Me and messing with frying chicken. Do you remember my Garri Fried Chicken (recipe HERE). I put up a picture of a container of Kuli Kuli on Instagram weeks ago and told my followers to guess what I wanted to use it for? I got so many funny answers, but some of you got it right. They guessed I was going to use it to coat chicken. Don’t you just love when that happens. Re-affirms your belief that you are not totally unhinged. hahahahaha. Some people get you.
I should have done it that night, but had to go attend to something else, and the opportunity never came again. Good thing that it didn’t because at the time the idea came to me, I just wanted to make Kuli Kuli Chicken, until I watched Diners, Drivers and Dives on Food Network one evening and Guy was at a diner that sold Chicken and Waffles, which of course is an American Diner style classic, which I must admit, I find very very strange. Like why would you want to combine chicken and waffles. Lol. The calories alone, my goodness. That evening I thought, how about serving Kuli Kuli fried chicken with Akara waffles? That would be like taking an American Classic and turning it on its head, Nigerian style. I mean, it would look like the classic Chicken and Waffles, but would taste nutty and yum, oh and the Akara waffles too, savoury taste sensation overload. I mean, look at that below. Don’t you just want a plate of that?
So the idea locked in my head, and the opportunity to try it almost came. Guess what, I bought a pack of chicken thighs from the supermarket and forgot it in my fridge till it went past its use by date. I bought the chicken again, and yup, the same thing happened. I am just so busy these days, I forget stuff. I have started writing things down using the Notes app on my phone. You will find the weirdest of things there. So on Wednesday, I went to the store for the third time and bought the top of the range organic free range chicken. I normally don’t buy expensive chicken from the supermarket, but I bought this deliberately. I told myself that if I bought expensive chicken, my Ijebu genes would kick in and I won’t throw away this one. I would find a way to fit making this chicken into my dinner, some how, some how.
Knowing my Friday evenings are dedicated to food shopping ahead of weekend cooking, and my time isn’t my own until Monday, I knew yesterday was my only day, otherwise, that chicken would go bad again, and this one was almost triple the price of regular chicken, so even though I was kinda tired yesterday, I fuelled myself with garri and groundnuts and got to it. This is so simple, it would be a crime not to try it out.
Let’s cook
- Soft chicken pieces - thighs, drumsticks
- Kuli Kuli - roughly ground to ¾ of a cup or more
- Plain Flour
- 2 eggs and counting
- Salt
- Ground Uziza seeds - optional or replace with dry pepper
- Yajichurri sauce - optional - send me an email to request for a jar
- Oil for frying
- Other spices or choice
- Seasoning cubes - optional
- Buttermilk or Yoghurt - optional
- First of all, you need soft chicken to do this,otherwise the chicken won't cook through while frying. You can chose to soak the chicken in buttermilk or yoghurt for at least 3 hours or overnight, to guarantee extra tenderness.
- Now, that is out of the way, marinade your chicken with your choice of spices. Whatever you choose, it up to you. What you must add though is 2 - 3 tablespoons of ground kuli kuli to the seasoned chicken. I used my mill ot roughly grind the kuli kulie chunks
- Ensure it is properly coated and marinade in the fridge for at least 45minutes. This is the kind of recipe you start as soon as you get home, so while it marinates, you can do other things
- Using a freezer bag or plastic bag with no holes, add the rest of the ground kuli kuli, with plain flour, roughly the same quantity as the ground kuli kuli. Add the ground uziza seeds or dry pepper, add some salt and/or seasoning cubes to the flour to season it.
- Now, take out the chicken from the fridge, shake off any excess bits used to marinade, place it in the bag of seasoned flour and shake, shake, shake, shake it up, sounds like Shakitibobo doesn't it. (just for laughs, lol). Until each piece of chicken is well coated
- Power up your deep fryer, or heat up enough oil in a pot or pan to fry this chicken. Start with medium heat, so it heats up slowly.
- Now, whisk 2 eggs or more, depending on the number of chicken pieces you have. You know what I did with what was left of the marinade? I added it to the eggs for extra flavour. Imagine the Yajichurri sauce in eggs and then chicken, OMG!!!! Send an email to [email protected] if you want a jar of that sauce
- Dip the flour coated chicken piece by piece into the egg mixture, shake off any excess bits dripping from the chicken
- Now, here's the KFC trick. Double coating in flour. This is the secret behind the extra crispiness. Say thank you, lol. It wasn't my secret ooooooo. I lay no claim to this trick. Youtube videos and many blogs have given it away. Anyways, once you take out the chicken from the egg, coat it again plain flour this time. Nothing added, then fry
- Dooney's Kitchen Tip: I have to say this. If your oil is too hot, the outsides will brown faster than the insides will cook, so make sure you start on medium heat, so the chciken is frying slowly, allowing both the insides and the outsides to cook simultaneously.
- When you bite into this, one of the first things you will notice is the layers of flavour. Like, hot damn!!!!
- You will be peeling away layers of flavour, from the flour on top, to the eggs, to the seasoned flour after that, then the chicken itself. The Kuli Kuli flavour, if you used enough of it, just powers through each of the layers, creating a taste sensation. Bestest, chicken ever!!!!!
- Serve with chips, or Akara waffles. Recipe for Akara waffles can be found HERE
Try it this weekend would you? Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for more quick cooking tips and videos. Have a great weekend, Tribe. Don’t forget to order the Yajichurri sauce, too.
Would never have thought of kulikuli. An eye opener. Thanks Dooney!
Calabar Gal
Lovely! please don’t stop using the canon (wink wink) those pictures are epic. Love it.
Awesome dunni
Dooney has done it again!!d way ur brain works ehn, na only God. Def gonna try this recipe soon, gotta order me some yummy Minna kuli kuli 1st though. I’m patiently waiting on ur cookbook o! i go buy many copies and share sef. Can i use plantain flour in place of plain flour for the chicken? (as a lover of all tins plantain) and u r making me wanna try out recipes that use breadcrumbs with kuli kuli as a replacement. You forgot to warn ur readers sey kuli kuli dey make person mess (fart).lol. Keep it up, you were made for greatness!