Berry-Jam Fried Chicken
- Total Time
- 35 minutes, plus at least 30 minutes’ marinating
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1large egg
- ⅓cup balsamic vinegar
- ⅓cup strawberry jam (or other summer-fruit jam)
- 2pounds large, thick chicken breast cutlets (about 6 pieces)
- 1cup all-purpose flour
- ½cup cornstarch
- 2teaspoons kosher salt
- 1teaspoon ground ginger
- 1teaspoon dried thyme
- 1teaspoon onion powder
- 1teaspoon garlic powder
- 1teaspoon black pepper
- Peanut oil (or other oil with a high smoke point), as needed (about 3 cups)
- 1teaspoon kosher salt
- Scallion Cornmeal Waffles, or Bacon Cornbread
For the Marinated Chicken
For the Dredge
For Frying and Serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the marinade: In a large bowl, whisk the egg, vinegar and jam. Add chicken cutlets, turn until coated, cover and chill for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
- Step 2
Prepare the dredge: In a large bowl, whisk the flour, cornstarch and spices until combined.
- Step 3
When you're ready to fry, add enough peanut oil to a large (10-inch) cast-iron skillet to form a layer that is 1 inch deep. Heat oil over medium-high to around 300 degrees.
- Step 4
Brush off any bits of fruit from the chicken. With one hand, coat each cutlet in the seasoned flour dredge. Set coated cutlets to the side of the bowl while you coat the remaining ones. Wash your hands.
- Step 5
Fry the chicken: Working in batches to avoid crowding, and adjusting the temperature as needed to hover around the 300-degree mark, place 2 to 3 pieces of chicken at a time in the fat. Using tongs, flip the chicken at the 3-minute mark, 7-minute mark and 8-minute mark, cooking until the chicken appears to float and is golden brown. (Each batch should fry for about 8 minutes total.)
- Step 6
Transfer fried cutlets to a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Sprinkle both sides with kosher salt and cook remaining cutlets.
- Step 7
Serve chicken on a scallion cornmeal waffle, if you like, or with bacon cornbread with Cheddar and scallions. Or, for a lighter morning or midday meal, serve with a breakfast salad.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I added a good amount of Tabasco to the peach jam and ACV marinade. (Throwing it out there to the peach gods that Alabama can beat Georgia tonight.) Added the beaten egg 5 minutes before I dredged because chicken sitting in raw egg for a couple hours sounded gross. Baked instead of deep fried. Incredibly delicious game day food. And please don't be too snarky that I changed the recipe a bit... Just trying to have a good time here.
Oh my. We were supposed to have a gathering of the clan (6 siblings, spouses, partners, nephews, nieces etc etc) at my sister’s cottage in Whiteshell Park, Manitoba this summer. Didn’t happen for obvious reasons. But when it does, I’ve got this recipe bookmarked for an epic breakfast. I’m not remotely African-American, but I love what soul food represents. It’s what I love about food in general. Great article. BLM.
Would anyone air fry this? Any thoughts?
Boneless or bone-in?
Love your idea of baking rather than frying! Any intelligence on Temp/Time?
Fried - Cutlets. Please throw your culinary health cautions to the wind and fry these, in oil. Air fry is NOT the same. Baked is not even close. You will likely be disappointed and then wonder what's wrong with the recipe. Cutlets, for this recipe, means take a boneless chicken breast, slice it in half so it's 2 thinner pieces, then pound them to make them thinner, and cut into manageable sizes. Tabasco in marinade. Try Red Plum jam, has a more "adult" taste.
Dark meat guy here. Boneless thighs will work equally well, especially if you serve with waffles.
This recipe worked perfectly and tasted great. I’ve rarely made fried chicken. Now I’ll feel more confident about it.
I was also wondering how this might air fry! Tempted to just try it out and see... will report back.
I used bone-in, skin-on thighs and drum sticks with a mixed berry jam and it was A plus.
The recipe says cutlets, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they want you to use cutlets.
