This fried chicken recipe is the absolute best. My boyfriend’s favourite ‘cheat day’ meal. It’s a simple dinner to put together, gorgeous with a celeriac and apple coleslaw (post to follow) and some baked sweet potatoes. Now i get that marinating the chicken sounds like a drag, but once you’ve done it and you’ve got it in the fridge ready, the flour will start doing beautiful things to that chicken, really injecting the flavours into the drumsticks. The use of the buttermilk as opposed to normal milk just gives you a wonderfully crispy outside and more depth of flavour. Trust me on this, you need to buttermilk.

Ingredients.

• a pack of chicken drumsticks (6/7 is about right)
• 400g plain flour
• 4 tsp dried thyme
• 3 tsp salt
• 3 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
• 1 carton of buttermilk
• a deep fat fryer or a deep pan filled with vegetable oil.

First of all, in a large bowl, thoroughly mix the flour, herbs and seasonings. Then add your chicken and give it a really good coating of the flour. Cover the whole bowl and leave in the fridge for at least an hour. The longer you leave it, the better it’ll taste. Next up, preheat your fryer or oil to 190C, and preheat your oven to 170C. You will need a thermometer if you don’t have a fryer, it’s just to make sure you don’t burn the chicken before you’ve cooked it! Next take your chicken out of the fridge and get your buttermilk in a separate bowl. Carefully place the drumsticks into the buttermilk, give them a good dip and return them back to the flour for a final coating. When you’ve made sure they’re all fully floured, carefully place them in the hot oil, moving them around so you don’t catch the coating on the basket or bottom of the pan. After a few seconds of moving the chicken around, set a timer for 7 minutes. This is the perfect amount of time to give you that golden, crispy skin. When all of the drumsticks have been fried, transfer them onto a greaseproof-paper covered baking tray. Cook them for a further 30 minutes on the middle shelf in a fan oven (180C for a gas oven). The additional cooking in the oven will not only ensure the chicken is fully cooked, it’ll make it seriously juicy and luscious inside. This goes really well with the homemade mayonnaise….just saying!