Our vacation in India is never complete without savouring the zinger burger from one of KFC’s restaurants. The zinger sandwich was first introduced in Trinidad and Tobago in 1984. Gaining popularity globally, it is made with a marinated chicken breast, double-breaded with a proprietary spice blend and fried until golden brown. Served with lettuce and the Colonel’s mayonnaise on a toasted sesame seed bun. It is one of the favourite choices from the KFC’s menu. Crispy with a spiced coating and succulent chicken, loved by all, young and old.
Skip the drive-through to KFC and recreate a foolproof version at home, by including a zing into the chicken with ingredients from your own pantry. Marinating the boneless chicken pieces to make them flavourful is key, preferably for a couple of hours or overnight. Dredge them twice in spiced flour, taking the time to press them firmly into the flour to get a crumbly coating in appearance similar to that of KFC’s. Deep fry each piece at a time on medium-high for 5 minutes, turning midway until crunchy, cooked and golden brown. Drain on a wire rack not absorbent paper towels to prevent them from becoming soggy. Nestle the beautiful piece of chicken topped with a crisp lettuce on a toasted bun, smeared with sriracha mayonnaise along with coleslaw. Pair the tempting, delicious sandwich with french fries for an ultimate comfort meal.
Skip the drive-through to KFC and recreate a foolproof version at home, by including a zing into the chicken with ingredients from your own pantry. Marinating the boneless chicken pieces to make them flavourful is key, preferably for a couple of hours or overnight. Dredge them twice in spiced flour, taking the time to press them firmly into the flour to get a crumbly coating in appearance similar to that of KFC’s. Deep fry each piece at a time on medium-high for 5 minutes, turning midway until crunchy, cooked and golden brown. Drain on a wire rack not absorbent paper towels to prevent them from becoming soggy. Nestle the beautiful piece of chicken topped with a crisp lettuce on a toasted bun, smeared with sriracha mayonnaise along with coleslaw. Pair the tempting, delicious sandwich with french fries for an ultimate comfort meal.
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Chicken Zinger Burger
(Serves 10)
Chicken
Ingredients:
10 boneless chicken thighs
2 cups buttermilk
10 burger buns
oil for deep frying
Seasonings
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons chilli powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons smoked or regular paprika
1 teaspoon pepper powder
1/4 cup Tabasco
salt
Flour Mixture
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons chilli powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons smoked or regular paprika
1 teaspoon pepper powder
salt
Method:
Wash boneless thighs, drain well, marinate with all the ingredients under seasonings for a couple of hours or overnight.
Pour buttermilk in a bowl and set aside.
In a wide deep dish, mix in the flour mixture.
Heat oil for deep frying on medium-high flame. Ensure that enough oil is used to cover the piece of chicken completely.
Dredge each piece of chicken in flour taking the time to press them firmly into the flour to get a crumbly coating in appearance similar to that of KFC’s.
Get rid of excess flour from the coated chicken piece and dip in buttermilk. With tongs, remove the piece of chicken and coat with the flour mixture again. Press down and ensure that flour gets into every part of the chicken piece. (See picture of double-breaded chicken piece above). Dust off any excess flour holding the piece of chicken vertically above the flour mixture.
Deep fry on medium-high for 5 minutes turning midway until crunchy, cooked and golden brown on both sides. Do not try to lower the flame.
Drain on a wire rack not absorbent paper towels to prevent the fried piece from becoming soggy.
Assemble the piece of chicken on a toasted bun, smeared both sides with sriracha mayonnaise along with a crisp lettuce and coleslaw.
Repeat the above procedure with rest of the chicken pieces. Fry one piece of chicken at a time.
Serve the zinger sandwich accompanied with french fries.
Note:
(Serves 10)
Chicken
Ingredients:
10 boneless chicken thighs
2 cups buttermilk
10 burger buns
oil for deep frying
Seasonings
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons chilli powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons smoked or regular paprika
1 teaspoon pepper powder
1/4 cup Tabasco
salt
Flour Mixture
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons chilli powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons smoked or regular paprika
1 teaspoon pepper powder
salt
Method:
Wash boneless thighs, drain well, marinate with all the ingredients under seasonings for a couple of hours or overnight.
Pour buttermilk in a bowl and set aside.
In a wide deep dish, mix in the flour mixture.
Heat oil for deep frying on medium-high flame. Ensure that enough oil is used to cover the piece of chicken completely.
Dredge each piece of chicken in flour taking the time to press them firmly into the flour to get a crumbly coating in appearance similar to that of KFC’s.
Get rid of excess flour from the coated chicken piece and dip in buttermilk. With tongs, remove the piece of chicken and coat with the flour mixture again. Press down and ensure that flour gets into every part of the chicken piece. (See picture of double-breaded chicken piece above). Dust off any excess flour holding the piece of chicken vertically above the flour mixture.
Deep fry on medium-high for 5 minutes turning midway until crunchy, cooked and golden brown on both sides. Do not try to lower the flame.
Drain on a wire rack not absorbent paper towels to prevent the fried piece from becoming soggy.
Assemble the piece of chicken on a toasted bun, smeared both sides with sriracha mayonnaise along with a crisp lettuce and coleslaw.
Repeat the above procedure with rest of the chicken pieces. Fry one piece of chicken at a time.
Serve the zinger sandwich accompanied with french fries.
Note:
- To make buttermilk at home, use 2 cups of milk and 2 tablespoons of lime or lemon juice. No need to heat milk, just stir in the lime or lemon juice.
- Sriracha mayonnaise - mix 5 heaped spoonfuls of mayonnaise with some sriracha sauce.
- Coleslaw - season shredded carrot and cabbage with rice vinegar, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper powder. I prefer to use rice vinegar that has a sweet and delicate flavour.
- After double coating 5 pieces of chicken, the flour mixture turned lumpy. Hence, discarded and made a fresh batch of flour mixture for the balanced 5 pieces of chicken.
- The oil too was filtered after frying 5 pieces of chicken and reused.
- Fresh buttermilk was also used to coat the second batch of 5 pieces of chicken.
- In conclusion, 4 cups of buttermilk and a double batch of flour mixture was used.
- Boneless chicken thighs can be substituted with 5 chicken breasts, each cut into equal halves to make a total of 10 pieces.
- Tandoori Chicken Zinger Burger - marinate pieces of chicken with tandoori spice paste. Refer to Tandoori Chicken recipe, click here. Flour mixture can be seasoned with spice powders indicated in the tandoori chicken recipe.
