Indiana’s Greatest Fried Hen Recipe

I’ve joked that southeastern Indiana fried rooster, which may be so peppery it’s nearly au poivre, is the Midwest’s reply to Nashville’s well-known sizzling rooster—a fiery thrill for individuals who assume black pepper is spicy.

However the Hoosier custom is nothing to chortle at. Southeastern Indiana—the place Colonel Sanders was born and principally raised, earlier than shifting to Kentucky as an grownup—is among the greatest locations in America to eat fried rooster.

The rooster at Wagner’s Village Inn in Oldenburg has earned a James Beard America’s Basic Award and has been featured within the New York Occasions. Reduce into a cost-effective twelve items, together with the again, and skillet-fried in lard, it’s particularly peppery and tender.

After I moved again to my hometown of Cincinnati in 2019, I turned a daily at Wagner’s, simply throughout the Indiana border. Throughout the pandemic, as soon as we have been allowed to cross state traces once more, I started to deal with the hour-and-a-half round-trip like a mini-vacation—an excuse to get out of the home (and the state) that ended with a takeout fried rooster feast, if I didn’t refill on drumsticks on the way in which dwelling.

You can order the rooster at Wagner’s à la carte, however the menu highlights the rooster dinner, which comes with mashed potatoes, inexperienced beans, coleslaw, dinner rolls, and real-deal skillet gravy, and that’s the one method I’ve ever accomplished it. The fixings add to the sensation {that a} meal at (or from) Wagner’s is an important day.

Final yr, Cincinnati journal requested me to jot down an article about southeastern Indiana fried rooster, which gave me an excuse to go to a number of the area’s different fried rooster establishments. All have been price attempting, however I ended up agreeing with the Indiana fuel station cashier who rolled his eyes after I requested the place I ought to go—moreover Wagner’s. “Wagner’s is the fried rooster place round right here,” he mentioned. “That’s the place I’d go, each time.” To my data, it’s the one southeastern Indiana fried rooster spot that also makes use of lard and forged iron, whereas others have moved on to canola oil and deep fryers. No marvel it stands out.

The primary time I ended by Wagner’s, then-owner Ginger Saccomando (who has since handed the restaurant on to her son, Dan) inspired me to stay my head within the kitchen. “Name forward subsequent time, and we’ll present you the entire course of,” she mentioned.

So, I did. Earlier this yr, I spent an hour with supervisor Patricia Caldwell and prepare dinner Nolan Lecher, watching Nolan prepare dinner whereas peppering the 2 Wagner’s veterans with questions on their well-known fried rooster. Because it seems, I may describe the entire course of in a paragraph if I needed to. “We attempt to maintain it easy,” Nolan says. “That’s what works for us.” 

The Wagner’s Method

The Hen

The method begins with small (roughly three-pound) birds from O’Mara Meals in Greensburg, which provides many of the space’s fried rooster eating places. Small birds prepare dinner extra rapidly and evenly. O’Mara breaks them down into components, together with the again items, that are utilized in some regional fried rooster traditions to make extra from the fowl.

The Seasonings

First, the cooks at Wagner’s toss the rooster with salt and coarse-ground black pepper. Till lately, they didn’t measure both one. After the Beard win and the ensuing surge in enterprise, they standardized the method with measuring cups—a 3D-printed scoop and what gave the impression to be the lid from some type of plastic container, respectively. The seasoned rooster can sit for as much as half-hour, however it doesn’t need to. “That isn’t a brine or something,” Nolan says. “It’s simply useful to get forward of the crowds on busy days.”

Their pepper is an 18-mesh grind from a foodservice provider. It is best to have the ability to discover a comparable product at your native grocery store. (I used McCormick’s coarse floor pepper.) Sure, I at all times, at all times freshly grind my very own pepper… besides after I’m making this fried rooster, as a result of the scale and consistency of the grind is necessary, if you would like a devoted imitation of Wagner’s.

They combine the seasoning into the rooster, then add the rooster to a tray of unseasoned flour and toss to coat it completely.

The Fats for Frying and the Frying Technique

In the meantime, they warmth lard—the pure, non-hydrogenated stuff—in 14-inch cast-iron skillets that date again to the restaurant’s 1968 opening. They don’t need the lard to be sizzling once they add the rooster, simply totally rendered, which implies it’s lukewarm. For those who’ve ever fried rooster (or something) earlier than, you know the way uncommon that’s. Beginning the rooster at a decrease temperature signifies that it absorbs extra oil because it cooks, making a confit impact in the course of the buildup to a high-heat fry.

They carry the rooster out of the flour, shake off the surplus, crowd it into the skillets (two birds per pan), and crank up the warmth—as excessive because it goes. Because the fats heats, the rooster begins to sizzle. They let the items prepare dinner, nestled in opposition to one another and principally submerged, for about half an hour, or till the bottoms begins to brown. They flip and prepare dinner for an additional 15 or 20 minutes.

Lastly, they take away the rooster to a rack, the place it could actually sit for as much as half an hour. (They not end it with the splash of water included in the Occasions’ Wagner’s-inspired recipe. “I believe that was only for present,” Nolan says.)

The Gravy

They pour the lard by cheesecloth earlier than reusing it, and so they gather the “crumbs,” or drippings, from the underside of the skillet to make a gravy—usually only a slurry of “crumbs” and water, thickened with somewhat flour, if vital. All of the seasoning in gravy comes from the crumbs.

Recreating Wagner’s Hen at Dwelling

Easy, proper? However after I tried to recreate Wagner’s rooster at dwelling, it didn’t work. I ruined skillet after skillet of rooster, first overcooking it after which undercooking it as I attempted to search out the best mixture of time and temperature. Lastly, I needed to acknowledge that the rooster in my 12-inch skillet at dwelling was behaving in another way than the rooster within the 14-inch skillets on the extra environment friendly restaurant-grade vary at Wagner’s, it doesn’t matter what I attempted.

After dozens of checks, I ended up at one thing nearer to plain fried rooster process, frying at 300-325℉ for simply 15 to twenty minutes complete. (I used a skillet in tribute to Wagner’s and generations of fried rooster cooks, however you should utilize a big Dutch oven for the same outcome with out the splattery mess.) That isn’t precisely the way in which they do it at Wagner’s, as detailed above, however in my dwelling kitchen, it produced probably the most comparable outcome.

I additionally changed the water within the gravy with rooster inventory, standardized that recipe with a roux for a extra predictable and constant texture, and added dashes of soy sauce and apple cider vinegar for further taste. (If you would like a plainer gravy, just like the one at Wagner’s, you possibly can simply strip all that out.)

In any other case, I selected custom, together with the lard, which is crucial to the golden shade, deep, savory taste, and steadiness of juicy meat and crackling crust that separates Wagner’s from different eating places.

Embrace that animal fats—don’t you dare substitute canola!—and what looks as if method an excessive amount of black pepper (till you chew right into a drumstick), and also you’ll find yourself with one thing quite a bit just like the fried rooster that’s introduced the Occasions, the Beards, and me, repeatedly, to a small city in southeastern Indiana.

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