Love fried chicken but too scared to make it at home? Well, fried chicken kings Mother Clucker have put together a kit with everything you need to recreate their signature melt-in-your-mouth tea brined, buttermilk soaked, battered double chicken sandwich – all without the need for a deep-fat fryer.
If you live in London, you can, of course, get Mother Clucker delivered, but out here in rural Kent, our options are quite limited, and for my husband’s birthday I thought he deserved a treat. Via Great Food 2 U, you can order three DIY meal kits, chicken or halloumi strips and its chicken sandwich, and each comes with everything you will need, including their secret flour mix, hot sauce and lime mayo.
The D-I-Fry meal kits not only offers restaurant-food-at-home, at a time when going out to eat seems a long way off, but also a fun activity to do together, which during this latest lockdown is definitely needed, and really made my husband’s birthday more fun.
If you haven’t heard of Mother Clucker, it started out as a food truck at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane with their unique converted US Army ambulance, and everyone went crazy for their Southern fried chicken, as well as their cajun spiced chips. It has expanded a lot since 2013 and now has locations across London in White City and Flat Iron Square, as well as operating deliveries around Whitechapel, Kentish Town and Elephant and Castle.
What’s inside a Mother Clucker fried chicken meal kit
This meal kit offers up their amazing fried chicken to a nationwide audience, and all you need is rapeseed or sunflower oil, a heavy-bottomed saucepan, and a temperature probe.
We tried the whole range on offer with Great Food 2 U for two people, the chicken strips, halloumi strips and the double chicken sandwich. Instead, I got two of the burgers and the halloumi, but to be honest, it was an awful lot of food, missing out on a few strips of chicken and extra coleslaw didn’t make a difference to our experience.
For the double chicken sandwich kit you get everything you need the tea brined chicken strips, the brand’s secret flour mix, buttermilk, lime mayo and hot sauce, American cheese, lettuce leaves, and brioche buns, as well as cajun spice for your chips, which you can purchase as an add on but who doesn’t have frozen chips in already.
While the halloumi kit comes with the Mother Clucker flour mix, lime mayo, hot sauce, buttermilk, cajun spice, flat parsley, and the brand’s delicious slaw and mayo for you to mix up with a little cajun spice.
How to make fried chicken at home
If like me, you have tried and failed before to make fried chicken at home, don’t worry, after watching a video on Mother Clucker’s Instagram and reading through the instructions, I actually felt confident and in reality, it was actually quite simple.
First up, make sure your oil comes up to temperature to ensure perfect crispiness. Next, get battering – pour the flour and buttermilk into two separate bowls and then place the chicken or halloumi stripes into the flour, covering each strip with a light dusting of flour, before dunking into the buttermilk, and then placing the stripes back into the flour for another coating. Repeat this until all your strips are coated.
Now you are ready for frying. Place one strip a time, slowly into your pan of oil. Our pan was a fair size but I wouldn’t recommend adding more than four strips at a time, as overcrowding will mean it takes longer to cook. Once in the oil, cook for three and a half minutes. Check the chicken strips with a temperature probe to ensure it is cooked right through. With the halloumi, cook for the same amount of time, until the batter is golden.
See, I told you it was easy.
Mother Clucker at home fried chicken
Food all cooked – now the fun bit – serving it all up. I loved that Mother Clucker send out all their meal kits with branded takeaway boxes, paper and stickers, made it feel like we’d just been to a food truck, as well as all the instructions on how to build your burger. It is all about lime mayo on the bottom bun, hot sauce on the top bun, and the lettuce, chicken and cheese layered between.
One thing I would recommend is doing chips as well as the cajun spice that comes with each kit is amazing when sprinkled over your chips, even frozen oven chips. Plus chips are perfect for dipping into the hot sauce and lime mayo – you can thank me later!!!
Overall, I loved it. The quality was high, I was dubious at how good the chicken would be fried at home in a pan, but it was lovely, crispy, while also being moist inside, no one wants dry chicken do they. The coleslaw was a nice addition, the mayo is delicious, and each product supplied was fresh and lovely, right down to the lettuce. It was the perfect lockdown luxury, to be honest.
Mother Clucker D-I-FRY kits are available nationwide for two (£18) and four (£27.50) people from Great Food 2 U. With every order of the four-person D-I-FRY kits, £2.50 goes to Brixton Soup Kitchen, a leading community hub helping the homeless and people in need in South London.
