This month we got a whole cut-up chicken in our meat share from Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm. I have been wanting to make fried chicken for a while, but hacking up a whole chicken has seemed somewhat daunting, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Ordinarily, I'd just dust the chicken with flour, salt and pepper, but Jon's love for KFC inspired me to try to make an extra crispy crust. This is how I made it:
Soak 1 whole cut up chicken in 1/2 gallon buttermilk and about 1/2 c salt and some pepper for a few hours or overnight.
Remove chicken from brine and place pieces, a few at a time, in a large ziplock bag with about 2 cups flour seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste. I probably used about a teaspoon of each.
Dip coated pieces in a slightly beaten mixture of about 2/3 c milk and an egg yolk, then return to bag for a second coating of flour.
Meanwhile, heat about 1 c vegetable oil and 1/2 c lard or shortening in a heavy cast iron skillet over medium to low heat.
Place chicken pieces (a few at a time) in skillet and fry slowly for about 1/2 an hour, until brown and crispy all over. Try to avoid turning too often or the crispy batter will fall off. Drain on paper towel-lined plate.
I also made some tasty drop biscuits using this recipe. For both the chicken and the biscuits I used homemade lard - yum! The book that taught me how to render the lard is called "Jam it, Pickle it, Cure it" and it is a great resource. I am out of lard now, so I will have to make some more and take some pictures as I'm doing it. Needless to say, this was not the healthiest meal I've ever made, but we had a salad to go with it...as if that makes up for all the lard. Ha!
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