Bret Smith, Chef and partner with Goodbird Kitchen and Post Brewing Company says Winston’s Collectramatic Fryers are a perfect fit for his operations. He appreciates the consistency the fryers achieve. Above all, he likes the support Winston provides.
Holidays are a time for tradition. We decided it was start a new one. We cooked the infamous turducken. In case you aren’t familiar, that’s a portmanteau word that describes the recipe which combines turkey, duck, and chicken all rolled into one. Sound too good to be true? Honestly, we thought so too!
This isn’t a task to take on unless you are fully committed to the challenge. Patience is your friend while preparing the turducken.
Debone the birds– turkey, chicken, and duck. We did this the day before to save time. Depending on your expertise, this can take from 45 to 90 minutes.
Stuffing is placed between each meat layer. Feel free to put your own spin on the stuffing. We also made a double batch for each turkey to ensure we had enough for each layer.
We doubled up and made two turduckens. One was cooked using a CVap® Cook and Hold Oven. The other was staged in the CVap oven and then fried in a Collectramatic® Pressure Fryer.
The roasted turducken was cooked on high yield at 170°F doneness and 4 level browning (new CVap 170°F Vapor Temp/200°F Air Temp) for six hours, then held overnight for eight hours at 150°F doneness and 1 level browning (new CVap 150°F Vapor Temp/155°F Air Temp).
The staged and fried turducken was staged at 165°F and 0 browning (new CVap 165°F Vapor and Air Temp) overnight for 14 hours and then finished in the fryer for three minutes.
Chef Eric Wupperman, chef and owner of Treeline Kitchen in Leadville, Colorado and partner in Yellowbelly Chicken shares his thoughts on Winston Foodservice, its people, and its products.
His operations use Collectramatic® Pressure Fryers, Winston shortening filters, CVap® Holding Cabinets, and CVap Cook and Hold Ovens.
Uncle Jack Fried Chicken is a Malaysian restaurant chain. They use our Collectramatic pressure fryers. Ordinarily, they serve chicken from a display warmer. To maximize holding time, they limit the warmer to 35°C (95°F), putting a limit on the amount of time they could hold chicken before it was no longer fit to sell. We suggested they test our CVap holding cabinet, in the hopes of extending holding time and improving food quality. We tested fried chicken and steamed rice. The results were exciting!
The CVap cabinet was set at food temperature 54°C (129°F) and food texture at + 28°C (82°F). We gave the cabinet 45 minutes to preheat.
The chicken moved from the fryer to the holding cabinet (15 pieces). Chicken was crispy outside, moist inside. The meat was very hot to touch. The taste was really good.
Cooked rice (wrapped in oil paper) was put into the same holding cabinets with fried chicken. Initial rice quality was moist, sticky, and fragrant.
The chicken was still crispy outside (though slightly less crisp than when first removed from fryer). Interior was still hot, and the color was unchanged. The chicken breading remained crisp.
Chicken was still crispy and moist. Color was good. Food retained flavor, with minimal freshness loss.
The skin remained crispy, though not as crisp as when initially fried. Flavor and moisture were still good. Color had not darkened.
Rice was hot and tasted fresh. Not dried out at all.
The chicken tasted good. Its skin remained crispy, and its meat, moist. Although it was not “just cooked” fresh after 3.5 hours, it was still at a safe temperature. It remained appetizing enough to serve.
Rice was hot, and texture was good.
Electricity Consumption: 800 watts
Holding Capacity per Cabinet: 13 full-size sheet pans, each rack equals one basket (4 heads) chicken or 338 pieces
Goals for Future Testing
The very nature of fried foods (crisp outside with moist interior) promotes evaporation. CVap technology is the best available to maximize holding time, but even CVap, using the necessary high differential setting (the difference of food texture setting over the food temperature setting) will eventually lose the battle to maintain food temp and freshness. It’ll hold fresh longer than the competitors, but if the food is crunchy (fried chicken, French fries, etc), it can only be held for so long.
On the other hand, moist foods, such as rice or noodles, are perfect for CVap and can be held for many hours with no loss of temperature or quality.
The consensus of the Uncle Jack test was that it was possible to lengthen the chicken’s holding time. More testing is needed to perfect the texture, taste, and crispiness.
Winter may be waning, but the popularity of Nashville Hot Chicken sure isn’t. We decided to try our hand at preparing a big batch. It was as good (and hot!) as promised.
Nashville Hot Chicken’s powerful poultry story originated nearly seven decades ago, at Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack. Apparently Thorton Prince was quite the lady’s man. Tiring of his late night escapades, his gal served him up a Sunday breakfast of fried chicken, generously doused in cayenne pepper and other fiery spices. Her revenge backfired – rather than crying out in pain, he loved it. Consequently the inspiration for Nashville Hot Chicken was born. If you’re interested, read the whole story on Prince’s website. Numerous other restaurants and chains, inspired by Prince’s, have put their own twist on this Nashville classic.
We brined the chicken in the fridge overnight using a simple 6% brine. Learn everything you need to know about brining on our friends’ site Genuine Ideas (browse under their food header).
We lightly dusted the chicken with seasoned flour. After that we dipped it in a simple blend of eggs, buttermilk and hot sauce.
Subsequently, we tossed lightly again in breading mix, giving us a light double-breaded chicken. Double-breading creates a nice robust crunch once the chicken is fried.
Properly prepped, the chicken was ready for the Collectramatic® Fryer.
We fried the chicken for 15 minutes at 325°F. It emerged from the fryer a mouth-watering golden brown. After allowing excess oil to drip away, we painted the spicy special sauce on with a pastry brush.
The hot chicken was as good as we hoped, delivering a delicious heat that delighted our taste buds while making our faces flush and our brows sweat.
This chicken can be held for two hours in a CVap® Holding Cabinet. After frying, place it directly in a CVap set to 135 +50. Apply the sauce just before serving.
Here’s a pared-down version of the recipe (in case you’re not feeding an army).
Enjoy!
Poultry Trivia:
What menu item is going to keep customers coming back for more? To-go orders? Catering offerings? What is going to set your operation apart from your competition? Fried chicken! It’s the ultimate comfort food; perfect for challenging times.
Let’s look at the features and benefits of our Collectramatic® Pressure Fryers. Available in 4-head (32 pieces per drop) and 6-head (48 pieces per drop) configurations.
At a recent training, with an install of three LP56 Collectramatic fryers, the customer was able to pressure fry 576 pieces per hour and 3,600 pieces before they needed to filter the shortening.
To really boost your program, partner your fryer with a Winston Shortening Filter and a CVap® Holding Cabinet or two, and now you have a fried chicken program sure to bring the hungry crowds through the door!
Rodger Fye, Director of Operations for KFC in Freeport, Illinois explains why our Collectramatic Fryers are his one and only choice for fryers. “They’re very, very bulletproof when it comes to a frying machine,” he said.
Robby Arnold of BBG North in New York is a foodservice veteran. He’s a fan of our Collectramatic Fryers. Chicken cooked in our fryers is consistently high-quality. His servicers love how easy Collectramatic fryers are to work on.
Richard Walsh of Aarsand Management explains why he loves our Collectramatic Pressure Fryer, which he’s been working with for over 30 years. What’s his favorite thing about Collectramatic cookers? They’re easy to keep clean!