STORY OF A DISH: Buttermilk Fried Chicken

CHEFS: CHRIS DAVIN and JILL MEERPOHL
 

RESTAURANT: MODINE
 

LOCATION: ASBURY PARK
 

Jill Meerpohl and Chris Davin began their married life pursuing a food-lover’s dream. In the four months following their wedding, the chef/partners at Modine, in Asbury Park, crisscrossed the American South—from coastline to mountains and back again—deepening their understanding and experience of Southern foodways.

For Meerpohl, a South Florida native who learned Southern cooking from her grandmother, it was a homecoming. For Davin, who grew up in the Hudson Valley, the trip was his first full immersion into the pleasures and variety of Southern cuisine. And, for both of them, it was a revelation to experience the many regional variations on fried chicken—that most humble and iconic Southern dish. Returning home, they began a period of intense experimentation that eventually led to their signature version of buttermilk fried chicken.

“Over the course of six months or so, we were making and eating fried chicken three times a week,” Davin says. “And we were feeding the whole little river town that I was living in at the time while we were doing it.”

They experimented with varying the ingredients in their brine, the amount of time the chicken marinates, the ratio of ingredients in their flour coating and the frying temperature and timing. “As professional cooks, we like to think we know what we’re doing,” Davin says with a laugh. “And then you realize you don’t when it takes you six months to figure out how to fry chicken.”

They begin their multiday preparation by cold-smoking pieces of ultra-fresh chicken—meat that has never been frozen or injected with saline solution. Davin prefers cherry wood for this process, rather than hickory, which he says has a sharp flavor. He also notes that the smoking isn’t meant to cook the meat. “It helps to build up this background flavor,” Davin says. “We don’t cold smoke to make it be super smoky. We’re not shooting for bacon smoky. We are really trying to build these layers of flavor.”

The lightly smoked chicken is then placed in a brine of buttermilk, pickles, pickle juice and spices, which tenderizes the meat. At Modine, where pickle-making is constantly underway, they add an assortment of pickle juices to their brine. “At the restaurant, at any given moment, we have between five and a dozen different kinds of pickles in house,” Davin says. “So all of these flavors—whether it’s red onion pickles or cauliflower pickles or green bean pickles or regular pickles or anything else that we decided to pickle that week—are going to end up in the brine, adding layers and layers of flavor.”

After marinating for 24 to 72 hours, the chicken is tossed in seasoned flour to which cornstarch has been added in order to make the coating extra crispy when fried. Meerpohl and Davin experimented with multiple factors to perfect their coating. “As crispy as humanly possible was one of the first goals,” Davin says. “By ‘as humanly possible,’ I mean really freaking crispy. It should sound like you have a mouthful of potato chips.”

To fry, fill a cast iron Dutch oven with enough peanut or canola oil to just cover the chicken. Heat the oil to 325°F and, working in batches to avoid overloading the fryer, fry the pieces for about 12 minutes, until they reach an internal temperature of 165°F and turn chestnut brown.

“One of the more important aspects is to make sure your oil is hot enough,” Davin says. “The other thing is don’t overload it. Because, if the temperature drops too much, the coating will stop adhering to the chicken and break apart.”

At Modine, fried chicken is finished tableside with a drizzle of honey infused with thyme, garlic, cayenne peppers and chiles de árbol—fiery Mexican peppers. “It really does complete the dish,” Meerpohl says. “You’ve already got all these layers going on with the smoke and the crispiness and the savoriness. And then you add a little bit of sweetness and heat to that, and you’ve just got the whole gamut of your flavor palate there.”

Their fried chicken is always served with fried pickles, which can be made at home by taking the pickle pieces out of the brine, throwing them in the seasoned flour and then frying them in the same oil used for the chicken.

Meerpohl and Davin recommend biscuits and collard greens to round out the meal, although they vary their side dishes depending on the season. And, because their fried chicken retains its crispiness when cold, Meerpohl says it is the perfect summer picnic food.

Still, Davin is unconflicted when it comes to choosing the best season for fried chicken. “As far as fried chicken goes,” he says. “I think all year round is fried chicken time.”

Here's the recipe for Buttermilk Fried Chicken.

MODINE
601 Mattison Ave., Asbury Park
732.893.5300
modineasbury.com