You know Snoop for sippin on gin and juice. What you may not know is that he can also cook. He's so good, he now cohosts a TV show with Martha Stewart called Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner. These are the fried chicken wings he fed to Seth Rogan and Whiz Khalifa.
Alton Brown has been in the food game for much longer. The seasoned Food Network host is famous for his nerdy and scientific approach to cooking. If you've ever watched his show Good Eats, you know he can explain every single component of each of his recipes — at length. Needless to say, he has a lot to say about fried chicken. Snoop? Not so much.
But how well one speaks to food means nothing in the end. Ultimately it's all about the taste. And when it comes to fried chicken, the taste too. Here's how the two stacked up.
Nearly 500 people have reviewed his recipe on FoodNetwork.com. With 4.5 stars, we had very high expectations for a somewhat fussy recipe.
First, Alton calls for a whole broiler/fryer chicken, cut into 8 pieces. If you haven't broken down a chicken, you can do it easily enough but you don't really want to. It's one of the most unsexy, slippery kitchen tasks ever.
He also requires a 12 to 24 hour buttermilk brine. So if you're prone to procrastinating (not like we ever are ... ), this requirement is semi-annoying. BUT, and it's a big but, the long brine time makes a big difference. The meat itself is so juicy and flavorful because of it.
Once the chicken is brined, you make a spice mix then dredge the chicken in flour. The spice mix is spicy and delicious, but can blacken pretty quickly in the hot shortening — even when kept at 325°, which is what Alton insists is the perfect temperature. Ours got pretty dark but it didn't taste burnt.
We had some trouble deciphering Snoop's recipe on VH1. Some of our mishaps are a result of not fully watching the episode first. But sometimes, Snoop was down right secretive.
He legitimately calls for "Reo's secret seasoning." In the VH1 article that publishes the recipe, they mention he uses his"go-to Lawry's seasoning and a heavy cast iron pot," so Lawry's seasoning is what we used. Mistake. If you watch the episode, you'll discover Lawry's is only one ingredient in the mix. There's also lemon pepper!
Snoop also mentions in the episode that he prefers to cut the wings into wingettes and drumlets, which we sadly didn't do. The BBQ chips, however, we got right. Those get crushed in right with the seasoning before the flour dredge.
THE VERDICT
In a blind taste test, Snoop wins! Even though they were pretty salty (our bad) and you couldn't really taste the BBQ chips (womp womp), the skin was delightfully crispy and perfectly golden. Vague as it is, the recipe was quick and easy.
While some people preferred the different kinds of cuts of meat in Alton's recipe, the Delish team wasn't as fond of his seasoning. They thought it was "too much." So perhaps all you really need is Lawry's.
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