This is not your ordinary Fried Chicken recipe! It’s Spicy Bloody Mary infused Fried Chicken to go with your waffles! Flavourful, Crunchy, Crispy Fried Chicken marinated with all the flavours of Bloody Mary and scotch, fried to perfection and then drizzled with sriracha and maple scotch syrup! So don’t be like Archer, forget the gummy bears and scotch, and have THIS for breakfast, dinner or “brinner” instead!
Just a heads up peeps – The new season of Archer premiers tonight, and this post is a form of celebration of this fact. So I imagine some of the references in this post might escape you, if you don’t watch the show on a regular basis. But I promise the recipe is a doozy (as always of course!), even if you’re not a fan of the show. It’s a hilarious, adult-themed animated show that you’re either head over heels (phrasing!) in love with, or just as passionately hate. You know which group I belong to. 🙂 And fair warning, there’s some mildly coarse language ahead, because I wanted to do right by the show.
So with the exciting prospect of NEW Archer episodes starting today, Matt from Nomageddon came up with this fantastic idea for a few of us to do an Archer-themed recipe post to celebrate. So you can bet your ass we’ll be watching the show tonight, while stuffing our faces (phrasing!) with all this glorious food!
For anyone who hasn’t watched the show before, let me sum it up for you. Archer is a master spy and the show is basically all about alcohol, cocktails, food, sex, lots of shooting, and lots of blood. Not necessarily in that preferential order. See, you already like the sound of it don’t you? But hey, that’s just my opinion. Maybe you can give the show a try and see if it means anything else to you. Don’t hold your breath though. 🙂
Dunk the chicken in that “white powder” and keep it away from Pam!
So, quite fittingly, I made Spicy Bloody Mary and Scotch infused Fried Chicken and Waffles! Fried chicken and waffles baby! And not just regular fried chicken and waffles, I “Archer-ized” them. See, Archer is a big fan of chicken and waffles, particularly when he’s drunk (actually Archer is perpetually drunk). And Bloody Mary, because Archer drinks Bloody Mary and also has a Bloody Mary prayer for when he drinks one (see video below). Scotch, because that’s Archer’s favourite type of drink (Glengoolie scotch to be precise), so I use scotch in the Bloody Mary here in place of vodka.
I’m not much of a fan of Bloody Mary actually, but fried chicken infused with Bloody Mary? Come on, now! I’ll stuff my face (phrasing!) with that all day!
Being a big fan of the show, I knew I wanted to do an alcohol-themed recipe for this post, but wasn’t really sure which way to go. Thought about shit snacks (not what you think), bear claws (definitely happening on the blog soon), and even Archer’s own concoctions like the Black Mexican (Archer’s words, I promise), Peppermint patty, and Pam’s Green Russian. But after another Archer binging marathon (by the way they just released the last season on Netflix the other day, so this girl has been OD’ing on Archer the last couple of days), I decided spicy Bloody Mary infused fried chicken and waffles were going to be my way of paying homage to my favourite “secret” spy.
Usually, fried chicken is brined for a few hours in a seasoned buttermilk. I decided to go about it in a different way. These chicken pieces were soaked in a marinade of tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, sriracha, pepper, and scotch. Tomato juice is acidic enough to still tenderize and flavour the chicken just as buttermilk would, except that the chicken will now have that amazing subtle spicy tomato flavour with a hint of scotch!
Plus there’s a good amount of warm, buttery maple scotch syrup that goes on top of the chicken too!
Sploosh!
I have long since been a fan of fried chicken and have tried to make it all my life. I was great at frying the chicken, but not so much with the delicious crunchy coating (you know, like KFC?), until I saw a show on the Food Channel (in New Zealand) where they added liquid to the flour to create those delightful lumps. It’s fair to say that my life has forever changed since then. I added the Bloody Mary marinade to the flour here and boy, that crunchy coating you get on the chicken is oh-so irresistible!
The sriracha drizzle is optional, but I love it! Not only does it taste delicious together with maple syrup, but a splatter of it over your fried chicken is symbolic of all the blood shed that occurs in the show. It’s a bloody massacre, alright.
Sploosh!
- ½ cup tomato juice
- 2 -3 celery ribs, roughly chopped
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 tbsp sriracha
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper (skip this if you don’t like extra heat)
- ¼ cup scotch whiskey (I used Johnny Walker Red Label)
- 1 tsp salt
- 6 chicken legs (I used skin on)
- 1 egg
- 1 ¾ cup AP flour
- ¼ cup corn flour
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- ½ tsp back pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- Oil for deep frying
- ¾ cup maple syrup
- 3 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp scotch whiskey
- Waffles - You can make your favourite waffles. I have my own version which I have adapted from here - which will be on the blog very soon!
- Place all the ingredients for the marinade (except the chicken and eggs) in a food processor/blender. Blend until smooth. Do a taste test to make sure it's seasoned well.
