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Binging with Babish: Pollos Hermanos from Breaking Bad

May 29, 2021
-What does the family taste like? In your heart, you know, are the best ingredients. The hottest spices, all prepared with love and care and always delivered with a friendly smile. That is the promise of Los Pollos Hermanos. - Come in and try our new curly fries. We are sure you will like them. And if you don't, it's my fault. - Hey, what's up guys? Welcome back to Binging with Babish, where this week we'll be taking a look at Los Pollos Hermanos from Breaking Bad. Now you may be wondering what is in this little cup in front of me, and the answer to that question is in French.
binging with babish pollos hermanos from breaking bad
The tantalizing swirl of French and ranch dressing seen in magical electromotive test kitchens. I thought this would make a good fried and curly sauce, so we'll leave it aside because for now we have to prepare everything. First, in a small bowl, we combine 15 grams of cayenne pepper, 10 grams of Aleppo pepper and ground coriander and 15 grams of red pepper flakes, which I'm going to pulverize with a spice grinder. Red pepper smoke, don't breathe this, seriously, don't breathe it, it hurts your lungs. Add that to the other spices and beat with a small whisk to combine. We will then reserve about three tablespoons of this spice mixture for our curly fries and turn the rest into dry brine for our chickens.
binging with babish pollos hermanos from breaking bad

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Then we'll add about 15 grams of kosher salt, whisk once more to combine, and then it'll be time to negotiate our chicken. Now you can fry any pieces of chicken soup you want, but here I have a whole one. So I will follow the architecture of the 10 piece fried chicken. If you want to see how to break down a chicken like this, click the link in the top right corner right now. Otherwise, we'll load them onto a rack set on a rimmed baking sheet and sprinkle them liberally on all sides with our dry brine mixture. The spices here are widely used in Chilean cuisine, Gustavo Fring's country of origin.
binging with babish pollos hermanos from breaking bad
That? Anyway, these will be left parked in the refrigerator uncovered for four to 24 hours, during which time we will prepare our dough. Chicken is not usually fried in batter, so it took several tries. The best formulation we ended up with was 100 grams of all-purpose flour and cornstarch, an optional pinch of our spice mix, 250 grams of water, 30 grams of vodka, and two large eggs. The resulting batter should be fairly thin, like a thin pancake batter, because we don't want anything too thick like a tempura. We also didn't want the batter to be so thick that we couldn't retrieve our bags of meth, both valid reasons.
binging with babish pollos hermanos from breaking bad
This product can be covered and refrigerated for a couple of hours before using, giving us time to prepare that most elusive of side dishes, curly fries, for which we'll need this devious-looking implement, also known as a spiralizer. Once we have fixed our russet skin in position, we will place it over a container of boiling water. Make sure the potato is securely fitted into the spiralizer; Otherwise, you could get into mischief. Once you get them out of your system and you have enough boiling water and the container is completely submerged in the spiral potatoes, close it, turn it and let the machine live up to its name as it spirals your potato, a process that is so fun to see as well as to say.
Once completed, you'll be left with some long curly potatoes and this kind of potato and mushroom, which is probably perfect for some kind of potato and mushroom prank. I'm going to make one more spiralized potato and then press them all into the boiling water, making sure they're all submerged. Then I'll let these guys sit for 15 minutes. This will cook the potatoes and rinse off much of the excess starch so they don't discolor. Once drained, we will sandwich them between paper towels and dry them as much as possible. Once everyone is nice and dry, it's time to grab some scissors and do some gardening.
We need to reduce them to short and curly. You don't want them too long but you don't want them too short either. Even these very straight ones will curl up in the frying oil. Once we've cut our shoelace doodles, go ahead and place them back on the baking sheet, cover them with a paper towel and then we'll need to make a dough for our fries. This is a battered food. In a large bowl, go 15 grams of paprika, 60 grams of all-purpose flour, 15 grams of cayenne pepper and six grams of onion powder. I'm also going to add a little bit of salt, not too much because we're going to salt these fries once they're done cooking, and our reserved spice blend from the chicken.
Beat with a small whisk until well combined and then it's time to add enough water to make a very thin dough. For me, that was around 150 grams, but mileage may vary. You want it to be a little thinner than the paint. We just want this to form a crisp, light, airy coating on the outside of our fries. Once you have the right consistency, it's time to add the potatoes and mix them together. Then, once completely and evenly covered with the batter, it's just time to head to the stove, where in a cast iron skillet I have a quart of peanut oil that I'm going to heat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now, like any other sensible human being, home frying scares the hell out of me, as it should. Hot frying oil is very, very dangerous. So, gently and slowly, dip the fries into the oil, trying to spread them into an even layer. Fry for about two to five minutes until they turn a deep reddish brown and are wonderfully crispy. We then take them out and drain them on a paper towel-lined baking sheet – this should help keep them crispy – and like pretty much any fried food, we season them generously with kosher salt while they're still hot. Now my spiralizer cut them a little thin so they didn't have the same body and robustness as your typical fast food curly fries, but they were still very, very good.
Thin, crispy, spicy and salty, a better curly fry than I ever thought could be available outside of Mother Arby's. Now that we have our fries, it's time to do the same with our chicken, which we are going to reinforce with a little flour. I will add the chicken first before bathing it in the batter. This will help the batter stick to the chicken and prevent it from splitting in the hot frying oil. Because as soon as it's covered in dough, it's headed to a 375-degree Fahrenheit vat of death. You have to fry this chicken in a lot of oil, otherwise the dough will burn if it stays on the bottom of the pan for too long.
So gently lower the pieces into your hot tub and then let them fry for between seven and 10 minutes, depending on the size of the piece. You'll know it's ready when it's a beautiful golden brown and your dark meat registers between 175 and 185 degrees Fahrenheit and your white meat registers 165. Try to turn them over every minute or so to make sure no one burns on the bottom of the pot, drain over paper towels and finally we are ready to serve our battered fried dinner. I'm going to serve myself a generous curly fry and a three-piece combination. And there you have it, Pollos Hermanos, chicken marinated in Chilean spices and then breaded, a most unusual method of preparing fried chicken.
And while the fries are great, the chicken has its pros and cons. The advantages are that, thanks to the cornstarch and vodka, it is incredibly crispy. And as you're about to see from my embarrassing first bite, it's extraordinarily juicy. The dough forms a nearly airtight seal around the chicken so no moisture can escape. But on the downside, it is extremely delicate and brittle when fried. And if you crack the shell in the early stages of cooking, you're in for a big scary mess. So, grudgingly, I have to recommend the old flour and egg dance. But one thing I can wholeheartedly recommend are these fries and the French fries were good, but I really wanted to try those Cajun green things.
I guess we'll save that for the tater tots episode. (brilliant music)

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