Crisp-Skinned Chicken in Peppered White Gravy
current situation: fried chicken n gravy
I call it fried chicken and gravy. Look closely at the plate and there is no breading anywhere — it is chicken skin, fried hard in its own fat until it goes gold and tight, and a white gravy built in the same pan.
Which means the one rule is: only half the chicken goes in the gravy. Sit the pieces so the skin side stays proud of the sauce. Spoon gravy over crisp chicken skin and you have soft chicken skin, and you have thrown away the twenty minutes you spent making it.
The gravy is black pepper and not much else. It should be aggressive enough to taste on its own off a spoon.
- Feeds
- 4
- Hands-on
- 40 minutes
- Skin
- Started cold, rendered slow
- Gravy
- In the same pan
What you need
The chicken
- 8 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tbsp coarse cracked black pepper
- 1 tsp granulated garlic
- 1 tbsp neutral oil, just to start it off
The white gravy
- 4 tbsp of the chicken fat from the pan
- 4 tbsp flour
- 2 cups whole milk, warmed
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 1/2 tbsp coarse cracked black pepper — yes, that much
- Salt to taste
On the plate
- Sliced cooked beetroot, cold
- Thick slices of white bread
- Plenty of soft butter
How it goes
1 — Dry the skin and season it the night before
Patted dry, salted and peppered, uncovered on a rack in the fridge overnight. Wet skin will not crisp, it will only steam, and no amount of heat argues with that.
2 — Skin side down in a COLD pan
Chicken into a cold pan with a teaspoon of oil, then the heat turned to medium. Starting cold renders the fat out slowly instead of seizing the skin against the metal.
3 — Twenty minutes, skin side down, barely touched
That is not a typo. Twenty minutes over medium, pressing occasionally with a spatula so the whole skin stays in contact. It goes from white to gold and the fat pools out around it.
4 — Flip for eight minutes, then out
Turn them, another eight minutes until cooked through — 175°F in a thigh. Onto a rack, skin up, while you make the gravy.
5 — Pour off all but four tablespoons of fat
There will be a lot. Keep four spoonfuls in the pan and save the rest in a jar; schmaltz is better than oil for almost everything.
6 — Flour into the fat, cooked two full minutes
Whisked in and cooked until it smells toasted rather than raw and goes the colour of sand. Scrape the brown bits off the bottom as you go — they are the gravy.
7 — Milk slowly, then the pepper, heavy
Warm milk a splash at a time, whisking, then the stock. Simmer five minutes until it coats a spoon. Then a tablespoon and a half of coarse black pepper. It should look speckled and taste hot.
pro tip — Warm milk, added slowly. Cold milk dumped in all at once lumps instantly and you will be straining it.
8 — Plate it half in, half out
Gravy ladled over one side of the plate, chicken set down so the skin sits clear of it. Beetroot on the other side, buttered bread across the top.
Current situation. The bread is for the gravy and you will want a second slice. LFG.