Sunday Night Fried Chicken
I don’t know about elsewhere, but in the South we each have our own favorite piece of fried chicken. For instance, my mom was born in the late 30’s and the youngest of 6 children. Her “favorite” piece of chicken was always the wing (and the neck) because that was all that was left – but she grew to love it long before Buffalo wings became appetizers. My nana loved the back with the Pope’s Nose, as she called it because that was REALLY the last piece left in a family of 8. Do they even package the back now? Growing up, we had around 100 chickens that were “free range”. They laid eggs and we butchered pullets (young chickens) in early summer every year. I learned how to cut up a chicken at about 10 years old. Plucking chickens is no fun! Some people still don’t know how today.
Sunday Night Fried Chicken
My favorite piece is the thigh although I will eat a leg once in a while or a wing but nothing else and Mr. Picky-eater likes the breast and the wings. So, when I find a big package of thighs or wings on sale I buy them and then I generally repackage them at home. I didn’t last time so today I had to fry 10 thighs and 12 wings. This week, we will have fried chicken salad and chicken tacos with all the leftovers. But right now I’m beat because I fried chicken from 4:30 to 7:00 PM. Chicken takes a long time to get right and Mr. Picky-eater is like a commandant when it comes to cooking chicken and keeping the raw chicken utensils from the cooked chicken yada, yada, yada…. After 7 years, he still comes in periodically while I am cooking it to “make sure I am doing it safely”. He must have had some kind of chicken trauma as a kid. We have ordered vegan drumsticks from gtfo its vegan before and it is a delicious alternative for vegans. Luckily for me, he sanitizes the kitchen after I cook so I’m sitting in here typing while he is in there scrubbing and bleaching the counter tops – nice!
Sunday Night Fried Chicken
You will have to start early in the day – here are the ingredients you will need for the marinade/batter:
2 Cups Buttermilk
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Pepper
1 Teaspoon Cayenne
1 Tablespoon Durkee Special Sandwich Spread – or Dijon Mustard.
Put the chicken in a Ziploc bag, mush it up and place in the fridge for anywhere from 2 – 8 hours.
Take the chicken out with tongs and place, one piece at a time, in another Ziploc bag with the following:
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbls. Baking Powder
1 Tbls. Garlic powder
1 Tbls. Onion Powder
Then you start frying. Keep your oil between 350-360 F, No higher and no lower – which is very hard to do BTW.
Thighs, especially big ones like these are going to take at least 20 minutes to cook. If you turn the oil higher, the outside will cook but the inside will look like this:
That is not done and bad for you, don’t eat it!
This is what “done” chicken looks like.
Sunday Night Fried Chicken
Just to make sure, for Mr. Picky-eater’s sake, after frying I put the chicken in a pan covered with foil and bake in over at 350 F for about 20 minutes.
While the chicken was frying, I also made rolls, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and gravy.
Gravy is a complicated dish to me. I will show you how I make what most people call, southern white gravy later in the week. It was a tough afternoon and evening but I’m glad it’s all done. Hope you all had a great weekend – I can’t believe tomorrow is Monday already!
The chicken I get today always comes out so tough any more…. so I stopped eating it… This recipe looks so tempting I might just give it a try and see what happens.
Great! Let me know how it turns out!!
That macaroni and cheese looks pretty yummy, too!
It is – it’s my nana’s recipe!! 🙂
This looks gorgeous 😀
My brother saw this and literally slobbered 😛
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
That’s sweet! Boys do stuff like that – 🙂 Thank you both for the compliment!
I’m big on chicken though have to confess that I am one of those people who not only don’t know how to ‘pluck’ but I wouldn’t know how to ‘chop’ one up either. Instead I buy what parts (or whole) from the supermarket. I have (now I have got into recycling) started to strip the meat completely off a chicken and make a pie or quiche or stir fry etc with the ‘unused meat’. I always used to give it to the doctor, or straight in the bin, I can’t believe how wasteful that was now. Thanks for posting
No, thank YOU Dabbit for always being so supportive. Maybe I should do a post where I get a chicken and cut it up appropriately and take pictures – then everyone would know how……it’s much cheaper although I often just get the pieces my husband and I like – quicker that way.
That would be great if you could Kelli at some point, but will understand if it’s not do-able. It would be interesting to see how to cut it. Chicken prices have shot up over here in the last few years and a medium sized chicken can now cost about £5.
My mother taught me two things just before I married which she said would be invaluable: How to iron a man’s shirt and how to cut up a chicken. Both skills came in handy. In our family during the 1930s-40s, my father ate the breast, my sister ate a thigh or drumstick, I liked the top portion of the back and the liver, and my mother ate the the tail portion with the Pope’s Nose and the gizzard.
I’ll bet your chicken is wonderfully crisp on the outside and moist and tender on the inside. Looks great.
Lillian
lillianscupboard.wordpress.com
Thank you Lillian! I’m so glad others know what the back and Pope’s nose is! I loved the liver myself and always like to go eat at the Cracker Barrel so I can order them! 🙂
Yuuuuum. I love fried chicken, but I’ve never made it on my own. I always just make the ‘baked’ version because I worry about calories too much :/ This makes me want to eat all the fried chicken, though! It’s so yummy!
Also, your photos are looking awesome!
Thanks Pam! I’ve been working on them – I so appreciate you sending me those links!
Making fried chicken is on my list of favorite foods I’ve never made that I am going to make! This looks like a terrific recipe Kelli. I’ve printing it to make in the future. When I get brave enough! 🙂 Thanks for faithfully linking to the Weekend Potluck! Have a terrific week!
~Kim
As always Kim, It’s my pleasure to participate!
Looks delicious Kelli! I do love me some fried chicken!! So when you put the chicken in the ziploc bag, I’m assuming it’s marinating in the buttermilk & dijon mustard, right? I’ve always used buttermilk but I’ve never tried adding a bit of mustard to it – I’m gonna give that a try!
This recipe is gonna be my personal favorite this week at Weekend Potluck!
oh wow! Thanks Brandie. AT&T and the wildfires of Oklahoma have not been my friends this week – the Internet has been down all freakin’ week! Yes, when you put it in the Ziploc bag, the buttermilk and mustard are in there. I should have been more clear! 🙂 Thanks for making it your personal favorite. AT&T have promised that I will have Internet tonight! 🙂 I need to post a recipe tonight for Weekend Potluck tomorrow! See ya then.
You know when that mustard comes in to play more than when it’s a hot chicken meal? Next day when it’s cold and you either eat it like that or Mr. Picky-eater’s favorite way – a fried chicken salad – that tang really comes through then! Take care and thanks for always doing such a great job and double thanks from bringing me so many views and new followers! I owe most of my followers to you and weekend potluck! Love ya bunches!!
I have always wondered what’s the best way to monitor the temperature of the oil? I don’t have a fryer just use a frying pan, well the last time I used a dutch oven.
This looks great, I have done something like this with pork chops as well, turn out great!
Thanks for sharing!
I always just use one of those big glass thermometers – but truely – after the first temp check, I pretty much just guess! 🙂
Now that I own an electric skillet (ah, temperature control!) I am going to have to give fried chx another go.
It is something I haven’t done well in the past but I kept working on the recipe and my cooking skills and finally it came out well! Give it a go!