- Pour this into a shallow dish or a large ziploc bag. Place the drumsticks in the dish or ziploc bag and shake to coat the chicken well with the marinade. Cover the dish (or remove as much air from the ziploc bag as you can and seal) and place it in the fridge for a few hours or up to 24 hours.
- The next day, remove the chicken from the fridge and leave it at room temp. for about 30 min to 1 hour (to return to room temp.) before coating them with flour.
- When you're ready to coat, whisk the flour and all the spices together in a large bowl.
- Separate out about 3 tbsp of the Bloody Mary marinade into a little bowl. Then mix in 1 egg with the chicken and remaining marinade and mix well so that the egg incorporates fully in the marinade which will be used to coat the chicken.
- Drizzle in the reserved marinade (3 tbsp) into the flour while mixing, to create a lumpy flour coating. This will create that characteristic crunchy chicken coating you love!
- Coat the chicken with the marinade, and then with the flour. Repeat once more. This should give you double coated chicken drumsticks with a rough, flaky coating. Place the chicken on a lined baking tray.
- Heat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
- Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed dish (like a dutch oven) on the stove, with enough to cover the chicken. Heat the oil until it registers at about 400°F/205°C.
- Carefully lower about 3 chicken legs into the hot oil (DO NOT OVER-CROWD). The oil temp. will drop to about 315-320°F. Maintain the heat at this level and fry the chicken for about 6 minutes.
- The fried chicken should be placed on a wire rack, on top of a tray (to catch the excess oil), while you cook the rest of the chicken.
- Place the cooked chicken in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, until the internal temperature of the chicken registers as 165°F/75°C. Serve warm.
- Place the maple syrup and butter in a saucepan. Heat gently until the maple syrup is simmering and the butter is melted. Pour the scotch into the maple syrup and remove from the heat.
- Transfer this to a glass bottle with an airtight lid. Let the syrup cool down till it’s warm enough to serve. Shake the bottle vigorously before serving to mix the butter layer and the maple syrup.
- Serve the chicken with your favourite waffles and some melted butter on top. Drizzle some sriracha sauce and maple scotch syrup just before eating. Enjoy!
So do yourself a favour and eat it all… every last crumb ok? “Because that’s how you get ants!” “Do you want ants? Do you??”
So what did we learn today?
I am a big fan of Archer. Goes without saying at this point.
You can infuse your chicken with some spectacular flavours to make fried chicken! And for even better results, add some booze (it also acts as a tenderizer – for the surface, so I’d call that a win-win).
Adding that little bit of liquid (Bloody Mary marinade in this recipe) to the flour makes it form lumps that result in beautifully chunky, crispy fried chicken that’s juicy, tender and moist inside and shatteringly crisp on the outside.
Salt is you best friend in your marinade. Salt really goes inside the meat when it’s marinating (through osmosis), so it’s OK if you sprinkle a little extra salt on top.
As salt gets absorbed, more liquid is absorbed (which is why the chicken is “brined” and stays nice and juicy!). Example? If you eat very salty food, you get thirsty right? So you drink a lot of liquid because your body needs to “balance” the salt molecules in your muscles.
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See what the other awesome bloggers created for this Archer-themed post
Pimms cup in a Pimp cup from Matt at Nomageddon
Danger Scones by Ashley from Fork it up
I’ll be sharing my recipe over at,
FoodieFriDIY | Friday Favorites | Fiesta Fridays | Saucy Saturdays
Woah. I thought I was drooling when I say chicken and waffles, but bloody mary infused!?! I’ve totally lost my cool. This might call for a weekday brunch, ASAP.
This. Is. Awesome. The only thing that would make it better would be an egg. BECAUSE HOW HARD IS IT TO POACH A G—— EGG?! Came to this post via your response to my FBC / BuzzFeed chicken & waffles request (obviously this has to be included) buuuut now I just love your blog. PLEASE let me know when you post the shit snacks and bear claws. <3
I’m not an Archer fan, but might check it out after this glowing review 😀 That chicken looks wicked good!!
It looks amazing! Not an everyday meal but great for a treat or showing off to guests!
That fried chicken is beautifully done. And bloody Mary infused? Wow!!
Dini you are a genius with creative recipes and more! This is just stupendously good! The combinations are fanatic. I have never heard of archer but will
Hunt him down for all his good character …
I’ve never heard of Archer, but think it’s fun that you’re doing this with some other fans of the show. I’m definitely a fan of this chicken.
Bloody brilliant. Bloody MARY brilliant. And of course the alcohol is a tenderizer. What else would it be….??????
I cannot get over how delicious this dish looks. Oh my goodness, Dini….
Chicken and Waffles is something I’ve always wanted to try. I love how you’ve given this classic dish an upgrade. Awesome job! Happy Fiesta Friday!
Those chicken and waffles look delicious! I’ve only seen Archer once or twice, and I was highly entertained. Just can’t watch it with kids in the house! I’ll have to check it out again sometime, and definitely make this recipe to nosh on while I watch! Thanks for sharing!