“Fried chicken and gasoline
I miss a woman but she don’t miss me
Fried chicken and gasoline”~ lyrics from Southern Culture on the Skids
Lord, I could say a lot about fried chicken. Fried chicken is up there in the holy trinity of southern cuisine along with corn bread and grits. I can remember being in high school and a group of friends and I would peel out of the school’s parking lot and head straight for a “1-Stop” convenient store. 1 Stops’ were a realized establishment the musicians Southern Culture On the Skids described in the lyrics above; places where a person could fill up their gas tank, get a couple of pieces of friend chicken, and enjoy those heavenly “tater wedges” in a small red and white striped box.
Fried chicken was just everywhere in the south. I can remember buckets of it showing up at family “get togethers” which for a few years included fried chicken from Greenville, NC own “Hardee’s” or what some folks out west know as “Carl Jr.” Of course those below the state of Pennsylvania might have the pleasure of experiencing the deliciousness of Bojangles Famous Chicken & Biscuits. That was always my go to, but I’ve heard similar affinities for those pining for the taste of Popeye’s Chicken. I don’t know, Popeye’s never “hit” for me the same way Bojangles did. To each their own.
Oddly enough, growing up fried chicken was something we went and “picked up“ instead of something we made at home. I seem to have a few repressed memories of my grandmother or great aunts frying up yard-bird in the kitchen, but if those reflections are true these incidents were few and far between by the time I came on the scene. So when I began experimenting with making my own fried chicken I really was working from scratch. Honestly though, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Here’s what you’re going to need,
Ingredients: (this recipe calls for about 3lbs of chicken, adjust as you need to)
1/2 cup of salt, a gallon or so of water, 3lbs of chicken, cup of buttermilk (nice to have a bit extra handy), cup of self-rising flour (I’m a fan of White Lily), tsp of salt, tsp of fresh ground black pepper, and enough Crisco shortening, vegetable oil, or canola oil for frying. You’re going to want bout 1/2 inch standing in your pan.
This recipe is a combination of two different southern cooks, Ronni Lundy and Bill Smith. Lundy (who I’ve referenced before) is the queen of Appalachian cooking and Smith spent a good deal of his impressive career at Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill. Click HERE & HERE for their appropriate cookbooks.
Grab a large bowl and whatever kind of bird your working with, bone in or boneless, and place them in the bowl. Take your salt and a quart of water and heat in a small pot. Stir and allow it to come to a boil. Remove from heat and add to your chicken. Top off the chicken with your remaining room temp water. Sit to the side. Smith recommends that once the water is cool to transfer to the fridge and cool over night. I haven’t done that yet. Usually I do this step around lunch time and allow the chicken to sit in the brine for 4-5 hours. By supper time it’s good to go.
After several hours, remove the chicken and pat dry. Grab yourself another bowl and place your chicken with the cup (or more) of buttermilk. Make sure the chicken is submerged as much as possible. Cover it and sit it to the side.
Here is where you want to get both the dredge ready and start heating your oil. I like to get the “dredge” (a term/cooking technique used to coat wet or moist foods with a dry ingredient prior to cooking. Put most simply, dredging involves little more than pulling or rolling the wet food through the dry material to provide an even coating ready) ready first so grab the flour, salt, and pepper and place it in a Ziploc or paper bag. This is Lundy’s process, others use a multi- plate method, one with dry material in one and wet in the another, but the bag method is the one I like the best after trying both.
Grab your chicken and shake off any clinging buttermilk, toss in your dredge bag. Once the pieces are in the bag, shake it until all pieces are covered.
I use a deep cast iron skillet for frying. Some folks use a dutch oven. Whatever you use, make sure you got a lid. Get your oil good and hot. Depending on your range this might be a setting around medium-medium high. If you got a thermometer to check the temp (360 degrees is good) awesome, if not, wait till you see the oil begin to separate or simply toss a pinch of flour in. If it sizzles and pops you should be good to go.
Remove your pieces from the bag, give them a good shake to remove any excess flour batter, and place them in your skillet. Don’t overcrowd if you can help it. You wanna cook them on that first side about 6 minutes or so, but be mindful to check it often as it doesn’t take much to burn your skin. Flip and cover the skillet. This time can very, but plan to cook at least another 8-12 minutes. I stay right by the stove while cooking and probably flip my chicken a few more times than necessary, but I do so to try and prevent any burning from happening. I use a internal thermometer to check the temperature and as it starts to reach that 165 degree mark I remove the lid for those last few minutes to help crisp the skin.
When it’s ready, make sure to have some sort of setup to allow it to cool and drip, carefully remove chicken from the oil. I like to use a baking sheet as a catch pan along with a wire rack/paper towel to allow the bird to rest.
Plate when its cool enough for you to stand it. We decided to eat ours the other night with some of the barbecue sauces I’ve been making. The one above is inspired from the mustard based sauces of South Carolina.
Chewing the fat…
Call it southern food, soul food, or country cuisine the point is fried chicken is comfort food. “Comfort” is that fitting label given to those go-to choices of must have edibles when we need that extra bit of savoring or when we really long to taste something with meaning that offers a chance of reprieve from the day. As I mentioned earlier, this happened a lot at my family table. People gathering around, adults looking for chicken breasts and me looking for one or two drumsticks. Comfort food is something we can enjoy in the company of others, but it’s also something that can be enjoyed alone. I can think of plenty of moments from my past, where after coming home from shift work, I’d open the fridge and spot a piece or two of cold left over chicken. In those wondrous circumstances I almost always chose to forgo warming the bird up, instead opting of a plate of cold chicken with a few splashes of hot sauce (preferably Texas Pete). Just that image of being alone late a night, sitting at a table by myself or even standing at a kitchen counter, the comfort of a familiar dish really hits home.
Faith can move us in the same way. It can be something appreciated with a group of folks while also being something experienced by one’s lonesome self. I’ve felt the divine presence surrounded by people and I’ve felt that same divine spirit sitting with me at an empty table, nothing there but myself, God, and a few pieces of cold chicken. Both are holy moments. Both offer comfort. That’s what faith can and should do. It’s definitely what fried chicken does.
I hope if you give this recipe a go that you get the chance to see the benefit both ways offer. I hope you get to share a piece with a loved one or with a neighbor…
And I pray. I pray you have the discipline to save at least one piece for one of those late night “refrigerator raids” where it’s just you and God sharing a bit of “comfort” together. The chicken isn’t needed of course, but it doesn’t hurt to have it.
Cheers,
~tBSB