, all thanks to Morgan (absolute legend) who developed it while working with Sean Brock in the States. It’s brined, double-coated, fried till golden, then hit with a hot fat spice dip that’ll blow your socks off. Unreal stuff.
This is a big recipe, with lots of ingredients but it's easier than think and definitely worth it once you get to bite into this fried chicken. Just save it for a weekend cook.
To make it, the chicken is brined for even seasoning all the way through the meat, then gets coated in a spiced flour blend called the Flour Daddy, and after frying it’s tossed in a hot fat-based masala dip and finished with a Nashville-style dry spice mix. The brine is what separates this from most fried chicken recipes. Salt dissolved in water penetrates the meat rather than just seasoning the surface, so every bite is seasoned consistently whether the coating is thick or thin.
The Flour Daddy uses three starches - plain flour, potato starch, and rice flour. Together they produce a crust that’s more complex and crisp than plain flour alone. The resting time after the first coat is critical: 1 to 2 hours at room temperature allows the flour to hydrate and bond to the chicken, which prevents the coating from pulling away in the oil. The chicken gets a second coat just before frying. The masala dip is made by heating rendered fats to temperature and whisking in the dry spices off the heat, which blooms the spices in the fat without burning them.
Ingredient Notes
The Flour Daddy blend: The combination of plain flour, potato starch, and rice flour gives you a lighter, crispier crust than using plain flour on its own. Potato starch contributes to a fine, delicate texture; rice flour adds crunch and stays crisp longer after frying. The spices are mixed directly into the flour blend so the seasoning is carried through the entire coating rather than just applied on top.
Masala dip fats: The masala dip uses a combination of pork lard, bacon fat, ghee, unsalted butter, and peanut oil. Each fat contributes something different: the lard and bacon fat add a savoury, pork-forward depth; the ghee and butter add richness. Sourcing all four from a butcher or specialty food store is worth it. If you can’t find them, you can slowly render your own pork and bacon fat from scratch, or use a combination of ghee and butter as a simpler substitute.
Gochugaru: Korean dried chilli flakes with a fruity, moderately hot flavour and a deep red colour. They’re coarser than most ground chilli powders and add a different kind of heat to the Nashville spice mix than cayenne alone. Available at Asian grocery stores and increasingly in major supermarkets. If you can’t find them, substitute with an equal amount of mild chilli flakes, though the flavour won’t be quite the same.
Equipment
- Large bowl (for brine)
- Large zip-lock bag (for coating)
- Wire rack and tray
- Medium saucepan (for masala dip)
- Small bowl (for Nashville spice mix)
- Shaker jar
- Deep frying pan or wide saucepan
- Thermometer
Ingredients
- 150g fine salt
- 1.5L water
- 1 kg (2.2 lbs) chicken wings
- peanut oil, for deep frying
-
chicken salt seasoning, sweet and spicy pickles, thick sliced white bread, to serve
Flour Daddy
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground dried bay leaf
- ½ tsp ground sage
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp sweet paprika
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- 150g (1 cup) plain flour
- 75g (½ cup) potato starch
- 100g (½ cup) rice flour
Masala Dip
- 100g each pork lard, bacon fat, ghee, unsalted butter
- 100ml peanut oil
- 1½ tbsp cayenne pepper
- 2 tbsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp fine MSG
- 1 tbsp fine salt
-
freshly ground white pepper
Nashville Spice Mix (spicy)
- 1 tbsp sweet paprika
-
1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tsp Gochugaru
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp chilli powder
-
freshly cracked white pepper
Directions
Brine the chicken
Combine fine salt and water in a large bowl and mix until salt dissolves. Add chicken wings and stir to coat and submerge in liquid, then refrigerate for 2½ hours to brine.
Prep the flour daddy
Mix all the spices and flours in a large bowl until well combined. Transfer half the mixture to a large bag.
- Drain the chicken from the brine and add to the bag in batches, tossing and moving around to coat the chicken completely.
- Transfer chicken to a rack over a tray and leave to rest for 1-2 hours at room temperature, to allow the glutens to absorb the moisture in the chicken.
Make the Masala dip
Combine the peanut oil, pork lard, bacon fat and ghee in a medium saucepan over medium heat until 180°C (356°F).
- Combine the cayenne, paprika, onion and garlic powders, MSG, salt and white pepper. Mix until well combined.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in the spices, then the butter, taking care to not let it bubble over the top of the saucepan.
Prep the Nashville spice mix
Combine all the spices in a medium bowl and mix well.
- Transfer to a shaker jar and set aside.
Cook and enjoy!
Return chicken back to the bag with the remaining Flour Daddy mixture and toss to coat again.
- Heat peanut oil to 180°C in a deep frying pan.
- Cook chicken, in batches for 7 ½ minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. Transfer to a large bowl and season with some salt.
- Drizzle with some of the masala dip and a sprinkle of the spice mix and toss well to coat. Add more spice mix and some chicken salt seasoning.
- Serve chicken with fresh white bread and pickles.
Recipe notes
Recipe origins
This is Morgan's recipe that he has developed with Sean Brock while living in the USA and we are very grateful for him sharing it with us.
Cook support
If you're cooking chicken and you know that your domestic stove isn't particularly hot, then it might be worth taking your oil up to 190°C or 200°C. That way, when you put the chicken in and the temperature drops, it won't drop too much below 180°C. But once it's in there, make sure you keep it at 180°C and it doesn't climb too much above that again.
Brining times
Brining the chicken is an essential step to ensure even seasoning throughout the chicken and not just in the coating. Here is a guide to brining times for each cut; chicken tenders - 1.5 hrs, wings - 2.5 hrs, dark meat - 4 hrs.
Sourcing
The lards and fats listed in the Masala dip can be sourced from your butcher or speciality food store. Or you could slowly render down both pork and bacon fat to make your own.
Substitutions
You could use chicken legs and wings with this recipe if you like. If you can’t find all the spices in your supermarket, they can be sourced from Asian Grocers or specialty food stores.
Storage
This is best eaten straight after cooking, but if you need to reheat to serve, it is best to place the chicken on a wire rack over a tray and heat in a hot oven. The Masala dip can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 month. Make sure you reheat this slowly though to avoid burning the spices.
Serving ideas
You could serve this with a salad or lightly dressed coleslaw and some mashed potato instead of bread if you like.
Spice level
I would give this spice level a medium. If you want it less or more spicy, just adjust the levels of cayenne pepper and chilli powder in the Nashville spice mix. Or, put less/more of the spice mix on the chicken.
