A few weeks ago I decided to make fried chicken for the first time. Fried chicken is a southern style delicacy I enjoy, but often can’t stomach the fast food versions because of how soggy and greasy they can be. I know I know, if I was expecting to eat something somewhat healthy it wouldn’t start with fried chicken. There are a lot of steps, but the difficulty level is quite easy and the result is delicious.
The hardware required for this is a large saute pan, tongs, baking sheet and a rack that fits on it, and a thermometer. Once you figure out the mechanics on how to make it, it’s quite fun playing with the spices to come up with your own signature blend. Most cooks keep their blends a secret but I’m feeling generous and will share mine.
Colonel Fried Chicken:Ingredients
- 5-7 pieces of chicken (I prefer drumsticks)
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 2 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tbsp paprika
- salt and pepper (to taste)
- 2 cups of flour
- 1 cup of buttermilk
- 1/4 cup hot sauce (I use Franks)
- Vegetable Oil
Instructions
- I start by taking a seal-able bag, putting in the chicken and covering with buttermilk and hot sauce. I squeeze out all of the air and let it marinate for 4-5 hours or over night.
- Once I’m ready to cook, I preheat the oven to 350F.
- Next up, take a large saute pan and fill it about 1/4 -1/2 inch full of vegetable oil.
- Heat the oil to 360F, it’s important to use a thermometer or else you’ll burn the chicken. My stove gets to that temp at a medium low setting.
- In another bag or bowl, mix the spices and flour together to create your dredge mixture.
- Take the pieces of chicken and put them directly in the mixture and thoroughly coat. Make sure to keep one hand for wet ingredients and one for dry otherwise you get nicely coated fingers.
- Place all of the coated pieces on a plate until ready to fry.
- When the oil is hot, gently place the chicken in the pan. Cook for 10 minutes, then flip and cook for another 10 minutes.
- Once they’ve cooked for 20 minutes, take them out and place them on a paper towel and pat off all of the oil.
- Place a rack onto a baking sheet.
- Put the chicken on the rack and place in the preheated over for 10 minutes. The oven helps makes the batter a bit more crispy.
- After the 10 minutes, the chicken is ready to eat. Enjoy!
Fried chicken is a pretty versatile meal. Make it a real southern meal and serve with corn on the cob and biscuits or can be served cold at a picnic with pasta and potato salads. Hope you all enjoy, let me know how it goes for you in the comment section!
Rita C. Donnell (Jennifer) has spent the last 26 years studying and practicing nutrition science. She has used a larger part of this time in improving people’s livelihoods. Read More