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Recipe

Spicy Fried Chicken Thighs, Dusted Hot

we talkin spicy fried chicken, homemade gravy, rice, cranberry sauce. everybody invited!!!!

Same bare-skin fry as the drumsticks, different ending. These come out of the oil and go straight under a storm of dry spice while the surface is still hot and faintly oily.

Dust them hot or do not bother. Spice thrown onto chicken that has been sitting for two minutes just falls off into the tray. Thrown on in the first thirty seconds it sticks to the skin and stays there, which is why the picture shows visible red and black sitting on top of gold.

No batter here either. The crust is skin, and the spice is the only coating.

Feeds
6
Hands-on
30 minutes
Dry
Overnight
Dust
Within 30 seconds

Overnight in the fridge, half an hour at the stove, and the spice goes on in the last ten seconds.

Spiced chicken thighs crowding the cooling rackFried chicken over rice with gravy and cranberry
Shot the night it was made. Open any picture for the full photograph.

What you need

The chicken

  • 12 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
  • 2 tbsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3 quarts neutral oil, for frying

The hot dust

  • 2 tbsp cayenne
  • 2 tbsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tbsp coarse cracked black pepper
  • 1 tbsp granulated garlic
  • 2 tsp dried oregano, crushed between your palms
  • 1 tbsp fine salt

How it goes

  1. 1 — Salt, baking powder, overnight uncovered

    Thighs patted dry, tossed with salt and the baking powder, spread skin up on a rack in the fridge overnight. The skin dries to something like paper and that is what blisters.

  2. 2 — Mix the dust and have it beside the pot

    All of it in a bowl with a spoon in it, within arm's reach of the fryer. You will have about thirty seconds to use it and you do not want to be opening jars.

  3. 3 — Fry at 325°F for twelve minutes

    Four or five thighs at a time so the temperature holds. They come out blond, not brown, and cooked through at 175°F.

  4. 4 — Rest ten minutes, then back in at 375°F

    Second fry of ninety seconds for the blister. The skin puffs and goes properly gold with darker patches.

  5. 5 — Dust immediately, from high up

    Straight onto a rack and the spice thrown over from a foot above so it lands evenly rather than in clumps. Turn them and do the other side.

    pro tip — Crush the oregano between your palms as it goes on. Dried herb left whole tastes of nothing; broken up it releases its oil.

  6. 6 — Stack them on the rack and let them sit five minutes

    The dust settles into the skin and stops tasting raw. Five minutes is also how long it takes to pour a drink.

Gravy, rice, cranberry sauce. Everybody invited. LFG.

More of what comes out of this kitchen on the food wall.

Every picture on this page is one of mine. I paint for a living the rest of the time — that is the gallery, and the originals are for sale.