Honey Fried Chicken with Hot Honey Sauce Experiment - At Morningstar Coffee

I got to experiment with a fried chicken recipe that I came across by Rebecca Lang from her Fried Chicken cookbook by way of the Taste and Tell Blog (link to follow). When you purchase the book, do so at the Taste and Tell link as that will reward the blogger with a small commission:

Honey Fried Chicken Recipe

The crew at Morningstar Coffee were my guinea pigs. The recipe included a brining step. The chicken breasts, normally the dryest pieces of chicken were moist and juicy. I am now a believer in brining. Though, I suspect it also may have had something to do with the chicken that I purchased. You see, most grocery store chicken already is injected with a saline solution. So, there is no place for a brine to penetrate. The chickens I bought (Costco) did not have any saline solution in them. It was a relatively short brining time of 6 hours. 5 cups of water total, 2 tbs. sea salt and 1/2 cup turbinado sugar ( I substituted 3/8 cup regular sugar and 1/8 cup brown sugar). I wasn't that impressed with the crust though. What had intrigued me about this recipe was the calling for of half and half and the use of herbs de Provence in the batter. It turned out to be a very flavorful but thin crust. Because my chicken pieces were so big, we decided to cut them into three pieces each. I stopped the frying time when the pieces reached a medium brown color and finished the cooking in the oven at 300 F until they were done all the way through. Incredily moist and juicky chicken.

Photos to follow: