Original Salt Popcorn Chicken with Buttermilk Ranch

Difficulty: Medium | Prep: 10 min | Cook: 15 min | Total: 55 min | Serves: 4 | Dietary: Contains gluten and dairy

Father's Day is Sunday and the finals are on, so here is the snack that covers both. Bite-sized thigh meat, a buttermilk soak, then a shaggy flour coating loaded with Chooki's Original Chicken Salt. It takes about as long as queueing at the drive-through and it comes out crunchier.

Step 1: Soak

Put the chicken in a bowl with 1 cup of buttermilk and 1 tablespoon of the Chooki's Original. Stir it around and leave it on the bench for 30 minutes, or cover it and leave it in the fridge overnight. The acid in the buttermilk softens thigh meat and carries the seasoning into it, so this is the step that does the flavour work.

Step 2: Dredge

Mix the flour, cornflour and the other tablespoon of Chooki's in a wide bowl. Lift each piece of chicken out and let the excess buttermilk drip off for a second, then press it into the flour so ragged little clumps stick to the outside. Those clumps are the crunch, so do not tidy them up.

Step 3: Fry

Heat the oil to 175C. Drop in a pinch of the flour mix to test it, it should sizzle straight away without smoking. Fry in three batches so the oil stays hot, about 4 minutes a batch, turning once, until deep golden. Drain on a wire rack rather than paper towel, because paper traps steam and the bottoms go soft. Hit them with a pinch more Chooki's while they are still hot and shiny.

Step 4: Mix the ranch

Whisk the mayonnaise, the 2 tablespoons of buttermilk, the chives and the lemon juice until it pours off the spoon in a thick ribbon. Serve it in a small bowl next to the pile.

Tip: Oil temperature is the whole recipe. Too cool and the coating drinks oil, too hot and the outside browns before the middle is cooked. Let the oil climb back to 175C between batches instead of rushing the next lot in.