Buffalo Fried Chicken Sandwich
01/03/17

 

Buffalo fried chicken sandwich

 

Oh. Hi. I’m not sure we’ve met yet. My name is Whitney Fisch. A few things about myself:

  1. I have two daughters who are so cute sometimes I scrunch up my face and make a, ‘GAH!’ noise in order to manage the overwhelmingness of the cuteness.
  2. I am a school counselor so I spend a lot of my time hanging with high schoolers, which I never thought I would love but, as it turns out, I do!
  3.  I LOVE BUFFALO WINGS! I WANT ALL OF THEM ALL THE TIME.

Buffalo fried chicken sandwich

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while now, you may have already known the above information. I have written about my love of wings before here. It’s not so much the wings as it about the sauce. I LOVE buffalo wing hot sauce. I love it so much. I want to take a bath in the stuff. As a teenager, a favorite snack of mine was canned corn mixed with my mom’s buffalo wing sauce and blue cheese salad dressing. Also, did I mention that I led a super healthy lifestyle as a teenager?

As a ‘foodie’ and someone who loves Instagram and therefore follows other foodies on Instagram (especially LA-based foodies), I was seeing Chef Ludo’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken Sandwich all over people’s feeds this summer. And then Bon Appetit magazine came out with their ‘most perfect fried chicken sandwich ever‘ and I was done. I needed a kosher-fied fried chicken sandwich and I needed it drenched in buffalo sauce STAT! Conveniently enough, I had bottles and bottles of oil in my pantry as the Chanukah season requires some serious frying. Therefore, I made my own dang buffalo fried chicken sandwich based on Bon Appetit’s recipe and it was AMAZING.

Buffalo fried chicken sandwich

Make no mistake, the sandwich is all about composition. Do not attempt this sandwich without allowing yourself the time to pay attention to the details. This sandwich is the perfect marriage of spicy sweetness mixed with tangy coleslaw and a lightly non-dairy buttered bun. It’s also crispy and crunch while still being juicy! It’s a sandwich to be enjoyed on a Sunday night surrounded by loved ones who will still love you as you sniffle and slop your way through spicy hot buffalo sauce ecstasy. Pass the hand towels, this one is a keeper!

Buffalo fried chicken sandwich

 

 

Buffalo fried chicken sandwich

Buffalo Fried Chicken Sandwich

Chicken

1 tablespoon Diamond Crystal or 2 teaspoons Morton kosher salt
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 skin-on or skinless, boneless chicken thighs

Seasoned Slaw

1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
1 teaspoon celery salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 green onion stalks, finely diced (green parts only)
1 tablespoon of Bread and Butter pickle brine
2 cups thinly sliced green cabbage

Buffalo Wing Sauce

3/4 cup Frank’s Hot Sauce (I use Frank’s and have only used Frank’s since I was a kid so have no idea how this would taste with any other hot sauce).
2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 tablespoon margarine
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Assembly

1½ cups all-purpose flour
⅓ cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons kosher salt, plus more
1 large egg, beaten to blend
1 cup almond or coconut milk
3 tablespoons hot sauce (such as Frank’s)
Peanut or vegetable oil (for frying; about 8 cups)
4 soft seeded hamburger buns
3 tablespoons unsalted vegan butter, melted
Bread and butter pickles (optional but HIGHLY recommended) plus 1 tbsp brine
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions for Prepping Chicken:

Mix salt, sugar, and baking powder in a small bowl. Season chicken all over with salt mixture (you won’t need all of it). Chill uncovered on a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet or on parchment paper, at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

Seasoned Slaw:

Combine all ingredients up until the cabbage into a medium-size bowl and mix well. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Add in the cabbage and stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Directions for Cooking Chicken:

Whisk flour, cornstarch, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cayenne, and 2 Tbsp. salt in a medium bowl. Whisk egg, almond milk, and 3 Tbsp. hot sauce in another medium bowl. Working with 1 piece at a time, dredge chicken in flour mixture, turning to coat and packing into crevices. Shake to remove excess; return to rack. Pour 3 Tbsp. almond milk mixture into flour mixture and work in with your fingers. Dip chicken into remaining almond milk mixture, allow excess to drip off, then pack moistened flour mixture firmly onto chicken. Gently shake off excess; return to rack. Chill at least 30 minutes and up to 12 hours.

