Stephanie Hansen visits her favorite fried chicken spot – Bull’s Horn Food and Drink in Minneapolis – where Chef Doug Flicker is serving up homemade dill pickle fried chicken in a classic dive bar setting.
Back in her kitchen, Stephanie fries up her own crispy chicken with creamy cucumber salad and welcomes special guest Jason Matheson @TheJasonShow for his famous southern-style biscuits.
Creamy Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
2 medium cucumbers, thinly sliced
2/3 cup thinly sliced red onion (about 1 medium red onion)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
Grab the recipe: https://www.stephaniesdish.com/creamy-cucumber-salad/
Crispy Fried Chicken with Dill Pickle Brine
Ingredients
3 lbs chicken, cut into 8 serving pieces
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup pickle juice brine
8 dashes Tabasco
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried sage
1 qt vegetable oil or vegetable shortening
Grab the recipe: https://www.stephaniesdish.com/crispy-fried-picnic-chicken/
Jason Matheson’s Southern-Style Biscuits
Ingredients
2 cups White Lily self-rising flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 sticks chilled unsalted butter, plus 2 Tbsp reserved
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup Half and Half, for brushing over unbaked biscuits
Grab the recipe: https://www.stephaniesdish.com/buttermilk-biscuits/
[Music] Hi friends, I’m Stephanie Hansen. Let’s go. I’ve been cooking, eating, and talking about it for years. This is amazingly good. Now I’m inviting you along for the ride. Stanley, it’s the bomb. Something you cannot live without. Meet the chefs, home cooks, restaurant tours, and bakers honing their craft. Everything is going to blow your taste buds up. And try new recipes with me in my kitchen. It’s simple. It’s easy. That looks amazing. There’s always something delicious to share. These buds got a taste. Taste buds got a taste. Let’s go. This is Taste Buds. Hi, I’m Stephanie Hansen, but I look real weird cuz I’m standing in a parking lot with a bucket of chicken, but it’s like the best chicken. It is Chef Doug Flicker’s pickle chicken. And like people don’t know about this chicken, you guys. Do you know what’s in this bucket? Chicken. Does it smell like pickles? Yeah, I kind of got Okay, each of you grab a piece. It’s like legit. They love the chicken. Taste buds. I’ve got my ninepiece bucket of chicken. Okay, this is the best chicken in the Twin Cities. It’s not just your average fried chicken. It is pickle fried chicken from Bullseorn. I’m going to learn from Chef Douglicker how he makes his amazing fried chicken. And then we’re gonna go to my house and I’m gonna show you how to make my mom’s fried chicken just like she made it when I was a kid. Then I got my friend Jason Mat who’s the biscuit master. He’s going to show us how he makes his amazing delicious super fluffy mile high biscuits. It is the fried chicken episode. And if you think I’m sharing my ninepiece with you, you’re wrong. Friends, you’re going to have to make your own. All right, taste buds. We are with my friend Chef Doug Flicker. Hey there. and he happens to run one of my favorite dive bars in Minneapolis. We are at Bullshorn and you introduced me to dill pickle fried chicken. Yeah, like you, I have always had a love of dill pickles and pickles, anything pickled, vinegar, fermented. So, the idea is that we want to get as much dill pickle flavor into the fried chicken as possible. So, the chickens themselves get marinated overnight in dill pickle juice. We do want this dryish. For the wet batter, we have soda water. Oh, bubblies. Bubbly waters if possible. Again, it’s just one of those little tricks. A little bit of the dill in first. Put And eggs. Two eggs in. There’s a little bit of lemoning. We have a little bit of baking powder, too. Do you have to worry about lumpiness like when you’re making a cake? Uh, not. No. You shouldn’t worry about things when you’re cooking. Really, cuz that’s all I do. I know. That’s all I do, too. But a little bit of baking powder. Again, another a little more leavenning. We’ve made dip number one. Yes, we’ve got our wet batter. So, now we’re going to make the dry batter. For that, we have two flowers. Wondra. And is Wondra just like a different grind, a different grain. Why do people love it so much? I think it is mil slightly differently. And then there is, if I remember right, it’s got a little bit of baking powder in it. Yeah, I think you’re right about that. And then cornstarch. And these are approximately 50/50. So, we have a number