Roasted Faux Fried Chicken with Collard Greens

Southern BBQ is hot right now. Whether it’s coming out of a food truck in Austin or Calgary or a 10-foot smoker in Missouri or Montreal, we can’t get enough southern ‘cue. For someone who doesn’t generally eat beef or pork, I get caught up in chicken. There’s nothing like a rotisserie bird, but with most being marinated in buttermilk and/or breaded, I’m usually SOL. The breaded kind usually comes deep-fried anyway, which I don’t think is necessary when you have high-quality fowl and an equally good way of getting a crispy skin.

So I make my own fried chicken. Colonel be damned. And so can you. No vat of oil required. It won’t have that delicious smoky flavour, but it’s pretty darn good. I don’t even stew my collards with pig for hours, so I destroy fewer nutrients in the greens and they’re a heck of a lot more appetizing.

Roasted Faux Fried Chicken with Collard Greens

6-8 chicken pieces, skin-on (legs, thighs, breasts, wings)
3 1/4 cup water, divided
1 cup ice cubes
1/4 cup salt
2 tbsp cane or coconut or palm sugar
1 tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp mustard powder
3 cups collard greens, stems removed, leaves roughly chopped

Bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Add to salt and sugar in a heat-proof bowl or dish large enough to hold the chicken pieces. (If you don’t have a bowl large enough that will fit in the fridge, you can place the chicken in a large ziploc bag and just use a heatproof bowl to dissolve the salt and sugar and add the ice cubes before pouring over the chicken.)

Stir to dissolve salt and sugar. Add the ice cubes and stir until dissolved or until brine is cold. Remove any undissolved ice cubes. Add remaining water. Add chicken, cover, and place in fridge for at least 2 hours. 4 is better. Overnight (or a day) is best.

Drain chicken, reserving 1/3 cup of brine. Combine remaining spices and rub over chicken pieces.

Have two racks in the oven—one in the bottom third of the oven and one just below the broiler, but low enough that the dish can fit underneath without touching the element. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place collard greens on the bottom of a large, rimmed casserole dish or roasting pan. Place chicken pieces skin-side-up on top. Pour over 1/3 cup reserved brine and an additional 1/3 cup of hot water. Bake 20 minutes, or until chicken is almost cooked through (165°F is perfectly cooked, so you want it at 160°F max). Crank the broiler to high. Place chicken on highest rack so skin crisps. This should take about 5 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes or baked fries (potatoes coated in salt, oil and some of the spice mix from above—without the mustard if you want—can also go in the oven on the highest rack at 350 a little after you put the chicken in the lower third. Then switch them to the lower third while you broil the chicken skin).

Smile and enjoy.