Tasty Tuesday

Chicken is wonderful grilled, roasted, baked or in any number of concoctions--gumbo, dumplings, tetrazzini or salad but, here in the south, nothing quite compares to fried chicken. It takes a little time, but always earns rave reviews and it's worth every minute of preparation. This is my favorite fried chicken recipe and it's wonderful served with vegetables straight from the garden, cornbread from 'scratch' and of course, sweet tea.

Southern Fried Chicken

One fresh whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
8 cups of water
1/2 cup of salt
1 1/2-2 cups shortening or oil (depending on size of your skillet) Oil should rise up the sides about 1 inch.
1 cup of flour
Salt and pepper and garlic powder to taste
Herbs as desired

Method:
To 8 cups of hot water add 1/2 cup of salt and stir until dissolved. Place in refrigerator until until cool.
Add chicken, cover, and return to the refrigerator overnight or at least 8 hours.
Mix flour, salt, pepper, garlic and herbs and place in a paper bag or plastic container with lid.
Place chicken (2 pieces at a time) in flour and shake until evenly coated
Place each piece of chicken on a plate, separated. Heat oil on high heat in a large cast-iron skillet until temperature is 350 degrees. If you don’t have a thermometer, it should take about five minutes to reach that temperature. You can test the heat by throwing in a spoon of flour--if it floats and starts frying, the temperature is perfect; if the flour sinks to the bottom, it needs to heat a few more minutes.
Place chicken pieces in skillet skin-side down (they can be close, but not overlaping) and turn heat down to medium. Fry on one side until golden brown (10-15 minutes), then turn with tongs and fry other side until golden brown.
Remove fried chicken from skillet with tongs, and drain for 10 minutes on a rack over a sheet pan or on paper towels. Serve immediately.

Note: This method produces a very thin but crispy crust. If you want a super-thick crust, you can do a flour dredge, then dip it into buttermilk and then dredge in flour again. Also, go easy on the salt since the chicken will already be salty from being soaked.