Make me a Sandwich: Fried Chicken
When I’m trying something new I’ll often go to a recipe that has lots of ingredients and steps. For whatever reason I have in my head that the more involved the recipe the “better” and “fancier” the meal. I know in my head that this is just making it overly complicated. Some of the best meals in my life are the simplest. Instead, I try to cook things like peanut soup or gnocchi that take lots of work without the payoff.
So I was excited to take a different approach with this meal. I knew that Rizzo and I were going to be going away for a few nights with no kids (more to come on this in another blog but Rizzo and I spent two whole nights away from kids and it was glorious)!. However, we still had to eat and we didn’t want to go out to a restaurant with the pandemic still raging (that’s right people, it isn’t over. Put on your damn mask, wash your hands, and stop going out!). It couldn’t have worked out better that my June 2020 edition of Food & Wine provided the perfect solution: Indiana-Style Fried Chicken.
Here is what you’ll need for 8 servings (I halved the recipe myself since it was just the two of us).
1 ½ cups of all purpose flour
¼ cup coarsely ground black pepper
3 Tbsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
6 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces
5 cups of vegetable oil
1 brown paper lunch bag
That’s it. This recipe is about as simple as you can get and I love it for that simplicity. This is especially nice when you are going into a kitchen that you have never cooked in before. You won’t know exactly what kind of utensils are available so the simpler you are the better off you will be.
Since we were going out of town I decided to mix the dry ingredients that make up the batter in advance. I combine the flour, pepper, and salt in a plastic bag to take to our cottage. When it was time to cook, I dumped the mix into the brown paper lunch bag.
Now here comes the tricky part. Using only one piece of chicken at a time, add the chicken to the brown paper bag, close the back, and shake the bag to cover the chicken. It is important that you do a little dance while you are shaking your chicken. Do a shimmy. Shake your hips because your hips don’t lie. Just get that chicken covered in flower, pepper, and salt. Then remove the chicken and place it on a baking sheet. Our cottage kitchen didn’t have a baking sheet so we made do with the rack of a toaster oven. Really anything will do.
Next you need to heat the over medium to a temperature of 350 degrees. The recipe calls to use a Dutch oven. I even have a cast iron Dutch oven at home that doesn’t get much work so I was a little bummed that I didn’t get to use it. However, the cottage had a pretty thick pot that I was able to use so it worked out pretty well.
The reason for using a cast iron Dutch oven is to be able to keep the temperature consistent. You may want to use a thermometer to check the temperature of the oil but just make sure it doesn’t get too hot and start burning the chicken or too cold so you aren’t cooking the meat all the way.
Now, working with three or four pieces of chicken depending on the size of your pot, add the chicken to the hot oil. Don’t put too much chicken in at once. If the chicken is touching another piece then you have too much in the pot. Stay close by because you’ll want to turn the chicken often to make sure you cook it evenly without burning the skin. Give each piece about three minutes then flip it over to get the chicken cooked nicely. It will take about 15 to 20 minutes to cook a breast and about 10-15 minutes to cook everything else. When in doubt, check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer and it should be 165 degrees.
When you are all done cooking, place the cooked chicken on lots of paper towels to allow the excess oil to drain away. Add a bit of salt to taste if you like but I don’t think you need it. Now use your fingers and dig in!
I found this chicken to be crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside. This may have been the easiest recipe I’ve tried on this little blog of mine. I’m a huge fan of fried chicken but always worry about making it because it seems to take so long. Not when it comes to this recipe. This is easy enough to make for a family on any weeknight. I highly recommend giving this a try.
Enjoy!
