To be fair to Ad Hoc, I’ve read nothing but great reviews about the Yountville, CA restaurant by award-winning chef Thomas Keller, and their fried chicken. A great review of their chicken can be read here.
However, the Williams & Sonoma Ad Hoc Fried Chicken Kit is very labor intensive. I knew that going in, since I can read, so no surprises there, but it sort of builds up to this big tasty reveal that never happens. I understand that Ad Hoc uses young, farm raised chicken, I used supermarket bought drumsticks, so, yeah…
After prepping the meal (you need at least 12 hours for: brine cooking, cooling, marinading chicken in the brine for hours, dredging chicken in dry mix, then dredging in buttermilk, then dredging in dry mix again) we began to fry the chicken. I say “we” since I am a horrible fryer. I got my husband’s help since he’s got a knack for it. The skin cooks well before the chicken so that was a problem. The chicken had a nice taste (though strong) and was tender, but it wasn’t earth shattering, or even better than our regular home cooked chicken, so that was unfortunate.
On the bright side, the Ad Hoc Cole Slaw Dressing was good. Nice tang, nice sweetness. The Ad Hoc Potato Salad Dressing, not so much.
But, don’t take my word for it, check out the Ad Hoc Chicken Kit on Williams-Sonoma.com and let me know what you think.
