Morgan's Hot Fried Chicken

Lunch | American

Prep time: 3 min Cook time: 20 min Servings: 4

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.

Ingredients

Directions

Recipe notes