Chicken gets a buttermilk brine and a lively spice mix—Szechuan peppercorns, cumin seeds and Korean red chile powder—then is grilled instead of frying. Recipe below.
WE LOVE FRIED CHICKEN, BUT WE DON’T DEEP FRY. Still, when I come across a particularly enticing fried chicken recipe, I’m, well, enticed. That happened last week. Spending more time than was strictly proper studying it, I decided to see what elements of the recipe could translate from deep frying to grilling.
The first element is a cooking technique, brining the chicken in buttermilk before frying. Southern cooks have done this forever, and they know a thing or two about fried chicken. The slight acidity in buttermilk tenderizes the meat, making it moist and flavorful after frying.
Buttermilk brining also works for grilled chicken. Marinating the raw chicken in buttermilk for at least four hours and up to overnight does the trick. And if you include some spices and seasonings in the marinade, it helps those flavors work their way into the meat.
Those spices and seasonings are another element. The fried chicken recipe that caught my eye was by Mark Bittman (see Kitchen Notes). The spice mix included cumin seeds and Szechuan peppercorns. Despite Szechuan cuisine’s reputation for heat, these peppercorns don’t truly pack any heat. According to The Spice House, they are “incredibly aromatic and flavorful, but not hot. It has a numbing property, which in China is known as ‘ma’, that produces a light tingling sensation in the mouth.” They’re also a key ingredient in Five Spice Powder. We’ve cooked with Szechuan peppercorns before, so I said “check” and moved down the list.
The ingredient we didn’t have and hadn’t cooked with was gochugaru, a ground red chile pepper that is an essential Korean ingredient. It is used in kimchi, among many other dishes. It is also the main ingredient in gochujang, Korean red chili sauce. Gochugaru is sweet, fruity and smoky, and only packs the tiniest bit of heat. You can find it online or in stores that carry Korean products—we found it at H Mart. If you can find gochugaru, you’ll find plenty of uses for it. If not, you can substitute any chile powder you use. It won’t be the same, as we say, but it will be different.
Szechuan Buttermilk Grilled Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns (see Kitchen Notes)
- 3 tablespoons gochugaru (or any chili powder)
- salt
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 8 chicken thighs, skin-on and bone-in, about 1/2 pound each
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a dry medium skillet, toast peppercorns and cumin seeds over a medium flame, stirring frequently, for 3 to 5 minutes. You want them fragrant and toasted, but not burned. Transfer to a bowl and cool completely. Thoroughly grind in a spice grinder. The peppercorns may not completely grind, leaving shards of their husks. Sift mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove them.
- Mix the gochugaru, 1 teaspoon of salt and the sugar into the ground spices.
- Trim excess fat from chicken thighs and place them in a large zippered plastic food storage bag. In a large measuring cup or a bowl, mix 4 tablespoons of the spice mixture into the buttermilk. Pour the buttermilk over the chicken, seal the bag and turn to coat all of the chicken. Marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
- Grill the chicken. Remove chicken from the fridge about 1/2 hour before you're ready to grill it to let it come to room temperature—if you're using charcoal, probably shortly before you start the coals. While coals are heating up, remove chicken from the marinade and pat dry with paper towels. Discard the marinade. Season chicken generously with more of the spice mixture, and with salt and black pepper.
- Arrange grill for indirect grilling, putting the hot coals on one side of the grill. Oil the grates and place chicken skin side up away from the coals. Close the grill lid and cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Turn chicken skin side down, still away from the coals, close the grill lid and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes.
- Move chicken, skin side up, over the coals, close the lid and cook for about 5 minutes, checking for flareups after a couple of minutes and moving chicken as needed. Turn and cook skin side down over the coals for a few minutes, lid closed. Turn chicken occasionally and cook until just cooked through—an instant read thermometer should read at least 160ºF. This could take up to another 10 minutes or so.
- Transfer chicken to a platter and sprinkle with yet a little more spice mixture. Serve.
Kitchen Notes
I like this recipe! I don’t deep fry much either, although I do pan-fry (shallow fry — not even 1/2 inch of oil) chicken sometimes. The buttermilk brine is brilliant — never thought to do that for the grill. But I will. 🙂