To make this recipe go smoother, I like to cover one of my counter tops in foil or wax paper and set up each bowl in the order I need the ingredients. This eliminates a lot of the mess. I work from left to right, ending with the chicken going directly in the pan or onto a cookie sheet after coating it.
This is how I cook my fried chicken:
Southern Fried Chicken
1 lb of chicken pieces (I prefer legs and thighs and maybe some breasts for white meat lovers.)
2 pints of buttermilk *optional
Milk
Eggs
Flour, Bread crumbs or 1 recipe beer batter*
Salt and Pepper
Cooking Oil (Peanut, Safflower, or Pure Vegetable)
Large gallon size resealable bag. e.g. Ziplock.
Beer (alcoholic or non.) *optional for the beer batter
Cookie sheet
Large platter or cookie sheet with several layers of paper towels
If you would like to marinate the chicken pieces over night, this is where the buttermilk comes in. After washing the chicken, place the pieces in a casserole dish and cover them in buttermilk, tightly seal with plastic wrap, and marinate the chicken overnight.)
Pour a glass of wine, run the children outside.
Wash and pat the chicken pieces dry. (If you didn't marinate it.)
Lightly salt and pepper the chicken, set aside.
I like to pan- fry my chicken in a cast iron skillet, many people choose to use a deep-fat fryer.
Deep-fat fryer:
Fill the fryer ¾ full with your oil of choice.
Heat until candy thermometer or a thermometer made for high temperatures, clipped to the side of the fryer (IN the oil) reaches 360°F.
It's very important to monitor the oils temperature, any higher and you risk burning the oil and any lower you risk underdone chicken on the inside or the chicken becoming soggy.
Pan-fry:
Fill skillet ½ full or 1 inch deep with oil, enough to cover half the chicken when frying.
Heat oil to 350°F. I start at at Med-High heat, then to Medium. This usually keeps my temperature where I want it.
Non-marinated chicken:
Fill your Ziplock bag with either flour or bread crumbs.
Fill a large bowl with flour and another one with milk.
Pick the cat up off the counter, place on the floor, and hope there is not cat hair in the milk.
In another large bowl, beat as many eggs as you will need to dip each piece of chicken in.
Dip each piece of chicken in this order:
Flour, Egg, Milk. (Or dip it in the beer batter.)
*Beer Batter:
1 egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups beer (about 2)
1 cup all-purpose flour
Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.
Run the kids out the door, after fulfilling their request for more Sprite.
Place several pieces of the chicken in the bag, with the flour/breadcrumbs, shake chicken pieces until they are thoroughly coated, place on a cookie sheet until ready for frying.
Lock the cat in the bedroom and turn the television volume up very loud to ignore its screams of protest.
If you are quick enough you can skip putting the pieces on the cookie sheet and gently place the chicken pieces in small batches (3-4), skin side down in the skillet/fryer.
For the beer battered chicken, you coat the chicken with the batter, then place in the skillet/fryer.
It is best to do the chicken in small batches to keep the oil from cooling or the chicken from being either underdone or overdone.
Pour yourself a 2nd glass of wine.
The chicken is done when it is a golden brown color and an internal meat thermometer reads no less than 165°F. Place the cooked chicken on the paper toweled platter.
Serve to your spawns of Satan with a smile and all the fixin's.
Cook at your own risk: I don't recommend mixing hot oil and alcohol. Drink responsibly.
Remember, the beer is for the batter and you only need two cans!
No, I did not drink when I made this post. Much.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Southern Style Foods with all the Fixin's
We have a new southern style buffet restaurant that opened up here about 2 months ago. When you are about half broke and want to go some where, where you can eat enough for 2 for the price of one, this is the place to go. Some times you just struggle those last couple of days until pay day.
This new restaurant (I will call MB) has several different deep fried and roasted meats with all the fixin's*. My favorite meats are: the pulled beef roast or the occasional choice of fried chicken. I'm not a huge fan of fried foods, but hand me a platter of dark meat* fried chicken, and more times than not, I will eat it. On the menu almost every day, you can usually find 3 different greens stewing in their potlicker*, e.g. turnips, collards, and mustard*. Among other food items are: cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes with brown and white gravy, corn-off-the-cob, different types of beans, mac and cheese, fried okra, fried sliced potatoes, and squash. I can't remember the rest. MB has a fairly impressive salad bar and many different type of desserts. (I sound like an advertisement).
