Posted on 05/15/2013 11:41:44 AM PDT by nickcarraway
When did frying chicken become so intimidating? There are cooks out there who have spherified martini olives and piped buttercreams without ever biting into a piece of homemade fried chicken.
There are even more cooks who have attempted fried chicken once, only to renounce it immediately.
“It was too far outside my comfort zone,” said one friend, an accomplished cook who has stuffed many a zucchini.
Another friend brought picture-perfect chicken to a picnic (wrapped in a tea towel, yet) that was raw at the bone.
I have sympathy for these people. They have been traumatized by grease fires, flour-crusted kitchen counters and crushed hopes.
These are the people who believe a golden-brown crust and juicy meat can never be achieved at the same time. Who think frying chicken requires special equipment and hazmat suits. Who think fried chicken is in a special circle of dietary hell.
Who are wrong.
Fried chicken with corn and tomatoes is a perfect summer dinner. Fried chicken with potato salad is a perfect summer picnic. Fried chicken on a biscuit with hot sauce and honey butter — as served at Pies N Thighs in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is the perfect meal, especially for someone embarking on a juice cleanse the next day.
There is no magic to fried chicken. Most people don’t cook it for the same reason they don’t make their own burritos. They have grown up in a world with free-flowing fried chicken at every turn. KFC has overtaken Burger King to become the world’s second-biggest fast-food chain. KFC has also promulgated the absurd notion that secret herbs and spices are necessary for good fried chicken.
No.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Love this thread
I have 30 young fryers four weeks from this fate.
Hope I can get to fry with you one day.
During the debate in NYC to change the law to allow both sexes to go bare to the waist, a female demonstrator (topless & NOT guilty!) when asked if she felt `liberated’ replied, “It’s not fair, there are certain things a woman just can’t do when like this. Frying bacon or chicken, for instance.”
(Note: most women cannot say the word `nekkid’ when it personally applies. “Like this” is substituted.)
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Frying chicken isn’t that hard, if you know what you are doing.
I’ve been frying chicken for dinners for 45+ years.
Being Southern helps, of course.
I think I'll take your word for it. I'm almost more afraid of the microwave than anything in the kitchen - I cup my hands in front of ... uh hem hem, my waist, when I walk past a microwave in operation. Hey, better safe than sorry!
Agreed with everything you said except for this. While brining is good, I really prefer an overnight bath in buttermilk! And I also put a bit of seasoning (salt and pepper) in the flour.
Mark
“And fry it in lard.”
You can fry rocks in lard and they will taste better! mmmmmm, fried rocks.
I still keep a jar of bacon grease handy. It’s my secret ingredent for a number of dishes.
As God as my witness, I thought chickens could fry.
We just got a great deep fryer (waring). I’ve made delightful chicken fingers for the kids in it but never yet real chicken pieces (the fingers are boneless breast genders).
I’d like to try. Any tips for deep frying bone in chicken?
My grandmother was the best cook I’ve ever known.
One day when she and her sisters were young girls their parents left the farm to go to town.
As soon as they were out of sight, the girls got one of their mother’s hens to fry.
They took the hen into the screened porch and started to wring its neck, slinging the hen by its head in a vertical, circular pattern.
Suddenly an egg hit the ceiling.
The girls were so startled that they let the hen go, and it ran off, perfectly fine.
:-)
Keep it simple. Dust with seasoned flour (salt & pepper), no egg wash crap, iron skillet, 1 inch Crisco 350 degrees, 8 minutes each side till golden brown. Drain excess oil & add flour to the pan bits, make roux, add milk for the cream gravy.
Pretty simple actually. does take practice. Not all that hard though.
Like your style. I do let my cut up chicken sit in buttermilk overnight, but that’s about as fancy as I get.
bump
That’s how my mom, aunt’s & old folk relatives did it. Most of the time at the farmhouse in an electric stand alone frying thingy. Mom said the key to good fried chicken was a small fryer, cut it up yourself, 2-2.5 lbs,not the giant hormone gorged freaks we get nowadays. Yard birds are the best.
Can I ask what does the buttermilk do?
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