Southern Cookin'!

July 10, 2016

Southern Food is Amazing!

I can't eat this all the time or I'll be a visible landmark from Google Earth.  Or require my own zip code.  HOWEVER, it is really yummy. Ya just have to have a nibble.

Here are a few recipes I have to share over the next few days. Yup, it's delicious and not for sissies.   I thought I'd spread the love and the calories and share some recipes with you.  This food is as regional as lobster rolls are to Maine, as traditional as Fish 'n' Chips are to England.  Bon Appetit!
  
Fried Chicken.

A Southern staple.  Every restaurant has a different take on it, I've only had one piece once (admire me for the self-restraint) in the past seven plus months (guilty pleasures) and I can't eat fried food anyway but it's delicious (pass the TUMS) and this recipe is oven-baked so therefore slightly more healthy.
Just don't chow down on fifteen pieces, LOL!

Ingredients:

1 whole (preferably not alive) chicken cut into four pieces
Chickens can be really feisty.  Make sure it's a dead chicken.
They tend to flap a lot in the pan.  
1/2 a quart buttermilk or a couple of cups will do
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. Kosher salt, same amount of freshly ground pepper
Vegetable (or corn oil if you're not watching your cholesterol).
If you don't give a damn about your blood pressure, just chuck in a few handfuls of lard.

Marinate the chicken in a large bowl with the buttermilk.  If you don't have buttermilk, don't race off to the store, just pour a tablespoon of white/cider vinegar over a cup of milk.  Strap some plastic wrap over the top of the bowl.  It's all good.  Don't get all wound up.  Let it marinade overnight.  Your friends will admire and adore you and ask for the recipe.  Put your feet up.

Okay, next day, haul yerself out of the chair and coat each piece of chicken with the flour salt pepper mixture.  Crank the stovetop to 360 degrees F and fry the chicken in an inch deep vat of oil in a cast iron skillet (or heavy bottomed pan, but cast skillets are the BEST).

Cook a few pieces at a time for 3 minutes until the skin is golden brown (it continues to cook in the oven).  Try not to let the pieces touch.  Then remove from the pan and separate them on a metal baking rack on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 30 - 40 minutes and serve hot.
DO NOT place yourself on the scale for a couple of days.