Fatty Crab Fried Chicken

An interesting article in the New York Times dining section about the alternatives to Southern fried chicken in NYC, offers up this nugget:

At the two Fatty Crab restaurants, Corwin Kave’s fried chicken with Thai chilies, an occasional special, is a thin-crusted, spice-rubbed project that takes five days, begins in a steam oven and ends in a wok, and is flavored with turmeric, fennel seed, ginger, fish sauce and smoked simple syrup.

Wait... did you say 5 days!? You can't just throw something like that out there and leave me hanging. Must. Learn. More.

Google-fu reveals this post at The Feedbag:

First the birds are brined for 24 hours in a mixture of salt, sugar, white wine, shallot, garlic, ginger, and coriander. Then the chicken is quartered. The quarters are then cooked over low heat (leg portion for 6 hours at 150 and breasts for 14 hours at 130) over a bed of herb stems, to wit: Vietnamese mint, lemon basil, Thai basil, cinnamon basil, and cilantro root. Next the pieces are cut in half and fried until crispy. Lastly they’re tossed in a hot wok with a smoked palm sugar glaze, garlic, young ginger, and Thai chilies. “I love sticky Korean fried chicken,” Kave told me. “And everyone loves Fatty chicken.”

Intriguing... not sure that adds up to 5 days, but it sure sounds awesome.

photo by flickr user ZagatBuzz used under a Creative Commons license