Momofuku Fried Chicken

I've seen so many great comments / reviews about Momofuku (not the Ramen creator, but David Chang's restaurants) and have been longing to try its dish. Nevertheless, New York is not exactly near from Copenhagen and albeit in plan, I didn't manage to put down an actual plan to visit the city yet. Dying to try the dish, I looked up some Momofuku dishes and find the most executable one to try out.

Momofuku fried chicken

Why executable? None of Momofuku's recipe requires less than half a day preparation, some even requires a few days of preparation, I'm so defeated just by reading the recipe. Normally if I fried chicken, I'll just marinate the chicken overnight & throw it into my deep fryer but the Momofuku fried chicken recipe seems achievable with stunning result, hence my first Momofuku attempt.

I used 6 chicken drumsticks, brine them in water, sugar & salt liquid in container for 2hours in fridge, then steam them for about 40minutes until cooked. The cooked drumsticks are then chilled in fridge overnight on rack (or at least 2 hours) to make sure the skin is dried. The chicken is taken out from fridge at least 30 minutes before frying (to bring it to room temperature) and then fried in a deep fryer of 185ºC, turning once until the skin is deep brown and crisp (about 6 - 8 minutes).

Brined, steamed chicken drumstick on a rack

I have pre-made some octo vinaigrette sauce made of finely chopped garlic, ginger, sugar, bird's eye chilli, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, cooking oil and soy sauce; which is said to taste good with everything (proven) except ostrich egg by David Chang. The fried drumsticks taste good on its own, crispy skin, oh...I can eat a lot of those; tossing them in octo vinaigrette brings the drumstick to another level, it's heavenly. Finger tripple licking good.

Octo vinaigrette sauce

My verdict: although the recipe is time consuming but the result is well worth the effort. Mr.T thinks fried chicken should be done that way!!  :)

In face, the sauce was so good that I refuse to throw the leftovers away. I brine some chicken breast, deep fried them, heat the sauce in a sauce pan and toss in the chicken. Result? Wonderful.

Fried chicken breast in octo vinaigrette sauce