of spices. A little bit of uh yellow mustard, onion powder, garlic powder, a little bit of cayenne and paprika and cumin, black pepper, and salt. I’m just over here trying not to sneeze. Clear our spicy air. So that is all our fried chicken prep. All right. All right. This is just allpurpose flour. Yep. This is our uh dill batter. And that is our fried chicken spice. Okay. So you’re really kind of lovingly Yeah. You want to kind of create holes, texture, drip and coat. Drip and coat. Dig in there. It’s like so heavy, full of batter. Okay. I got to lovingly lovingly think good thoughts in your head. Hello, little chicken. Come on, little chick. Yeah, you’re natural. Okay. Voila. Looks pretty good. It’s pretty good. So, Doug, we’ve gotten prepared for our fried chicken and now we’re going to do the tendies. Yes. So, now we’re doing our uh chicken tenders. You don’t call them tendies? We don’t. No, we’re very professional here. We’re not eight. We’re that small children. I love chicken tenders and that’s okay if I’m not eight years old. Yes. That they’re no longer just for kids. So, what we start with is same thing. We take our chicken tenders and they have to be tenders. Okay. A lot of people do chicken breast strips. We brine them in salt water, a little bit of MSG. We brine those. Same thing for about a day. So, then this is going to be our wet mix. Club soda. Club soda. Can I whip? Yeah, absolutely. So, we’ve got chicken base. Oh, so like how do you flavor chicken? Bullion. Exactly. A little bit of salt. Salt. Frank’s garlic powder. Cayenne pepper. Now I’m getting all peppery up in here again. A little bit of one draw. Then we have the cornstarch. All right. So then we’re going to do our flour for the chicken tendies. Paprika. Paprika. Is it smoky or plain? It is plain. It is sweet. Black pepper. Mhm. Old Bay. Ooh, that garlic. Baking powder. Then we’re going to go with our wonder flour. And this is your mix again or Yep. cornstarch. So, let’s go like 50/50 there. Okay. Can I just be honest? When we were like talking about chicken tenders, I was like, “Yeah, give me that dill pickle fried chicken.” But this is intriguing me. Perfect. So, we’re going to follow the same process as we did with the fried chicken. Put it in flour, seasoned batter, seasoned flour mix. I love it. When you like visualized your chef life, Yeah. Did you imagine how many chicken tenders and dill pickle fried chickens you’d be making? Never. Okay, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. The frying of the chicken. When you’re putting stuff in, you’re always going to want to drop it away from you. So, we’re going to do that. That looks good. Make sure that everything is separated and also that it’s not sticking to the bottom. Little chicken dance. Chicken dance. It’s bubbling a little wet. Make sure we are but always temping the chicken. Make sure. So golden brown. And as you’re tonging it, I can hear the crispy. Yes. We got our uh dill dill powder and citric acid. Right. And you put it in a bucket. You got it. It’s a bucket of chicken. Hot and delicious. Bucket. Bucket. Bucket. Bucket. All right, we’ve got the big chicken out. Now it’s time for the little chicken. Little chicken. Little tenders. Little tenders. These are going to be spicy little magical wonders. Wiggle wiggle wiggle jiggle. Chicky tenders up. Chicken fest. Okay, so here we are. And your bar. Yes. This is the bar that if I was going to live in a dive bar or work in a dive bar, it would be here. Started with the dill pickle fried chicken. So, we have to try that. You just kind of have to go in with. Yes. Can’t be shy. Really good. Crispy. Yep. You can really taste the dill, right? And then when you get down to the meat, you taste that layer of pickle in there because it’s very tender though. This is the best fried chicken in the world. I’m just going to say it. So good. I’m wiping my fingers on my pants like a small child. I’m going to I want to try all the sauces and I want to try naked. Yep. Wow. That’s the best chicken tender I’ve ever had. It’s so moist, so tender. I’m also surprised that it’s not spicier cuz we put a lot of spice in there. Like you get it, but it’s not like I’m going to do barbecue. Alabama white. Is that your fave? My fave. Really good barbecue sauce. Zippy, sweet. I’m going to go in for the Alabama White, which is a vinegar blend with mayo. Ooh. Right. Tangy. Kind of lifts it up. Cuts through some of the fat. Yeah. I did not know I needed this in my life. So tart and creamy. Doug, this has been a real fun day. I’ve had a blast. We laughed. We