• Brioche burger bun
• Butter
• Two eggs
• Chicken thigh or breast, deboned and skinned
• One carton buttermilk
• Jar of pickles
• Vegetable oil
• Dijon or English mustard – not grainy mustard
• Lemon juice
• A pinch of sugar
• 150g flour
• 50g cornflour
• Paprika
• Salt
• Pepper
• Dried oregano
• Onion powder
• Garlic powder

First things first, prepare your chicken. If it’s a thigh, it’s good to go. If it’s a breast, cut sideways along the thickest part of the breast until you can open it out like a book, so it’s all of an even thickness – otherwise the thinner part will massively overcook before the thickest part is done. Combine buttermilk with one of the eggs, a splash of pickle juice, salt and pepper. Leave for at least 15 minutes and up to two hours. Any longer and I’ve found the texture of the chicken gets a bit weird.

Before you start frying, make your mayo. Crack the remaining egg into the glass with the cocktail measurements on the side. Add an approximately equal volume of vegetable oil, a squirt of lemon juice and a teaspoon of mustard. Put the immersion blender to the bottom of the glass and start blending, pulling upwards as you go. You’re trying to create a kind of vacuum vortex, emulsifying everything together. When it’s done, adjust seasoning with sugar, salt, pepper, mustard and lemon juice until you like it. For this, I usually make a slightly sweet mayo as that’s most like chik-fil-a.

In the wok, bring enough vegetable oil to cover the chicken up to 180c. Use the thermometer to track this or, if you don’t have a thermometer, you can test by putting a wooden chopstick into the oil. When it fizzes immediately, you’re good to start frying.

Meanwhile, mix the flours, herbs, and spices together and heavily season with salt and pepper – this is where most of your flavour is coming from so be generous. Take a little of the chicken marinade and drizzle through the flour mix, making small clumps with a fork. Then, remove the chicken from the marinade and really press into the flour, turning this way and that and adhering as much as possible to the chicken. You want craggly texture, lumps and cracks – that’s where the flavour comes from.

Deep fry (hello Dean), monitoring the temperature at 175c -190c, until golden brown on both sides. It’ll continue to get a little darker when you take it out so be careful not to go too far. It’ll take around five to eight minutes to cook through. Transfer to the wire rack, which I usually balance over the sink to make as little mess as possible, and season lightly again while still hot.

Assemble: bun, mayo, lots of sliced pickles, chicken, a little more mayo, bun.