For those old-timers who remember Glenda...
Glenda's Southern Fried Chicken (learnt from my Plant City, FL, Grandmother, who was married at age twelve and had her first child that same year...didn't HAVE to get married, either, it was just sort of normal back in 1910!)
Ingredients:
Whole small fryer or two
Peanut Oil
vinegar (I use white wine)
Flour
salt
paprika
rubbed sage or poultry seasoning
Cut up the chicken and wash well, making sure to get the blood out of the back. Cut Breast into fourths, lob off the tail, and the wing tips. Put the chicken pieces in a bowl and sprinkle with two to four tablespoons of vinegar, depending on how many chickens you use. Set aside while you:
Combine this proportion of dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 heaping teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon rubbed sage or poultry seasoning (or more, but not much more)
Put into paper sack (so much better for environment.
Drain chicken, after tossing in vinegar a few more times.
Put a few pieces of the chicken in, fold top over, and shake to cover the pieces with flour mixture.
Lay the chicken onto a large cake pan or tray, not touching. This is the SECRET.
When all chicken is coated, you can put the flour mix into a zip bag and freeze it for next time, or not.
LET THE CHICKEN DRY OUT FOR 15 MINUTES.
In a heavy fry pan, heat one inch of PEANUT OIL until hot, at electric setting between medium and medium high, or put gas to medium high until the surface of the oil doesn't look flat. You want your oil pretty hot, but not smoking.
Once you think your oil is hot, take a thigh and put it skin side down in the oil.
Just the one. The oil will bubble around it, but should not splash out of the pan, or cause you to jump back in alarm. Neither should it just sort of softly bubble a tiny bit around the chicken. You want it to seal the chicken, for Pete's sake! (Tip of the hat to Jan Karon)
Put the thighs in, as they are meatiest, and most full of fat. You want to render that fat out of the chicken by thoroughly cooking this piece. Make sure there is an inch around each piece of chicken.
SECOND SECRET: Have another pan, either in the oven, if you are making a lot, or another fry pan on the back of the stove, heated to medium LOW. When your chicken is golden to medium light brown, put it in the other fry pan, or in the oven (heated to 300 degrees). Try to tip the pans, then the oil drains from the chicken as you slowly let it finish cooking.
Cook up all the chicken and be sure to be patient. It takes some time to fry up a whole chicken or two.
When all the pieces are fried, and have been through the draining process in the second fry pan, you put the fried chicken on a large tray or platter and put it up on the counter.
If you can, drain the oil and save it. The brown bits in the bottom make lovely gravy You can put a couple of tablespoons of the flour mix into the bottom of the fry pan, along with only about a tablespoon of the oil (which will be slightly red from the paprika, and you don't want orange gravy, do you?), stir in the flour and cook for a good minute, letting the flour cook a bit. Then pour in a cup of hot water, stir that bottom up! Once the gravy is thick, you add a cup of milk, and keep stirring and cooking for five minutes to really cook that gravy. Makes two cups of gravy. (Increase according to whether you make one or two chickens)
THIRD SECRET: For lovely crispy leftover fried chicken, make sure you allow the chicken to cool completely at room temperature. THEN you put it in the fridge without I say WITHOUT covering it.
This way, the second day, the chicken is still crunchy, even when cold.
This is the recipe I learned from my Grandmother Burnside, who was born in 1898, and lived to 1990, nine children raised to adulthood, a gazillion cigars hand rolled, many fish caught, many a meal made for her eight boys and one girl.
Thank you Mike for posting this. Sounds delicious....will try it out on hubby!!
Sounds great. I was actually just looking for a good fried chicken recipe. So...you have impeccable timing in posting this! Thanks!!!