chicken dance. What is like the top thing I need to know for frying chicken at home? Temp the oil before you put the chicken in. Once you put the chicken in, temp the oil. You’ll see that it’s dropped. So, you’re going to kind of want to make sure that it gets back up to the 300 before you start adding the next pieces. So, all oil temperature and not crowding. Correct. I love that you just are creating your own story. like you went from being this like very lauded, fancy, fine dining chef to making really awesome bar food in your own bar. And you make it fun and you make it easy and you made everything homemade and it’s all so delicious and you can tell that is our approach. And if you see me out in public and I have a t-shirt that looks just like this that says hot and delicious, don’t be surprised if you’re wearing meat raffle. I figure I got to be hot and delicious. I would agree with that. Thank you for having me. You’re very welcome. Thank you. Well, that is how you make fried chicken. Chef Doug Flicker’s chicken is amazing. I’m going to eat this whole bucket by myself. But first, we’re going to go to my house and I’m going to take his tips and tricks and I’m going to marinate my chicken. Then Jason Mat from the Jason Show is going to come over. He makes the highest, most delicious, buttery layered biscuits you’ve ever had. And we’re going to pair it with the Kemp sour cream cucumber salad. It is the fried chicken episode and taste buds. You are going to want to taste it. All right, friends. That was pretty fun to find out exactly how Bullshorn makes their fried chicken because it’s so good. We are going to go ahead and make like all the things you would make with a delicious fried chicken. We’re going to start with my cucumber salad. It’s real easy. It has a beautiful sour cream dressing. They call these like Persian cucumbers and they have less seeds and they’re a little crisper and a little thinner. You want to cut them into nice small rounds. Watch my knife skills. Do I have any knife skills? It’s the number one thing I’m self-conscious about on this show. I’m going to go ahead and just toss these cucumbers with a little salt. And I’m just going to let them sit for about 30 minutes. And then I’m going to rinse them off. And I’m going to dry them and finish our salad. I somehow just dumped them all into the sink. All right. I’m just drying them. Oh, cuz I spilled them all. Okay. Okay. And to this, we’re going to add 2/3 of a cup of red onions. Now, if red onions are super powerful to you, what you can do is cut the onions and then soak them in water and rinse them. That takes out some of the aringentness of the onion. And now it is time to make the delicious dressing for our salad. We are using Kemp sour cream. It looks delightful. And we are going to go from there to adding some white wine vinegar. We’re going to add a teaspoon. Then we’re going to add a tablespoon of lemon juice. granulated sugar, a little pepper. We did already salt our cucumbers, but you kind of want to salt all the way along. Okay, our final thing is we’re going to add about 2 tablespoon of dill. And from there, we’re going to just put our cucumbers and our onions back in. This is a really lovely salad. Oh, a lovely salad. Not sure why I’m saying it in my lowest, weirdest voice. So, that’s it. Stanley’s looking at me going, “I like cucumbers. Can you speak? Okay. I’m just gonna give it a little taste. M yum. It tastes delicious, but it needs a little salt, but I’m not going to apply the salt until just before my guests arrive because I don’t want it to get watery in the refrigerator. We’ll go ahead. We’ll refrigerate it, let the flavors all come together, and we’ll move on to our fried chicken.” Okay, I did cut up my own chicken. You can buy cut up fryer chicken. That’s the chicken you’re looking for. My store stopped doing it, so I had to do it myself. And if you really want to have a laugh, maybe you want to check out our YouTube channel to see how I broke down this chicken. It wasn’t pretty, but I got it done. To this chicken, we’re going to add 2 cups of buttermilk. So, it’s going to make it super silky and flavorful. We’re also going to add a cup of pickle juice. This is going to also tenderize the meat and give it a little pickley flavor. And then I’m going to use about eight dashes of Tabasco. And I’m going to let this set up for at least a couple hours or overnight depending on how much time you have. I’ve got this shaking seasoning mix. Say that fast three times. That we’re going to make. So, I’ve got two cups of flour, a little bit of