Book Celebration Fry-up

Two days after the release of The Frugal Guide: Dublin 2015, more than 100 copies have been downloaded, and the hype continues to grow. Thanks to everyone who has downloaded it and helped share it with others. Your help is necessary and greatly appreciated.

To celebrate the book release and rapid success, I decided to make something very special for dinner the next night -- fried chicken.

But not just any fried chicken! I had saved all the duck fat from our Thanksgiving feast, both from the roast duck drippings and the skimmed fat from boiling the carcass for stock the next day.

Too bad the Bears lost. Now it's just lots of dishes to deal with... and duck fat.
— Cory Hanson (@HansonCory1) November 27, 2014

Collected Duck Fat

All in all, I had almost a pound of the stuff in two jars in the fridge. I had looked online for uses of duck fat and found ideas from very tempting to very curious. One such tip:

"If you think popcorn is good with melted butter... wait 'till you've had it with duck fat!"

Hmmm. Probably wasn't going to make that happen, but I had heard of the French using duck fat to fry potatoes, and that sounded interesting. I thought, if I'm frying potatoes, why not fry something else while the duck fat is still hot? I couldn't think of a reason not to fry one kind of bird in the fat of another kind of bird, so I got to work.

I was inspired by one of my Grandma's favorites, beer battered chicken. This wet, bubbly batter expands and gets cracker-crisp like tempura when done properly. I had never tried it with chicken, but I had made it work with onion rings, so I was confident that I could make it happen again.

Of course, I used homebrew lager to make my batter.

To celebrate: homebrew beer-battered chicken fried in duck fat. My brain and my heart might literally explode. pic.twitter.com/ODrhihhYVH
— Cory Hanson (@HansonCory1) December 3, 2014

The chicken and the chips both fried up beautifully in the duck fat/vegetable oil mix. It had been so long since either of us had tasted a real American-style crispy fried chicken, and I have to say, it was pretty amazing.

Beer Battered Chicken and Fries

...I should publish books more often! Thanks for the inspiration, Grandma!