​Sesame and honey barbecue fried chicken toast

The US-born food writer has devoted an entire book to the topic of toast and perfect toppings – and as Toast: The Cookbook proves, the possibilities are endless, providing you’re willing to put a little effort in and get creative.

“When I was thinking about writing my own cookbook, I was looking for a topic that would allow me to really have fun and explore a lot of different flavours and foods that I know so much about through all my previous collaborations,” explains Pelzel, who spent 12 years co-authoring and ghost-writing cookbooks with other chefs.

“I was thinking about trends and what was happening in New York, LA and Chicago, and something that came up time and time again was toast.

“Toast – not with eggs for breakfast – but toast as this really elegant, elevated starter or second course that I was starting to see a lot at cafes and in restaurants.”

And it turns out serving up the perfect slice is more involved than you might think. Pelzel put a lot of thought into deciding how she wanted to tackle the toast component of her recipes, in the end electing to let the reader decide what bread to use for most of them.

“It was a huge consideration, actually. The kind of bread you use hugely impacts the finished dish. A rye bread or semolina bread? A fruit nut bread or sourdough or ciabatta? They all have a different texture, a different chew and different flavours once they’re toasted,” she explains.

She knows exactly what her dream slice would be like though ...

She would choose a sourdough loaf: “It has a really nuanced and a little bit of a sour flavour, and makes the most beautiful toast, because there’s so much flavour from the bread itself.”

Tempted to tart up some toast of your own? Here is one of Pelzel’s recipes to try at home:

INGREDIENTS
(Serves 4)

For the fried chicken:
240ml buttermilk
2 1/2tsp coarse salt
1/2tsp garlic powder
1/2tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2tsp sweet paprika
680g boneless, skinless chicken thighs, halved crosswise or cut into strips
125g plain flour
50g cornflour
3tbsp barbecue sauce
2tbsp ketchup
2tbsp honey
1-2tbsp hot sauce
950ml-1.2L rapeseed oil
2tbsp toasted sesame seeds
For the toast:
Four slices sandwich bread
3tbsp mayonnaise, for the bread
Coarse salt, for the bread

METHOD

Make the fried chicken: In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, two teaspoons of the salt, the garlic powder, pepper, and paprika. Add the chicken thighs, cover, and refrigerate for one hour or overnight.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornflour, and remaining half teaspoon of salt. In another large bowl, whisk together the barbecue sauce, ketchup, honey, hot sauce and set aside.

Remove the chicken from the buttermilk (discard the marinade). Add the chicken to the flour mixture and turn to coat. Set aside while you heat the oil.

Set a wire rack over a baking sheet lined with paper towels or paper bag. In a large, deep, heavy-bottomed skillet (frying pan), heat the oil over medium-high heat until an instant-read thermometer reads between 180-185C. Add half of the chicken pieces and fry until both sides are golden brown and the chicken is cooked through, around four to five minutes per side. Use tongs to transfer the chicken to the wire rack to drain and fry the remaining chicken.

Make the toast: Spread the bread slices with the mayonnaise and sprinkle with salt. Toast the bread using your preferred method (Pelzel recommends grilling or pan frying). Note that mayonnaise browns faster than butter or oil, so keep a close eye on the toast to make sure it doesn’t burn. If pan-frying, you don’t need to melt butter or add oil to the pan first - the mayo coating on the bread is sufficient for browning.

Place the fried chicken in the bowl with the barbecue sauce mixture and toss to coat. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, place one or two chicken pieces on top of each piece of toast, and serve.

Toast: The Cookbook by Raquel Pelzel is published by Phaidon, priced £14.95. Available now