cayenne pepper. This is smoked paprika. We’re going to use a tablespoon of that. Then we’re going to add a teaspoon of salt, some pepper. Oo, it already smells like smoky, which is delicious. And then something that my mom always used, whenever I smell it, I think of her because it reminds me of like turkey and Thanksgiving, is dried sage. And she used it in her fried chicken. So, I’m going to put a teaspoon in. Okay. When we’re ready to fry, we’re going to put each piece of chicken in our little shaky bag here and get it all coated. And you know what goes with fried chicken? Buttery biscuits. My friend Jason Mat from the Jason Show, he makes the most delicious biscuits. I can’t believe we’re actually getting him on the show to show us how he makes the biscuits. It’s going to be super fun. So, let’s go get him and bring him inside. Welcome to my kitchen, Mr. Mat. Thank you. I’ve never been here before. Oh, you have, too. But I didn’t make you the proper cocktail, I think, the first time you came over. Yeah. Mrs. Homemaker, Mrs. Cooking. No welcome cocktail at that party. I know. I know. Now I know better. It is always like what you should have at a dinner party. You were the reason that we have this show because it was your idea to have a food show. And that came out of doing food segments. It was your idea. You and Jeff, your producer, and when I met you, you would always talk about these biscuits. You started a biscuit company. This recipe is my dad’s side of the family. They’re southern. This recipe is from Papa Earl. He made these biscuits. He was a coal miner, got injured, and to help out the boys when he got injured, he would make these biscuits for the boys. And then at night, he was a moonshine runner. Oh, that’s a great story. I don’t think I knew that part. Yeah, it was a moonshine runner. So, these are true southern biscuits. The secret. Here’s the secret. Two things. One of the ingredients is a secret, and that’s the flour. I only use white lily flour. Thank goodness that you brought it cuz I wouldn’t have had it. Yeah. You also don’t have something else we’ll get to in a second. Anyway, white lily flour. The secret is it’s a winter wheat, so it’s very light. The second is technique. Everything, Stephanie, has to be cold. And I mean cold. Why? Because let’s talk the butter right there. I actually like to have it frozen. If it’s frozen, when you cut the pieces of butter into the flour, then in the oven, those little balls of butter will melt, creating steam. And the steam helps the biscuits to rise. Everything just has to be cold because when it hits that oven, boom, it helps the rice. People always go, “Why my biscuits are flat?” You overwork it and your ingredients are warm. So, it is two cups uh two cups of the White Lily self-rising flour. We’re going to do a teaspoon of sugar and salt. I like the sugar. A lot of people don’t do the sugar. My papa always said it just adds a little flavor. So, you just mix the dry ingredients together just a little bit. I like it. Now, we need to cut in the butter. This is the punishment part cuz I didn’t have a pastry cutter. So, when you come to Stephanie’s house and she’s the kitchen and cooking queen, you think, “Oh, this lady has everything.” I walk in and I go, “Hey, you have a pastry cutter?” She doesn’t have one. So, as punishment, cuz this is my least favorite part, cut the butter into little bitty cubes, as small as you can do it. The butter should be about the size of of a pee. I’m getting there, but I’m trying not to warm it up with my hand. I was going to say the butter is already getting a little warm. I’m a little mad at you. Again, all joking aside, you are probably like a lot of folks right now. Let’s say your butter like this is warmed up. Pop this mixture into the freezer for a few minutes. Okay, why don’t you just do me a favor and tell me how we’re going to get this bowl in the freezer. Oh my goodness. Are you storing food for the apocalypse? I have a freezer downstairs, too. 1318. These are spoiled. Are they really? No. Okay, the butter’s cut. You did a pretty good job for not having a pastry cutter, but I had a biscuit cutter. I know. I I have to admit, I didn’t have a lot of faith that you had a biscuit cutter. These, you know, and we have cold buttermilk, two cups. So, you make a little well, pour all the buttermilk in your well. Boom. You do not want to overm mix and you don’t want to overwork the dough. you will end up activating the gluten and you will have very tough tough rubbery biscuits. I like to try to get it into a ball. The dough might be