Pour oil into a large heavy pot fitted with thermometer to come halfway up sides. Heat over medium-high until thermometer registers 350°. Working in 2 batches, fry chicken, turning often and adjusting heat to maintain temperature, until deep golden brown, 5–8 minutes per batch. Transfer to a wire rack set over paper towels to drain.

Directions for Buffalo Wing Sauce:

In a medium-sized sauce pan, add the hot sauce and heat over medium flame. Add in Worcestershire sauce, brown and margarine and stir well. Bring to a low boil, stirring frequently. Turn heat to low and let simmer for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste a bit (if you dare) and add more brown sugar at 1/2 teaspoon at a time if you like your sauce a little sweeter. The sauce should taste spicy and sweet with a hint of sour from the vinegar in the Frank’s. Turn off the flame, cover the pot with a lid and keep warm while you prepare the buns and assemble the sandwich.

Directions for Assembly:

Heat a dry large skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium. Brush cut sides of buns with margarine and, working in batches, cook, cut side down, until deep golden brown, about 2 minutes per batch.

Once done, take your cole slaw out of the refrigerator and spread a heaping spoonful onto one of the sides of buns. Add pickles to the other bun.

Pour the hot sauce into a large bowl that is big enough to dip the whole fried chicken in. Working in batches, dip one fried chicken (one at a time) into the bowl and cover with sauce. Let some of the sauce drip off into the bowl and then transfer to the buns. Do this until all chicken is complete. Serve hot and with TONS OF NAPKINS.

Buffalo fried chicken sandwich

 

 

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Foodies Fighting Hunger: Ramen Alfredo with Fresh Herbs
05/01/16

MAZON Jewhungery ramen alfredo jewhungry kosher blog

Foodies fighting hunger. What’s this all about? Well, a couple weeks ago I gave a little presentation/talk to a few classes at the high school I work at about blogging. During these conversations, I had mentioned a frustration I have for food/lifestyle bloggers who advocate for healthy and/or organic living but never advocate for equal access to the resources needed to live a health/organic life (much less acknowledge the privilege it takes to live a life full of beautiful acai smoothie bowls and fresh pressed juices). And so, upon reflection, I realized I needed to walk the walk and not just talk the talk; dust off my advocacy skills, if you will. Thus, an idea was born. What if a bunch of foodies got together to acknowledge our privilege, attempt to create a recipe with only $5 in our pocket, and spread some information on hunger/poverty issues in the US while also providing ways for you, the reader, to do a little advocacy work yourself? And what if we partnered with an incredible organization like MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, which is a national nonprofit organization working to end hunger in the United States and Israel for all faiths and backgrounds in order to make sure we get all the facts and figures right? I’m hoping good things. That’s what I’m happening will happen.

Therefore, after a few nudging emails (from me) to almost every food blogger I’ve ever spoken with and/or wished I have spoken with, a mighty little band of foodie advocates was born. This band of Foodies Fighting Hunger includes the following bloggers (by blog name):

The Kosher Spoon

Foodie Crush

will frolic for food

Dessert for Two

Cooking in Heels

Let’s Eat Cake

Cake Over Steak

Hola Jalapeno

What Jew Wanna Eat

Kosher Like Me

Girl Versus Dough

Confident Cook, Hesitant Baker

The Bonjon Gourmet

A Nutritionist Eats

I am very much hoping this will be the first in a series of posts featuring an even wider-range of bloggers advocating for equal access to food and for putting an end to hunger and poverty. I am also appreciate the bloggers who jumped on board right away, even if they had never heard of me, because of their commitment to fight and advocate. I am also especially grateful to MAZON, especially Emily Dingmann, who not only the Communications Director at MAZON but is also the blogger behind A Nutritionist Eats.

MAZON Jewhungery ramen alfredo jewhungry kosher blog

A few things of note:

  1. I do not live in a food desert. Within a 2 mile radius of where I live in Encino, CA, there is a Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Ralph’s Grocery, a large kosher grocer called, Encino Glatt Mart, and countless other mini markets. For this post, I chose to shop at Ralph’s as it is the most prevalent grocery store in Souther Los Angeles.
  2. I have a kosher home, therefore, my ingredient list ran a bit more expensive then the non-kosher versions of the same ingredients. For my family and countless families across the US, keeping kosher is not a ‘choice’ but a religious commandment/obligation.

