Southern Fried Chicken

Okay ya'll my soon to be visiting Brits have requested Southern Fried Chicken as theri first meal.  So anyone have a great recipe or just an ingredient list?  I know a good friend of mine using buttermilk and hot sauce and lets it soak over night.  So  ideas?  What you you do?

This comes from a column The Guardian used to run called 'The Perfect ______' (fill in the blank). Been meaning to try it. I also have a Maryland pan-fried recipe if you're interested.

"Fundamental truth: southern fried chicken is slow food. The fast-food version is an abomination. To make the real thing, a few rules: Buy good chicken. Fry in 1.5cm of oil. Use small pieces. Use a splatter guard.

Soak chicken for at least six hours in milk, buttermilk, or milk and yogurt. Drain, dredge in seasoned flour, rest for an hour so the milk can absorb the starch (repeat for extra crunch). Get oil medium hot in a big heavy frying pan and put in chicken to fill wihtout crowding. The oil should sizzle vigorously but not violently. Brown all over, which will take about 10 minutes if temp is correct. Turn as necessary and remove when done.

When all are browned, turn heat to low and fit chicken snuggly back in the pan, crowding is OK at this point. Cook for another 20-30 mins, turning as necessary.

Hope this is what you needed!

I've always done mine very similar to that balmerhon but with just a couple of small differences.

I double dip my chicken by first dredging it in the seasoned flour then in a milk/egg mixture and then back in the flour.

I brown it first in the oil and then turn down the heat and put a lid on it to allow the chicken to cook through...then once it's cooked all the way through I turn the heat back up to re-crisp the chicken for a few minutes then put it on the paper towels to drain.

Melissa,
This is the same way I cook mine including the "double-dipping"! Ok, now I'm hungry and this is not on my diet!!!

Melissa's method is the exact one my Mom used.  Yummy!

Sounds good. I tend to double dip to get more fatty crunchy stuff on it!  

What kind of spices do you use?

Salt, pepper, hot pepper or a touch of chili poweder for a spicy crunch or maybe thyme or parsley for a more herby version. Powdered garlic is good, too, as paprika!  

What are you serving with the chicken? Buttermilk biscuits I hope! Southern greens? OK, I'm drooling!

You got it...going to do potato salad, deviled eggs, Wishstars baked beans, corn bread and buttermilk biscuits and of course green bean casserole.  Oh and a peanut butter pie for dessert!

Sounds good. I tend to double dip to get more fatty crunchy stuff on it!  

What kind of spices do you use?

Just salt and pepper. I don't like my chicken spicy but if you do then some cayenne pepper can be added.

You got it...going to do potato salad, deviled eggs, Wishstars baked beans...

Hold the phone!
Where did you get Wishstar's recipe, huh? I dredged this forum to see if she'd posted it and I couldn't find it anywhere. You ladies doing some behind-the-scenes recipe swapping without us? Oh the humanity.

Just a couple of quick procedural notes from a good ol' southern boy...

A friend from NY once tried to make fried chicken based on a recipe he saw on the net. He stewed the chicken in the buttermilk overnight, etc, got his spices all ready in the flour, dredged, and so on.

The thing he didn't count on is that you can't take very cold chicken right out of the fridge and put it in hot oil. You fry the outside of the chicken and the inside never gets done. It's *very* important that you let your chicken come to room temp before you fry it. (Even still soaking in the buttermilk if you so choose--that's what I do, then I dredge and fry it.)

Also, don't over-crowd the frying pan--a typical cast iron skillet shouldn't have but about a half a chicken or so in it at once (a breast, leg, thigh, and wing). Don't be afraid to cook multiple batches. Put your oven on about 200F and just put pieces on a pan to stay warm; they'll be fine.

  YUM!

-g

Ooh, great tip! I'd never thought about the room temp chicken! Answers a few questions. LOL.

  I read about this recipie today.I dont want to think what it would do to your arteritis but it sounds yummy 

 Fried and Smothered Chicken




1 chicken fryer cut up into 8 pieces

2 cups buttermilk

Salt and pepper to taste

3 cups lard

1 cup butter

2 cups flour

2 cups milk

Soak the chicken for 6 hours in the buttermilk.

Season with the salt and pepper and coat with flour (shaking them in a paper bag
works well). Melt all the oil and heat to 325 degrees. Cook chicken until golden
brown and drain.

Place in a glass baking dish. Drain oil except 3 teaspoons without disturbing
the drippings in the bottom of the pan. Add 3 teaspoons flour to pan and mix.

Add milk and cook until it thickens, and then add a pinch of salt. Pour gravy
over chicken and bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.


 

Am I the only Southern woman on the planet who never mastered the art of fried chicken? And dare I say, I don't even actually like fried chicken?! Good luck to the cook who has to make it for her Brit-laws...has the event passed? How did it go?