boneless fried chicken with lime chipotle sauce

Maybe you’ve heard of the technique before – chicken under a brick. It’s a way of frying chicken that flattens it and makes it just so crisp on the outside, and so luscious on the inside. We don’t have a brick, but we do have our Korean hot pot, which is pretty dang heavy. To make it even flatter, and crispier, my darling completely debones the chicken, with the exception of the wingtip. He debones it and then cuts it in half:

i know it looks a little gross or strange, but look at how flat the chicken is!

Make the salsa and the luscious lime chipotle sauce – the recipe is below the photos. Next, dredge the chicken halves in flour, and heat approximately 3/4″ of oil in a large skillet. The second it starts to smoke, place the chicken halves in the oil and place a grill or rack on top of the chicken. Then get your very heavy object – here, our Korean hot pot turned upside down – and put it on the rack.

the chicken is in the hot oil, and the rack is on top....

our upside-down Korean hot pot, weighting down the chicken

He let it cook 6-7 minutes, and then turned it over to cook the other side for 7 more minutes. Drain the chicken over paper towels to capture any oil.

fried chicken, ready for the plate

Isn’t that just so weird and flat?

We served it with white rice, and the gorgeous sauce spooned over the chicken, topped with the salsa. It was absolutely wonderful: the chicken was crisp, and since it was flat, each bite had a lovely ratio of crisp and tender chicken.

lime chipotle chicken with salsa, and a side of white rice

Salsa for topping:

Chop 3-4 medium tomatoes, 1 medium red onion, and toss with 1 bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped. Set aside at room temperature.

Lime chipotle sauce:

3 medium dried chipotles (you can use canned if you have them)
1/4 cup water or chicken stock
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3 cloves or garlic (or more to taste), finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
salt to taste
1/2 stick of butter
1/3 to 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

Grind the dried chipotle peppers in a mortar and pestle, and saute the ground chipotles and spices and seasonings in the butter until it’s fragrant. Add the water or chicken stock and boil it until the liquid boils down. Stir in the lime juice; bring to a simmer and stir constantly until the sauce emulsifies. Add additional water or chicken stock until it’s the desired thickness and add any additional salt or pepper, to taste. (If it doesn’t quite emulsify as it should, you can put a little cornstarch in a small cup of water, and stir the mixture into the sauce. Stir for a couple of minutes and it’ll thicken.) Take the sauce off the heat; you’ll want it to be lukewarm when it’s time to serve it on the chicken.

Advertisement