Hunger is as prevalent as it is pernicious. It is not restricted only to third world countries or homeless people, but has increasingly become the province of families in highly industrialized nations, including the United States and Israel. The best adjective to accurately describe the amount of food available in the United States is abundant. Hunger affects 1 out of every 7 American men, women and children and persists in this country not because of a lack of food, but because we lack the political will to end the problem by ensuring that vulnerable people have equal access to nutritious food. In California, the State my family now calls home, there are 1,776,465 households who are considered food insecure, a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food (definition grabbed from the US Gov website). In addition, nationally-speaking, there are over 15 million children who struggle with hunger and 22% living in poverty. One of the BIGGEST myths I want to make sure is noted in this post is the myth that government programs enable ‘lazy’ people to live ‘well’ on society’s dime. This is wholly inaccurate and gets my blood boiling. What a privileged way of thinking. Most folks who I hear these types of sentiments from have usually never experienced a day of food insecurity in their lives. But here’s the truth,

“As the nation’s economic recovery continues, government programs like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka food stamps) provide a vital lifeline that helps people receive the sustenance they need to get back on their feet. 40% of households receiving SNAP benefits include at least one working person. The average benefit provided by SNAP equates to roughly $1.40 per person per meal – hardly an extravagant amount, and certainly not enough to do anything beyond simply get by.”  ~ www.mazon.org 

MAZON Jewhungery ramen alfredo jewhungry kosher blog

More Hunger Facts:
  • Hunger myths: there is a stark contrast between the widely held myths and realities about hunger and these myths/realities can shed some light on WHY there is hunger in America if you’d like to touch on that.
  • This is Hunger stories: a unique view into the reality of who in America struggles with hunger and why
  • Infographics: about hunger (general hunger, seniors, children, rural, SNAP, etc.)
  • Interactive map: individual data on how many food insecure households are in your state
 
Advocacy Opportunities:
Underwood Family Farms - a pit stop during our Passover vacation.

Underwood Family Farms

When deciding on the ingredients for this post, I decided on the cheap because, well, I only had $5 to spend and I wanted to stretch every dollar. I also had to get kosher ingredients as we keep a kosher home. I had originally wanted to include a fresh veggie in the dish but after the cost of the dairy products, I was out of money. But herbs were cheap and still green so herbs it was. I also wanted to included sauteed garlic in butter or olive oil but again, I did not have enough money for this so the only seasonings used were table salt and pepper. The following is the breakdown of the ingredients to my recipe (both kosher and non-kosher cost).

Kosher:         Non-Kosher:

                                                         Ramen      $.99              $.39

                                                           Milk        $1.79             Same

                                            Cream Cheese     $1.99             Same

                                                            Dill        $.25               Same

Parsley      $.25               Same

So my kosher total was $.5.27 and my non-kosher total is just under $5, coming in at $4.67. The two items I have yet to calculate are salt and pepper, which would set me back  even more but I picked up some free salt and pepper packets at the deli counter so, BINGO! Luckily, this recipe included ingredients that weren’t vastly different when it came to cost but that is mainly because I didn’t include any real cheese or meat products, which, of course, make every recipe much more expensive regardless of whether or not the dish is kosher or not.

The family, picking veggies for fun.

The family, picking veggies for fun.

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Foodies Fighting Hunger: Ramen Alfredo with Fresh Herbs

Ingredients

  • 1 package of instant ramen
  • 1/2 cup of cream cheese
  • 1/4 cup of 2% milk or full fat
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1/2 tbsp pepper
  • fresh dill, finely chopped
  • fresh parsley, finely chopped

Instructions

  1. Cook ramen as directed on the back of the package but do make sure you DO NOT OVER COOK. It will get too soggy. Once done, drain and run a little cold water of the noodles while they are in the collander so that they will stop cooking.
  2. Place cream cheese in the pot that the ramen was cooking in and turn on heat to low. Add the ramen to the pot with the cream cheese. Add the milk and stir. The mixture should be thick-ish. If you'd rather it a little thinner, just add a bit more milk.
  3. Add salt and pepper. Stir to combine and taste. Adjust seasoning to your liking. Top with fresh herbs. Serve hot.
https://jewhungrytheblog.com/foodies-fighting-hunger-ramen-alfredo-fresh-herbs/

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