The point is........not all 'folks' living in the South actually cook all these home-grown or southern foods in their own kitchens. They have to go out and pay for it, at a restaurant. I know I have hardly ever visited any one's home, when I was invited to lunch or dinner, and seen these kinds of foods. When I have, it was a special occasion, usually at my grandmother-in-laws house.
Funny thing is, I can cook all this stuff like nobodies business.......but do I? Nope. I think the only people who cook like this any more are much, much, much older than I. Which brings me to a recipe. I wanted to pass along my favorite fried chicken recipe. Maybe someone will find this aimless blog and cook some chicken........fit for a king! See next post for the recipe.
*fixin's (fixings): commonly known as side items, e.g. mashed potatoes, greens, beans, etc.
*potlicker (pot liquor): the juices and stock (seasoned water) left over after boiling greens.
*dark meat: when referring to poultry is usually the leg and thighs.
*mustard greens: can be used as food, agricultural manure, and phytoremediation. For manure farmers keep the tops cut down and then till the rotted/useless stumps back into the soil for their next crops. For phytoremediation (process of using plants to depollute soils, water, and air) they use the plant to absorb toxins, which the mustard greens absorb in their cells, and to keep erosion down at the contaminated sight, thus keeping the polluted soils in a contained area.
My grandfather used to say they were good for the blood and bodily organs, now I know why!
This new restaurant (I will call MB) has several different deep fried and roasted meats with all the fixin's*. My favorite meats are: the pulled beef roast or the occasional choice of fried chicken. I'm not a huge fan of fried foods, but hand me a platter of dark meat* fried chicken, and more times than not, I will eat it. On the menu almost every day, you can usually find 3 different greens stewing in their potlicker*, e.g. turnips, collards, and mustard*. Among other food items are: cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes with brown and white gravy, corn-off-the-cob, different types of beans, mac and cheese, fried okra, fried sliced potatoes, and squash. I can't remember the rest. MB has a fairly impressive salad bar and many different type of desserts. (I sound like an advertisement).
The point is........not all 'folks' living in the South actually cook all these home-grown or southern foods in their own kitchens. They have to go out and pay for it, at a restaurant. I know I have hardly ever visited any one's home, when I was invited to lunch or dinner, and seen these kinds of foods. When I have, it was a special occasion, usually at my grandmother-in-laws house.
Funny thing is, I can cook all this stuff like nobodies business.......but do I? Nope. I think the only people who cook like this any more are much, much, much older than I. Which brings me to a recipe. I wanted to pass along my favorite fried chicken recipe. Maybe someone will find this aimless blog and cook some chicken........fit for a king! See next post for the recipe.
*fixin's (fixings): commonly known as side items, e.g. mashed potatoes, greens, beans, etc.
*potlicker (pot liquor): the juices and stock (seasoned water) left over after boiling greens.
*dark meat: when referring to poultry is usually the leg and thighs.
*mustard greens: can be used as food, agricultural manure, and phytoremediation. For manure farmers keep the tops cut down and then till the rotted/useless stumps back into the soil for their next crops. For phytoremediation (process of using plants to depollute soils, water, and air) they use the plant to absorb toxins, which the mustard greens absorb in their cells, and to keep erosion down at the contaminated sight, thus keeping the polluted soils in a contained area.
My grandfather used to say they were good for the blood and bodily organs, now I know why!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Diet Pepsi, Chicken Eggs, and Chitlins
I was having a conversation on the phone with a woman a few days ago, who happens to live in a northern state, (that's any state higher than Virginia ) and she asked me the silliest questions.
(I must warn you that I didn't know her. I believe she thought we were a hotel or something. )
Apparently, she is coming "down" here for a visit. She is a die-hard Diet Pepsi fan and according to her, all she thinks we southerners drink is "sweet" tea*. She was harping on and on about this little vacation spot she was going to stay at, and then she paused and said, "No offense, but am I going to be able to buy a Diet Pepsi down there? Or do I just have to drink sweet tea and Coke the whole time?". I contained my huge sigh and suppressed my snort of disdain and informed her that, indeed we DID have Diet Pepsi down here and that for her information Pepsi was first made in North Carolina. That sent her off into another conversation about the types of food we sell, or eat, or force feed all wayward "Northerners".
