Momofuku style sous vide fried chicken and okra

The Cen-Tex Smoker

This was ridiculous. I got the Momofuku cookbook for Father’s Day. I have had several of the things in the book at his restaurants but the Bo Saam (pork shoulder) and fried chicken have been amazing. The fried chicken in his book is a little different than what I’ve had at the restaurant so this was a hybrid. In the book he steams the chicken and does not add any breading before frying. Just crisps up the skin in the fryer after steaming. I decided to Sous vide instead If steam  and It had a light beading when I had it In Vegas so I went that route as well. The “Octo Vin” dressing from the book is insane. 

We paired it with fried okra from the garden. Dredged in Sriracha buttermilk and then cornmeal/flour. 

Okra in the bath: 

Chicken and okra Drizzled with a little homemade chili oil and “Octo Vin” from the Momofuku cookbook. 

This was all crazy good. Pics don’t even do it justice. 

Mattman3969

Damn dude!!  

Leopoldstoch

Looks awesome!! Great cook!

caliking

Ya, this sounds like something I need in my belly. 

I’ve made his Bo Saam, and it was delicious. This needs to be next 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

caliking said:

Ya, this sounds like something I need in my belly. 

I’ve made his Bo Saam, and it was delicious. This needs to be next 

I’ll send you the recipe and mods we made. You can decide what you want to from there. 

johnnyp

dayum son

lousubcap

Rolling in hot right there.  Great banquet.  

The Cen-Tex Smoker

caliking said:

Ya, this sounds like something I need in my belly. 

I’ve made his Bo Saam, and it was delicious. This needs to be next 

The Bo Saam is next for me. I've had it several times but never made it.

NDG

Amazing! I have had good luck with fried chicken going SV first . . yours looks like a smorgasbord of flavor!  Could you send me recipe with mods as well ??   

I have never heard of "bo saam" . . something for me to research.  Nice cook.
 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

NDG said:

Amazing! I have had good luck with fried chicken going SV first . . yours looks like a smorgasbord of flavor!  Could you send me recipe with mods as well ??   

I have never heard of "bo saam" . . something for me to research.  Nice cook.
 

I will post it here. 

Canugghead

Damn, may have to look into that book. Made Bo Saam couple of times and loved it. 

Foghorn

Dude.  You're killing it.

Legume

Looks amazing.  I would crush a plate.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Brine the bird:

you can just sprinkle with salt and let sit in the fridge for a few hours to overnight or do liquid brine

liquid brine: 4 cups warm tap water (just hot enough to get things dissolved) 1/2 cup kosher salt 1/2 cup sugar. Submerge bird and brine 2-6 hours. 

after the brine he steams his chicken and says to use bamboo steamers if you are steaming at home. Sous vide is easier so I do that. It gets to the same place- to perfectly Pre-cook the meat so you are only frying for a few minutes to get it crispy. If doing Sous vide and using  both dark and light meat, bag them separately and place dark meat in for 2 hours at 154. Add light meat and cook another hour at same temp. If steaming like in the book, place dark meat in the lower basket and light meat in the upper basket of a bamboo steamer and steam for 45 minutes. 

Once the bird is cooked, for best results air chill in the forage for a couple of hours to overnight to dry out the skin. Bring to room temp before frying. I did not have time for this step and it was still perfect. For his version it may be more important. Because...

in the book he does not bread the bird or add any more seasoning. He just fries a brined bird to get the skin super crispy. When I had it at Momofuku it was breaded and delicious. I had some awesome cornmeal/flour breading with 5-spice for the okra so we decided to use that. It was awesome. I’ll do his way next time but I really wanted to get close to what we had at the restaurant and this recipe is very different from that. 

For the kicker- the “Octo Vin” as he calls it is pretty spectacular. It’s a vinaigrette of sorts with the oil/Vin ratio reversed (2x Vin to oil). They created it as the dressing for an octopus salad (hence the name Octo Vin) but they use it on everything. I can see why

his chicken recipe:



octo Vin recipe with my mods noted: (it was better after the mods btw) the shoyu (crack) in my notes is the Japanese Crack shoyu that I have mentioned on here a lot. It makes everything better but it has a very distinct flavor so I usually use it 50/50 with regular or light soy sauce. The tsp of fish sauce made a huge difference. Really added a lot of depth without being upfront. 

The crack and the fish sauce (which is like super crack). These are amazing ingredients. They are pricey but they are very pronounced in flavor so I just use a little at a time. 


 I also drizzled the bird with our homemade chili oil along with the Octo Vin. 

Go forth and make it. Not a difficult cook but the payoff is well worth the extra efforts. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

NDG said:

Amazing! I have had good luck with fried chicken going SV first . . yours looks like a smorgasbord of flavor!  Could you send me recipe with mods as well ??   

I have never heard of "bo saam" . . something for me to research.  Nice cook.
 

His Bo Saam may be the best piece of pork shoulder I have ever put in my mouth. It’s just a lot of salt and a lot of sugar and cooked in an oven. He steams them at the restaurant right before service though. Wrap in lettuce with a little rice and his sauces and oh my gerd it’s good. 

caliking

what's the cornmeal:flour ratio?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

caliking said:

what's the cornmeal:flour ratio?

1:1 for the okra
3:1 AP to cornmeal for the chicken. 

caliking

Bo ssam from a while ago: https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1218732/bo-ssam-korean-pulled-pork

Its a good cook. The meat is simple, but flavorful. And the world's your oyster re: sauces, etc. Fun cook for a crowd, too.  

NDG

Spank my Momma with a rigid yard stick !!

thetrim

Nicely done!  That looks pretty amazing!

GATraveller

You have really been knocking it out of the park lately. Another bookmark! 

JohnEggGio

That looks and sounds awesome!

blind99

niiiice work! you say the pix don't do it justice but the bite marks on my phone say otherwise!

some day we should do a friday night zoom where we all cook a similar at the same time.  i'm pretty sure hilarity will ensue.

YukonRon

Fried chicken? I am all in. This meal looks delicious. I have done the sriracha in the buttermilk for fried chicken before, without seeing this, with what I would call a moderate success, however, this cook, I want to try.

Thank you for sharing. Beautiful results, as always.

JohnInCarolina

Well I guess I am ordering this cookbook.  Good Lord.

texaswig

I fried some chicken not too long ago without batter.Im not a fan.maybe the steam or sous vide makes it better.it looks good.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

texaswig said:

I fried some chicken not too long ago without batter.Im not a fan.maybe the steam or sous vide makes it better.it looks good.

yeah- I am a little skeptical of the no breading as well. He does not even season the bird after the brine in the book recipe. Like I said, I've had his fried chicken at Momofuku. It was breaded and it was amazing. I can't see this one being any better (or even as good) as the one I had at the restaurant. We had 8 people and reordered the chicken 4 times.