Egg Fried Chicken ???

Chipper

I went to pick my son up at school the other day and ran into on of the lunch room ladies. We got to talking and she told me of the conversation between her and my 9 yr. old son that had taken place that day.
Son: "Excuse me. What kind of chicken is that?"
L.R.L.: "It is baked chiken."
Son: "Oh, I thought it was fried."
L.R.L.: "No, it's baked. We don't do fried chicken here."
Son: "My Dad cooks fried chicken on his grill, and it's REALLY good!"
Well the lunch room lady said she had a good laugh and she asked me, still laughing, how I cooked FRIED chicken on the grill. I had to eggsplain that I had not actually fried chicken on the grill, but then the wheels started turning. I am thinking it is theoreticlly possible to fry chicken on the egg (CI dutch oven with lid, 400° to 450°), but would it be worth doing? Has anyone else tried this? If I try this, anything I need to watch for (besides the obvious cautions of hot oil and open flame)?

Unknown

Chipper,
Try ChefRDs wing recipe on drumsticks or thighs. Cook indirect at 400 for 45 minutes to an hour.[p]As close to fried as you can get....and no oil.
NB

Unknown

See what happens after you turn 40.

Earl

Chipper,
Good Morning[p] Not to dampen your fire,but I can not see any reason to use the Egg for this. You pointed out the safety factor with good reason & by cooking with oil, I don't think you would add any smoke flavor to the food as you would need to keep the lid open. Just my 2 cent worth.[p]Earl

Mike Oelrich

Chipper,[p] First off, I'd be a bit cautious about heating a big bunch of oil up in a closed cooker with open flames. Normal temperatures for cooking oils are below 450º (where even the best begin to smoke and impart bad flavors) so I'd be careful with the plan as you've outlined it. Might get a little more exciting than you were hoping for. If I managed to get myself over that part, I'd offer the following:[p] Important thing in fried chicken is to have the oil at the right temperature. Temperature too low will cause the breading to cook too slowly and give you greasy chicken. Oil too hot will cause the skin to crisp too quickly and your chicken won't cook enough inside by the time the crust looks ready to eat. Normal oil temperatures for fried chicken are 325-375º. You don't need to completely immerse the chicken. Put enough oil in so that the bottom half of the chicken is immersed, then flip halfway through. Important thing here would be checking the temperature of the oil and keeping the hot oil and the flames separated.[p] In short, not sure of how much benefit the BGE would be here . . .[p]MikeO

Mike Oelrich

NB,[p] It was either that, or you'd turned into a living oxymoron![p]MikeO

Unknown

Chipper,
I have seen several recipe where people take chicken and put it in a smoker for a little while to get some good smoked flavor going and then proceed to fry. Have not tried but sounds good to me.[p]t

Smokey

Chipper,[p]I in no way want to dampen anyones spirit when it comes to trying anything on the egg, but I'm not sure of what would be accomplished by "Frying" chicken on the egg. Fryed is fryed ... isn't it? There are so many GREAT ways to cook chicken on the egg that I have given up the fried stuff.[p]Smokey

BBbrew

Smokey,[p]I think KFC frys their chicken under pressure in a kind of pressure cooker/frier vesse. Maybe the tightly sealed inside of an egg would somewhat simulate this effect?

RhumAndJerk

BBbrew,
I am not sure how KFC cooks their chicken. However, The concept of pressure frying chicken is called broasted. It was actually perfected in this neck of the woods. Barberton, OH is known as the Broasted Chicken Capitol of the World. It is a suburb of Akron. They literally deep-fry the chicken in a pressure cooker. It is tasty stuff. [p]They also make wedge style potatoes by the same method and they are called JoJo’s.[p]This environment cannot and should not be duplicated on a BGE. I agree with everyone else, boiling oil and the open flame of the BGE should not be mixed.[p]Hope this helps,
RhumAndJerk

Char-Woody

MikeO, I wanted to inject something here..but I was far too polite. I was thinking back to when I too realized that.
LOL...
C~W[p]

Char-Woody

Earl, I agree with you wholeheartedly. IMO BGE "broiled" chicken parts are as good as you can get. And as close to "fried" without frying. I sure like the peanut oil and seasonings for the 400F degree indirect cook.
Got me hungry again for it! Price of beef and pork skyrocketing, chicken may be the lifesaver.
Cheers to ya...C~W[p]

BBbrew

RhumAndJerk,[p]A lot of people still fry chicken in a cast iron pot on top of a gas stove. Flames dont get much more open than that. And then there was the time I bought one of them turkey frying setups and boiled 5 gallons of oil on an open propane burner (now that's what I really call an open flame!).[p]Boiling oil in an egg over coals is probably much safer than either of the two examples listed above.