Okay, it didn't get that bad, but the next silly question was, "Please tell me you have bagels there. Or will I have to eat pork products, those little white things that stick to the roof of your mouth, and eggs? I mean those brown eggs, that come straight from a chickens butt!" Here I almost fell out of my chair trying to suppress my laughter. Imagine! Eggs from a chickens butt! I calmly informed her we do have bagels, some of the tastiest blueberry bagels around. Even onion if she preferred. That yes, we do have pork products, but if she wasn't into light, crispy bacon, baby link sausage, and chitlins**, then no she wouldn't like our pork products much. And that we have the white eggs and they are so much nicer than those awful brown ones. I refused to explain to her that those little white things that stick to the roof of her mouth are in fact grits***. That alone would have taken me awhile to explain.
Upon hearing the word chitlins (which I pronounced it like it was fancy, cheetLEEOONS) she chimes in, "Oh those sound divine. I bet those are some kind of little sausage roll aren't they?" I myself have never tried them, I DO know what they are, I know they smell like hell when cooked, and I know many less fortunate southern people enjoy them, but did I tell her this? Nope, I simply said, "Yes, ma'am they are superb." Drawling out the ma'am and pronouncing suburb, see-purb of course.
Another aimless minute or two of listening to her prattle and then I politely told her I had room service to tend to.
Come on. Okay people from the NORTH (and many of you from the WEST, as in West Coast, not the Cowboy West). If you are going to come all the way down here to visit, do a little research. No, I do not think all Northern people are like that. In 'like that', I mean spoiled and pampered and ignorant to the ways of another world besides your own.
This brings me to another topic: Myths about the South. I however, will save it for another time.
* Sweet tea: a form of iced tea that is sweetened sometime during the process of making it. A highly sought after drink by many Southerners as the beverage of choice. (Okay, I added that bit in!)
**Chitlins: a food made from the intestines of a pig. They are usually boiled or stewed, then battered and fried. They are often made into sausage casings.
Could be worse...... those could be Rocky Mountain Oysters.
***Grits: coarsely ground corn boiled in water to make a sort-of porridge.
(I must warn you that I didn't know her. I believe she thought we were a hotel or something. )
Apparently, she is coming "down" here for a visit. She is a die-hard Diet Pepsi fan and according to her, all she thinks we southerners drink is "sweet" tea*. She was harping on and on about this little vacation spot she was going to stay at, and then she paused and said, "No offense, but am I going to be able to buy a Diet Pepsi down there? Or do I just have to drink sweet tea and Coke the whole time?". I contained my huge sigh and suppressed my snort of disdain and informed her that, indeed we DID have Diet Pepsi down here and that for her information Pepsi was first made in North Carolina. That sent her off into another conversation about the types of food we sell, or eat, or force feed all wayward "Northerners".
Okay, it didn't get that bad, but the next silly question was, "Please tell me you have bagels there. Or will I have to eat pork products, those little white things that stick to the roof of your mouth, and eggs? I mean those brown eggs, that come straight from a chickens butt!" Here I almost fell out of my chair trying to suppress my laughter. Imagine! Eggs from a chickens butt! I calmly informed her we do have bagels, some of the tastiest blueberry bagels around. Even onion if she preferred. That yes, we do have pork products, but if she wasn't into light, crispy bacon, baby link sausage, and chitlins**, then no she wouldn't like our pork products much. And that we have the white eggs and they are so much nicer than those awful brown ones. I refused to explain to her that those little white things that stick to the roof of her mouth are in fact grits***. That alone would have taken me awhile to explain.
Upon hearing the word chitlins (which I pronounced it like it was fancy, cheetLEEOONS) she chimes in, "Oh those sound divine. I bet those are some kind of little sausage roll aren't they?" I myself have never tried them, I DO know what they are, I know they smell like hell when cooked, and I know many less fortunate southern people enjoy them, but did I tell her this? Nope, I simply said, "Yes, ma'am they are superb." Drawling out the ma'am and pronouncing suburb, see-purb of course.
Another aimless minute or two of listening to her prattle and then I politely told her I had room service to tend to.
Come on. Okay people from the NORTH (and many of you from the WEST, as in West Coast, not the Cowboy West). If you are going to come all the way down here to visit, do a little research. No, I do not think all Northern people are like that. In 'like that', I mean spoiled and pampered and ignorant to the ways of another world besides your own.
This brings me to another topic: Myths about the South. I however, will save it for another time.
* Sweet tea: a form of iced tea that is sweetened sometime during the process of making it. A highly sought after drink by many Southerners as the beverage of choice. (Okay, I added that bit in!)
**Chitlins: a food made from the intestines of a pig. They are usually boiled or stewed, then battered and fried. They are often made into sausage casings.
Could be worse...... those could be Rocky Mountain Oysters.
***Grits: coarsely ground corn boiled in water to make a sort-of porridge.
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