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American-style chicken streamed based on a thick, well-seasoned crust, often even thicker by soaking the chicken into pieces before buttermilk. If this crust is nubbly and evenly brown and the chicken is cooked through the chicken is sublime. But too often, the meat is still raw when the crust is cooked, or the skin never cooks all the way through, so that a flabby layer of skin between the meat and crust.
Korean-style chicken streamed completely different, reflecting an Asian frying technique is that the fat in the skin, transforming it into a thin, crackly and almost transparent crust. (Chinese cooks call this "paper fried chicken.") The chicken is unseasoned, barely dredged in very fine flour and then dipped into a thin dough, before entering the fryer. The oil is a relatively low 350 degrees, and the chicken is cooked in two separate phases.
Southerners were not the first people in the world to roast their chickens. Almost every country has a version of streaming chicken, or FRICASSEE from Vietnam's Gà Xaò to Italy's pollo fritto. It is believed that the Scots, settled the early South method introduced here in the United States. They preferred to fry their chicken instead of baking or boiling them than English. It was not until the early 1900s that recipes for fried chicken began in popular "northern" cookbooks.
Quite simply, the chickens are cut, dredged in flour, sprinkled with a little salt in a skillet with hot fat, and Fried until golden brown. Over the years there have been hundreds of attempts to improve on their recipe, and lots of tricks and special note, but they are all just minor changes in the original. Mary Randolph called a sauce with the "leavings", but the cream sauce so often served with chicken streamed appears to have originated with the shell "Maryland fried chicken".
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