Marinate Chicken Overnight

1. Break down your whole chicken into 8 pieces for frying.
2. Mix marinade (buttermilk, pickle juice, hot sauce, sliced garlic & salt) in a medium bowl and add the chicken pieces. Toss to coat.
   
3. Cover bowl and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, but preferably overnight for the most tender fried chicken. 

Dredge Chicken

1. Combine ingredients for flour dredge (flour, kosher salt, black pepper) in a large bowl.
2. Working with one piece at a time, remove chicken from refrigerator and use tongs to pick up each piece individually (allowing excess marinade to drip off) before tossing in the flour dregde until fully coated. 
3. Place each flour coated piece of chicken on a plate. 
   

Prepare Spicy Oil 

1. Melt butter in small sauce pan over medium low heat on stove top.
2. Add cayenne pepper, brown sugar, kosher salt, garlic powder, onion powder chili powder and paprika.
3. Whisk to combine, cook for 1 minute until aromatic, then turn off the heat. 
   
4. You will add reserved cooking oil (after frying the chicken) and reheat to liquefy towards the end of the recipe. 

Fry Chicken

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (you will finish the chicken in the oven after shallow frying). 
2. Set a wire cooling rack inside of a sheet pan and set aside. 
3. Pour enough peanut oil into a large cast iron skillet or other frying pan so that it is about 3’8″ deep.
4. Heat the oil over medium heat on your stove top until it reaches 350 degrees F
5. Place chicken gently into the frying oil using tongs, being extremely careful not to splash oil out of the pan. You will likely need to fry the chicken in at least two batches depending on the size of your pan. 
   
6. Adjust the heat as necessary to maintain a temperature of 350 degrees. 
7. Fry on each side for 4 to 5 minutes or until golden brown. Cooking time can vary greatly depending on the temperature of your oil and the size of your chicken. Keep a close eye on it (it is totally fine if you end up needing to turn it more than once).
   
8. When the chicken is perfectly golden, carefully remove each piece and place on the wire rack set inside your sheet pan. 
9. Put your pan in your preheated oven and cook in 5 minute increments until you reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Depending on the thickness of your chicken this step could take between 5 to 20 minutes. 
10. Once chicken is cooked through. Place on a separate wire cooling rack or plate lined with paper towels. Pat dry any excess oil. 
    
11. When all of the chicken is nearly cooked, set your saucepan with spicy oil back over low heat to liquefy and add two tablespoons of the frying oil. Whisk to combine.
12. Brush each piece of chicken with spicy oil on each side and serve alongside plain white bread and sliced pickles!