Chick-fil-eh!
Ingredients
• 4 hamburger buns, split
• 12 dill pickle slices
• 1.5-2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup dill pickle juice
• If going for the spicy version, ¼ cup Louisiana or Texas Pete’s hot sauce
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1.2-2 cups peanut oil
• 2 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
If you want a spicy chicken sandwich add the following to the flour:
• 1.5 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1.5 tablespoon of cayenne
• 1 tablespoon of paprika
Cooking Instructions
Place a chicken breast on a cutting board. With your hand flat on top of it, carefully slice the chicken in half horizontally. Trim excess fat as needed. In a large shallow baking dish, combine chicken, pickle juice and buttermilk, (and hot sauce if desired); marinate for at least 2 hours, maximum of 6. Set out chicken/buttermilk/pickle juice mixture about 30 minutes prior to cooking, to get close to room temperature.
Okay, time to cook! Heat peanut oil in a large skillet over medium high heat, cast iron if you have. While oil is heating, either add flour mixture to a large Ziplock bag and shake well. Or, pour in shallow dish and mix well.
Seasoned flour should include: flour, confections' sugar (and other seasonings if going for spicy); season with salt and pepper, to taste. If using Ziplock, throw all the chicken in the bag and shake/massage around until all the chicken is covered fully. If using shallow dish, remove one piece of chicken at a time, coat well on both sides and set aside. Repeat until finished. Regardless of preparation, set chicken on plate(s), let sit for 10 minutes or so, while oil gets hot and breading adheres to chicken. Don't rush and throw chicken in the oil until it sits.
Working in batches, add chicken to the skillet and cook until evenly golden and crispy, about 4-6 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack with paper towels underneath. Separately, add butter to the bottoms of each bun and cook them for a few minutes on a hot skillet until brown. Serve chicken immediately on burger buns with pickles!
*Note, if going for deluxe, add lettuce, slice of tomato, and pepper jack cheese.
