First off, I'm no Samin Nosrat or Julia Child. But I do enjoy making food.

And eating food. 

Inspired by a friend's plans for iftar last week, I attempted to make buttermilk chicken for the first time. And I'm quite glad that it turned out quite well! A few of my friends sent me a dm on Instagram asking for the recipe, and I'm like..."erm sure though a lot of it is 'agak-agak"' as you may later notice.

Everybody's ideal buttermilk chicken is different, like how we like our men music! So, if you're into not-so-creamy buttermilk fried chicken with lots of fragrant curry leaves, this might float your boat!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• Chicken drumsticks / thighs / breasts (whatever you like, really!)
• Any fried chicken coating mix (we used the Bestari serbuk for this one)
• An egg
• Half a stick of butter
• Evaporated full cream milk (susu cair)
• Chopped cili padi
• A bulb of garlic, chopped
• A handful of curry leaves, or two
• Salt and sugar for taste
• A dash of visualization skills and good tastebuds 
• This Spotify playlist on loop in background

This part is the most therapeutic to me, chopping garlic.

LET'S GET STARTED

It's really a 2-prong approach; first we prep the chicken and then we make the yummy sauce. Alright, let's get to the chicken!

1. Marinate your chicken pieces in a beaten egg, and get every inch of that chicken nicely coated. It'll act as the glue between the meat and the coating mix.
2. Once coated with egg, double-coat and massage the pieces with the Bestari Crispy Fried Chicken coating mix.
3. Let the chicken rest and relax in the mix for 5 minutes, as you heat up your wok for the forthcoming frying action. 
4. Heat up plentiful of oil in your wok. This is where you'll need to eyeball how much oil you're gonna need for your chicken pieces to completely sink into the boiling oil later.
5. Aunty Tip (courtesy of my lovely aunt!): To check whether your oil is hot enough, dip a chopstick in and see if there are cute little bubbles around it. If yes, your chicken's oil bath is ready!
6. Sprinkle some curry leaves into the oil for extra fragrance and taste, then slowly sliiiiiide your perfectly-coated chicken into the oil bath (like you would in somebody's dms) and fry away! Each batch should take around 8-10 minutes, but you do you - flip the pieces around and fry till a nice golden brown.
7. Once ready, let your chicken rest and relax on a comfy bed of kitchen towel, to suck up all the excessive oil, while we make the sauce!

1. Heat up your wok and plomp in your half-stick of butter until it gets all melty and bubbly. 
2. Stirfry the chopped garlic, chopped cili padi and the rest of your curry leaves until they naik bau and golden brown.
3. Pour in the half a tin of the evaporated full cream milk (susu cair). I think the ideal ratio for butter and milk would be 1:2, as it gets quite oily if there's too much butter. But again, you do you! 
4. Make sure you stir, stir, stir and stir to mix the butter and milk together to make the perfect milk bath for your now-relaxed fried chicken.
5. Drop your chicken pieces into the bubbling milk bath and season it with sugar and salt until you're fully satisfied and ready to eat!
6. That's all - your quick and easy no-frills butternilk fried chicken is served!