Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Michael, aka the douchey, backwards behatted bro, just doesn't get it. He's got a lot of chops but his ideas are masturbatory in their complexity. Simpler, well-executed & flavorful food always wins over a plate full of 40 different flavors of nouvelle late 80's 'America-in-its-fine-food-infancy' style cooking. He's like a kid with his or her first giant box of crayons - bizarre rainbows everywhere, well-drawn rainbows perhaps, but those colors don't work together. His ego is the one who does the cooking, not him.

The one time I ate at Ad Hoc it happened to be fried chicken night, and at first I was a little annoyed that I would be paying well over $100 for my wife and I to eat fried chicken with some fancy sides. However, it was definitely the best fried chicken I'd ever had in my life. I ate several pieces, and it didn't give me that heavy, full feeling that normally comes with any large amount of deep fried food. On the way out, I spotted Thomas Keller himself sitting at the bar eating some chicken.

The mix is expensive, but if it tastes anything like it does at the restaurant, then it might be worth it. I suppose the same money could be used to buy the cookbook, but buying the mix at SW would be kind of a fun treat.

this is obviously not about saving time, it's about replicating something by thomas keller.

Cultural heritage days are tricky, since kids aren't the most adventurous eaters. When I had to do that in high school I brought German potato pancakes. I was smart enough to choose the least intimidating dish I could find in the German cookbook. They went over quite well, once people figured out they were "a lot like hash browns" and were good with ketchup.

One guy brought something that he wouldn't admit what it was until some people had eaten it. I don't remember exactly, but it turned out to contain donkey meat or horse meat or something like that. I do remember that I ate some and didn't think it was that good.

Don't understand why cold fried chicken didn't go over well. I LOVE leftover fried chicken! This mix doesn't seem to actually save any time though, or at least not very much. It amounts to a package of seasoned salt and a package of seasoned flour, with instructions, right?

Arbeck, I seriously doubt that bag contains fresh lemons, fresh flat leaf parsley, a head of garlic, etc. That mix contains dried seasoning powder. Compare it in price to a can of old bay or cajun seasoning instead.

It sounds like just as much work as making it from scratch, and that's a bit too much work for me most of the time. I've made fried chicken from scratch about twice in my life, but Popeye's is just down the street. (And now I'm on a diet anyway, so oh well.)

This mix sounds like mainly a fun novelty, like those cookie kit jars people sometimes give people for Xmas if they can't think of something you might have actually wanted.

@KB, i was invited to my friend's church social where we were invited to bring something from our cultural heritage. i'm jewish, so i brought my grandmother's chopped chicken livers. i was not a popular guest that evening. i will NEVER forget the look on the face of the host when i told him what was in the bowl.

@LucyBaker- You had me laughing. We had an international day at elementary school once and were supposed to bring a dish from our heritage. Being Irish, I badly wanted to bring a green frosted cake! My mother insisted on making this grayish potato dish that no one ate. I remember being mortified. Thanks for making me recall that.

Sorry, @gastronomeg.

You gotta love that packaging.

As with most things from Williams Sonoma, it makes a great gift. It doesn't matter how cheap it is to buy from scratch. Being presented with the pieces parts from a grocery store wrapped may work for some people, but to others, it doesn't look quite as presentable even though it's more efficient.

I just blogged about this myself a couple of weeks ago, and the end result is that this is (more or less) the same recipe that can be found in Keller's new book Ad Hoc at Home. The key is the brine, and monitoring the temperature of your oil - peanut if you can get it, at all costs.

It is dead delicious, though.

I just bought this online for my hubby. He is a lover of fried chicken so this will make an awesome Christmas gift. He also loves shortcuts so this is gonna be great.

Since I was able to place the order on William Sonoma's website, I don't think they're out of stock. You might wanna revise this post. :)

the contrast of the hot smoky pork, cold pickled veggies, creaminess from mayo and pate, crunchy crust and tender buttery bread....

great post.... shrimp "flavored" chips are addicting!

Couldn't agree more about The Plush Horse in Palos Park. I discovered the place quite by accident, visiting a customer who lives there. A good old fashioned ice cream parlor with tons of flavors and very friendly service, it's hard to go wrong. They've been there a long time.

I live in the northwest suburbs and love Greg's Frozen Custard in Mundelein, on Lake St. (Rt. 45) just north of Rt. 60. The place is amazing! I understand the guy who owns the place used to work at Leon's in Milwaukee (one of the most famous places around) and copied their recipes. A customer of mine from Milwaukee who goes to Leon's all the time had nothing but great things to say, that it was every bit as good as Leon's. Check Greg's out! They post their daily flavors on custardlist.com