A friend of mine who also loves Chick-fil-A, told me the trick to making the copycat sandwich is marinating chicken breasts in dill pickle juice (will have to try that, too).
I love dill pickles and was intrigued, so I thought I would use this concept with chicken drumsticks, and let them brine over night.
A local favorite here is Best Maid pickles from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. These rival my mother in law‘s homemade pickles in terms of potency! I was afraid that leaving these a full day to marinate might result in an overpowering dill flavour, but they had just a slight hint of dill in the end.
Dill pickle brined air fryer chicken legs paired with Martin House Brewing Sour Pickle Beer
DILL PICKLE BRINED FRIED CHICKEN Protein: chicken Prep Time: 12 hours +/- Cook Time: 20 minutes INGREDIENTS (10+): chicken legs (2 lbs)
pickle juice (1 c)
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eggs (2)
flour (3/4 c)
breadcrumbs (1 c) cooking oil (2 tbsp) salt + pepper, or seasoning of choice (to taste) paprika (1 tsp)
cayenne pepper (1/4 tsp) cooking oil spray
INSTRUCTIONS:
-Place chicken into a large freezer bag or a casserole dish and pour the pickle juice over top.
-Cover chicken and put into the refrigerator to marinate; rotate/flip chicken in brine when/if possible while marinating.
We let ours brine for 12 hours...
-Arrange 3 bowls: 1 containing: flour, salt and pepper, 1 containing: whisked eggs and vegetable oil, and 1 containing: breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper + any other desired seasoning.
-Turn on air fryer to 370F and let it preheat.
-Dredge chicken legs by dipping into the flour mixture, the egg mixture, and then the breadcrumb mixture in that order.
-Ensure all sides of the chicken are coated evenly and then spray lightly with cooking oil. -Once the air fryer is preheated, put chicken in to cook for 10 minutes. / -Flip chicken and cook for another 10 minutes, or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165F. -Dig in!
