fried chicken

i have wanted to make fried chicken for a long time, but i never have because i thought it was too involved and would make a mess. last night i took some chicken thighs out of the freezer to cook today, but only this morning did i decide that i would go ahead and attempt to fry them.

around 9 am i decided that i should soak it in buttermilk, but didn't have any so i made some with vinegar and milk. i soaked the chicken until a little before fry time.

i have seen so many people fry chicken in so many different ways so i just combined a few different recipes. here's what i went with.

i had 4 chicken thighs with bone and skin on hand so that's what i used. it's just adam and me so there was no need for a whole chicken.

i made a mixture of salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and paprika. took the chicken out of the buttermilk and patted dry. sprinkled mixture on both sides of chicken. put 2 cups of flour in a plastic bowl with a lid and put each piece of chicken in one at at time, shaking to coat. i then let the chicken sit for 20 minutes while i melted one cup of shortening over medium heat in my cast iron pot. just for good measure, i coated the chicken with flour a second time because after it sat i didn't think it had enough.

once the shortening was melted i put all the chicken in and fried for about 15 minutes. flipped and fried other side another 15 minutes. then i took it out to drain the oil. i used a cooling rack over a sheet pan. i salted it again.

this really made no mess at all. i guess because i used the pot instead of a pan. now that i know how easy and tasty this is, i am scared that i will make it too often.

i made garlic mashed potatoes to go with the chicken. i have made this recipe a million times and i call it my own, but it really belongs to tyler florence. the best thing about this is the cream that you put in the potatoes. it is so yummy. instead of chives i used green onions since we had some left over from sunday's tacos. adam had to have something green on his plate. by the was--these potatoes are NOT fat free.

for my green i cooked up some collard greens that i had in the freezer. my grandma gave them to me. when i cooked them the house smelled like christmas to me. something about greens cooking reminds me of my grandma's house at christmas. they were very good too.

so my first fried chicken was a success. AND i made another loaf of bread today for our neighbors. it came out just as beautiful as the first.