Fried Chicken

Okay, now this would have made any of my country friends very happy. I have never made fried chicken before and had always been scared to make it. It seems like it is always tricky. But this was so easy. Ruben brought home a whole chicken all cut up. I rinsed the chicken and set it in a bowl of milk. At my mother's suggestion I would have used buttermilk, but as is a typical situation, I do not have buttermilk and I am not even sure if they have it at the store. I doubt it. In another bowl I threw in a bunch of flour, salt, pepper, a good amount of paprika and just because I had it some Mexican oregano. This was so simple I could not believe it was so tasty. I just rolled the chicken in the flour and gently put them into a large pan of hot oil. I thought that it would splatter a lot more then it did but it was very easy. The chicken fried for about 7-8 min and then I flipped it over. I did about 3 batches in the pan and let each batch drain on a towel.

I served it with some mashed potatoes that I cut up and boiled in some stock that I had saved from when I last made chicken soup. The broth was so flavorful that I did not add anything after mashing the potatoes. I did try to make a little gravy. This did not turn out great because I do not have a whisk so the flour was a little clumpy, but it was still good.

For the gravy we emptied almost all of the oil that had cooked the chicken, threw in about 2 cups of stock that I had saved, added a little butter and some flour. I would have added milk if I had it but I was out. So anyway... there you go.

Good old fashioned fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Needles to say, this took less effort then going to KFC. I cannot wait to make it again. And as usual, it was great cold the next morning.