RhumAndJerk

BBbrew,
Now that I think about, you are right. [p]I have the turkey fryer setup and many times waited for the whole thing to go up in flames. Let us remove the safety discussion from deep-frying on the egg and change it to what it really should called … a mess. [p]As the oil will splatter onto the dome and ceramics, it could create off flavors during future cooks.[p]Good catch,
RhumAndJerk[p]

BBbrew

RhumAndJerk,[p]A big mess it would be. And I wouldnt want to clean it up.
But, if somebody wanted to try it, I guess you could fry in an egg (they CAN do anything, right?). [p]I only tried my turkey fryer once and it scared the bejesus out of me. My (somewhat clumsy) dad insisted on taking vidio pictures (being Thanksgiving day and all). I had to keep telling him to get the hell away from the thing. And the grease spot it left on the patio - my dog still loves that. Every morning when we let him outside, he starts licking the pavement![p]I think I will stick to smoked turkey.

RhumAndJerk

BBbrew,
The trick is to pre-measure the liquid amount with the turkey that you are frying. You do this by putting the turkey in the fry pot and fill it with water just until the water covers the turkey. Then you remove the turkey and mark the water level. This is the level that your oil should be at to minimize the oil on driveway. I forget who, but someone on this forum told me about that.[p]I call it a trick, because it does not always work. Try your hand at frying a turkey again and keep plenty of Kitty Litter around to soak up the dripping oil. Either that or brine and smoke your turkey in the BGE[p]RhumAndJerk[p]

Mike Oelrich

BBbrew,[p] The difference is this: In the cases you mention, the fire is open to the atmosphere as a whole, and the oil vapor and microdrops that may emenate from the fry pan of oil pot are also going out into open air. In the BGE, the fire, vapors and oil drops are enclosed in the same, fairly small, volume . . .[p]MikeO

BBbrew

MikeO,[p]Lets analyze the situation.[p]Stove top Fying:
Fuel (oil dropplets)
Very Open flame
Plenty of oxygen (~21 percent)
Very little containment ability
Performed INSIDE your house [p]
Fying in Egg:
Fuel (oil dropplets)
Red-hot embers to semi-open flame
Way less oxygen (zero if you close the lid on the egg)
Better containment if something were to go wrong (close lid on egg - might need a long broom handle to do this)
Performed OUTSIDE your house.[p]I dunno. But, it looks like egg frying is safer to me.

Mike Oelrich

BBbrew,[p] I assure you, I did analyze the situation. Having the fumes, etc. in a closed volume with the fire still seems more dangerous to. My kitchen, at least, is bigger than even my large BGE and is better ventilated (I really need to replace the windows in my house). Therefore, in the kitchen, there is much more room for the fumes to disperse. Not so in the BGE. Your point about lower oxygen level is well taken, though the comment about there being zero if the lid is closed is incorrect (if that were true you wouldn't have a fire going, now would you?). In fact, this lower level of oxygen may serve to make it more dangerous when you go to open the lid and air rushes in. Might get a flashback kind of like when you open the lid too fast after doing a dwell. In either case (stove or BGE), if hot oil spills onto the flames, it will ignite.[p] And if your main concern is keeping your house from burning down, I agree with you -- there is much less chance of that if you aren't cooking inside the house.[p]MikeO

RhumAndJerk

MikeO,
I think that MikeO’s point about the oil droplets in a small semi-closed environment is right on the money. It could create more than just a flashback, but could potentially produce an explosion. This would be similar to lighting a gas grill with the lid closed.[p]One of the most important steps in deep-frying maintaining the proper oil temperature. I feel that this would be tough to do with a BGE. Besides, it would be a mess[p]I personally will leave deep frying to natural gas and propane cookers made to do so.
RhumAndJerk[p]

Unknown

tember2,
I must of missed something here. It doesn't sound like he is wanting to fry the chicken on the BGE. He just wants to smoke it for a little while, then fry it on the stove. Sounds like it would be finger lickin good to me.