a little craggly. Just work quickly. You want There’s so much flour. I’m stunned. No, you’re good. Okay. You want to knead it a couple times cuz again, you don’t want to overwork it, but you still need to work the dough. You know what I mean? You still need to get it in there. This is my trick to make the layers. Cut this into thirds. Stack it on top of each other. Press down one more time. Oh, two times. Press down again. I like the sides to be even, but pat it down to about an inch. I like a thick biscuit. So, then cut. Press down. Do not twist. Oh, I was just going to say you didn’t spin. You don’t spin because it seals the biscuit. That’s another thing that prevents the biscuits from rising. Move quickly. How did you learn that from Papa? Yeah. Wow. put them next to each other because that helps the rise too. Now you roll like a little uh a snake. Well, like a little fence so it kind of locks them in so they don’t spread as they bake. Now you put this back in the freezer for 10 minutes cuz again, what’s the tip? Really cold. Don’t take it downstairs. You have dead bodies in that one. Yeah. No. All right. We’ll see you in a minute. Okay. During the break, we switched pans. Yeah, you had only large pans just like you didn’t have a pastry cutter and you I’m just joking. I had small pans. You did. So, I moved it again cuz you want the biscuits very close together to help with the rise. Okay, now you just brush them with half and half. I think the cream adds a little sheen to the top of the biscuit. Okay, open that oven there. All right, here we go. Stephanie Hansen middle rack. Ah, it’s hot. Oh, Stephanie, the biscuit gods were with you because they’re so floofy. Okay. Now, don’t put your whole melon in there. Go ahead and turn the broiler on. I just did. This is a golden brown top, but I want it a little more golden brown. So, we’re just going to put this butter on. And I just keep an eye on it. Okay. Here they comes, Danny. Look at that. Now, that’s perfect. And there you go, ladies and gentlemen. There’s the biscuits. Jason’s buttery biscuits. A true southern biscuit. Love you, Papa. They’re very savory. Wow. You Wow. You look like you’re auditioning for a movie on Cinemax. See how soft it is and savory and buttery. Yeah. Well, that was worth having you come over. Thanks. We learned a lot of tech, too. Mhm. You guys don’t miss a minute of the Jason Show. It’s on Monday through Friday. Check your local listings to watch it. And sometimes I’m on there, sometimes I’m not. But when I am, we always have funny things happen. Mhm. You thought the biscuits were good, and they are, but we’re going to take it up a notch cuz you can’t have biscuits without chicken. Chicken and biscuits. We’re going to make some fried chicken next. First, we’ve got the buttermilk brine with the pickle juice in it. And we’ve got our dry shake bag. Come on. Come on, chicky. Shake. Shake. Shake. I can really smell the cayenne in there, too. So, I’ve got a nice peppery bite. [Music] Skin. That’s the best part. All right, so I’m going to go ahead and heat my oil to 350° and we’re going to cook it about 5 to 7 minutes aside and then turn it. You want to give each piece of chicken room to really bubble in that oil. Ooh, they look real good so far. Try not to splash yourself. I’ve got my oven mitt on here. Okay, we have had our chicken in here for about 12 minutes and we’re going to go ahead and put it on our wire rack so it can drain. Temp our oil to make sure it’s staying hot enough. Trying to get to 12 to 14 minutes total, depending on watching it what you think. I mean, those look pretty good. I have taken the temperature of all the chicken pieces to make sure they’re all done. And I think we are ready to try them. M. Oh, yum. I can taste the smoky paprika. I can taste the cayenne. It’s totally tenderized. M. You know how sometimes food reminds you of things. I’m kind of getting a a feeling because my mom used to make fried chicken for us every Sunday night. And I’ve made fried chicken before and it’s been fine. But for whatever reason today, it’s making me think of her and I miss her. And she was great at making fried chicken. So, Mom, I made it real good. All right. So, starting at Bull’s Horn, learning how to marinate the chicken, getting it just delicious and crispy and fried perfectly to learning how to do it at home, making this beautiful cucumber salad, and then of course Jason’s buttery biscuits. I love this episode, taste buds. I hope you try fried chicken at home. It’s not hard and it is so delicious. Thanks for watching.
Dining and Cooking