It seems unfair to get mad at the recipe when you've used the term "winged it" to describe how well you followed it.
soul food gods, please don't smite me, but i use ina garten's fried chicken method and the chicken is always crispy with lots of crispy bits (sort of like popeyes but the crust is more robust). mix 3.5c flour with 4t baking powder, and spices of choice. double dredge, then fry in 350F veg oil for five minutes, flipping half way. make sure your oil is hot enough & you don't crowd the pot. remove to a rack set over a paper towel lined sheet pan. it's crispy even cold from the fridge the next day.
Buttermilk?
I would prefer to bake it. What temperature did you use and for how long? Thanks.
I made it in my deep fryer. Used the fish function which cooks at 150 for 5 mins. turned out perfect.
Taste is good, but definitely should have fried it. I baked it at 425 and then air fried it. Not what I was expecting. Like I said, taste is good but texture was a fail when not fried.
Made the recipe with some modifications. Used black raspberry preserves I had canned last summer. (Marinating the chicken with raw egg for hours sounded gross, so I added the egg before dredging.) We're fans of Nashville hot, so a generous dash of Tabasco was added to the marinade. Overall, the recipe didn't reach the mark. The spices could have been doubled; and the marinating should go overnight to bring out the berry flavor. Made the cornmeal waffles alongside, and they were great.
I’m thinking pineapple jam with some fresh ginger, maybe a dash of teriyaki.
Wow, this was so tasty, I decided to keep this recipe as the only recipe for fried chicken! I tried both pan-fried and oven baked, of course, pan-fried wins but oven baked was not too bad either. Between, I marinated it overnight and the jam came through really beautifully.
My family and I really liked this. I just followed the recipe other than using Avocado oil instead of Peanut oil, which I only did because it's what I had on hand. Super easy. I'll definitely cook it again and when I'll do I probably add more jam and I won't use thick breasts as the recipe calls for--I just like thinner breasts more and they cook more easily. But really nice flavor.
Tasty! I left out the onion powder and garlic powder because I think neither of those ingredients should exist. I found that the hotter the oil, the crispier the outcome. I had it around 350 instead of 300.
Amazing riff in classic pan fried chicken. I subbed coriander for the thyme. Thought it would accentuate the berry flavor. Would love to try this with orange marmalade.
These came out very good, I was skeptical on the strawberry jam, but it gave it a nice sweet flavor. I cooked it as instructed and thought they were bomb. I am going to experiment more with it and see how I can personalize it.
Substituted pressed 1/2 in thick slices of extra firm tofu instead of chicken for vegetarian version. Turned out great!
The dough is a good base for adding anything. I had peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, coconut, walnuts... Nothing in sufficient quantity to make a recipe, but together the right weight for the mix-ins here. Worked great. The cookies are flat and crispy at the edges, not cakey.
I used homemade peach jam and it turned out great! I couldn't keep the temp at 300° after adding the chicken (admittedly I had a lot more than 2-3 pieces in the pot at once) but it was all cooked through at the 8 minute mark. I added some paper grocery sack on the baking sheet to catch the grease, and served them in a bowl lined with torn paper grocery sack. Served with an excellent cornbread recipe from this app.
Very nice flavor on the chicken, but depending on the size of your "cutlets", 8 minutes is way too long, very easy to overcook. (Yes I was watching the oil temp.) I like to follow the recipe at least the first time lol but here it really pays to trust your own instincts on when they're done, use a thermometer if you need to. Next time I'll go the route of using bone-in thighs/drumsticks as that's my preference anyway. I found the amount of flour mixture excessive too but that's easily adjusted.
Made this with chicken cutlets and loved the dredging mix. I will use this going forward for all chicken-fried dishes. Made regular mini waffles ahead of time and reheated them at 375 while the chicken was frying. Did not need as much oil for frying cutlets.
Disappointing at best. The only good part of the recipe was the marinade. The sweet tang came through prominently with a distinctive flavor. The coating, distributed evenly over each piece before cooking, was thin and bland. A double dredge with a second dip in the marinade or maybe straight beaten egg then in the flour again would help as would turning up the heat. Served with the scallion waffles which were also just so so.
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