Southern Fried Chicken Burger

I love fried chicken, on the bone off the bone; I love it all but I can no longer get it from the infamous KFC or local establishments because of the low quality of chicken used.  Instead I use organic free range chicken; providing me with the dirty fried chicken satisfaction that I crave, as well as the satisfaction of knowing that the bird was free, making the burger much tastier (well it may be physiologically tastier). Also in contrast to the humble risotto of last week you can tell I got paid so I went food shopping and treated myself!

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  What you need:

  
  

  For the Chicken

  
  

  • 2 free range organic chicken breasts
  • 2 burger buns 
  • A small tub of butter milk
  • Taleggio cheese
  • 1 ½  handful of plain flour
  • 1 tsp of sweet paprika
  • 1 tsp of cayenne pepper
  • ½ tsp of mustard powder
  • 1 tsp of onion powder
  • 1 tsp of garlic powder
  • ½ tsp of celery salt 
  • A grinding of black pepper
  • Pomegranate molasses
  • A tomato
  • Salad leaves

  For the Cajun Mayonnaise
  

  • 2 tbsp of shop bought mayo
  • ½ tsp of sweet paprika
  • ½ tsp of cayenne pepper
  • ½  tsp of onion powder
  • ½  tsp of garlic powder
  • ½ tsp of celery salt

  How to cook it:

  1. This one is super easy!  Start by butterflying the chicken breasts - by this I mean cut through the thick bit on the side of the breast, and cut ¾ of the way through it and open it up. If you’re unsure what I mean, take your chicken breast and bash it with a rolling pin until it’s the same thickness throughout (don’t bash it too thin though).
  2. Put your chicken in about 150 ml of butter milk and leave it for at a couple of hours or preferably overnight. The butter milk helps tenderise the meat - therefore the longer you leave it the more tender it will be.
  3. Put all the dry spices and ground black pepper in the flour and mix it together. Now take your chicken, removing some of the butter milk and roll it in the spiced flour. Shallow fry the chicken in 1 cm depth of vegetable or sunflower oil. To know whether the oil is hot enough throw in a small piece of bread, if it starts to fry the pan is up to temperature.  The length of time required to cook your chicken is going to be dependant of the thickness and size of your chicken breasts. For my smaller chicken breasts it took 5 minutes a side. If in doubt fry until golden on both sides, and cut into the thickest part of the breast to see if it’s done- 
  4. Right at the end place a generous slice of cheese on the fried chicken and take it out of the pan to rest and let the cheese melt. I used taleggio because I got paid but mozzarella would be just as good
  5. Finally make up a Cajun spiced mayonnaise - take the 2 tbsp of shop bought mayo and throw in all the mayo spices, if you want it hotter add some more cayenne pepper.
  6. Finish the dish with your bread bun smeared with some pomegranate molasses and spiced mayo. Put in the chicken and serve with a slice of tomato and green leafy salad.