Fried Chicken

Last Sunday's attempt at cooking fried chicken went pretty well.

This wasn't Grandma's fried chicken; as I recall, Grandma, and later Mom, first dipped the chicken pieces in milk, then dredged them in flour, melted a ton of Crisco in the skillet, and then fried all the chicken pieces in that at the same time.

Cindy's recipe for Buttermilk Pan-fried Chicken required me to make a marinade of seasonings and buttermilk, let the chicken pieces soak in the marinade overnight, dredge it in the flour and seasonings, and then fry it in vegetable oil.  We could have used lard, but I don't think we've ever actually had lard in the house, and I haven't seen Crisco for years.  

Cindy's cooking technique involved adding the flour-coated pieces one at a time, and no more than four in the oil at a time, adding them slowly to allow the oil to heat back up after each piece is added, then putting the pieces on a cookie sheet in the oven to finish crisping as the others cook.

She told me that the drumstick and thigh pieces always take longer to cook than the breast pieces, which was contrary to what I thought, since the breast pieces usually have thicker meat on them.

However, when I thought about it, I realized that some of my glass bead-making knowledge came into play here: since the chicken is refrigerated until shortly before cooking, the long, thick bones in the leg and thigh pieces are colder than the meat and act as a heat sink, pulling heat out of the meat.  When I'm making a bead on a big mandrel, I need to make sure the mandrel is heated before I start putting glass on it, or the bead may crack as the colder mandrel pulls heat out.  So next time I'll put the leg and thigh pieces in first.

Anyway, the chicken turned out fine.

Here's the recipe we used:

Pan Fried Buttermilk Chicken

4 Servings

MARINADE

2 cups buttermilk—well shaken in carton

1 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning

2 teaspoons Poultry seasoning

6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

2 teaspoons salt

Pepper to taste

COATING

 3 cups flour

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning OR 2 tsp Old Bay Seasoning and 2 tsp Poultry Seasoning

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 cups lard, peanut or other vegetable oil for frying

For the marinade:  In a blender or food processor, or with the long whisk, combine the buttermilk, garlic, Old Bay, salt and pepper and process until smooth.  Place the chicken pieces in a zip lock plastic bag and pur in the buttermilk mixture.  Seal the bag and refrigerate overnight.

For the coating:  Combine the flour with salt, Old Bay, garlic powder and pepper.  Remove the chicken from the marinade one piece at a time and coat it liberally with the seasoned flour.  Place the coated chicken pieces on a rack and refrigerate for one hour to allow the coating to set.  Chicken may be refrigerated for up to 4 hours.  Bring chicken to room temperature about an hour before cooking.

Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium heat and add lard or oil, heating it until it is completely melted.  The fat should be 1 1/2 inches deep.  When oil is about 325 degrees, carefully and slowly add chicken pieces one at a time to let the oil come back to temperature before adding another piece (don’t crowd pieces); fry until golden brown on all sides, about 10 minutes per side.  If chicken is browning too fast, lower heat.  When chicken is done, remove it from the pan and place on baking sheet in oven at 350° or 30 minutes to crisp skin and coating.  

Serve piping hot.