When you want an old-fashioned dish...

... use an old-fashioned recipe book.

It was hot this afternoon, about 93. I expected it and planned on fried chicken, potato salad and corn on the cob, with strawberry shortcake.

I've never made really good fried chicken, though I have no problem with sautes.
I poked around through all the recipe books and found what I wanted in Mom's old Woman's Home Companion Cookbook (1946). It was really simple and really good. Next time I want something in the same vein I'll try the Southern Fried variant.

I used half lard and half vegetable oil, as I've read that lard tends to cook crisper.
I used the variant that coats the chicken with 1 part cornmeal and 3 parts flour, and the cornmeal did indeed add some crunchiness.

The recipe said to cook for half an hour to an hour. That seemed too long to me, so I just looked at the chicken as it cooked, and ended up deciding it was done after about 20 minutes. And it was done, and crisp and juicy.

One thing the recipe said was that if you want a crisp crust, uncover the pan for the last half of cooking; if you want a tender crust, uncover the pan for the first half of cooking. I went the crisp route and was very happy.

John

[Jenise]

Isn't it fun using those old recipes? Makes you feel like you're keeping a legacy alive.

Never used lard personally, but yes yes yes on the addition of corn meal. In fact, the crispness it adds is so good, to my mind it negates the need to consider upping the cholesterol with the use of lard.

I don't do much frying, and that's why I went looking for recipes. Usually when I try a recipe for the first time, I pretty much follow it as written, and that's what I did this time. Now that I know how it works, I can tinker - but it may be months before I fry another couple of thighs.
Fortunately, my 89 year old mother and I don't have problems with cholesterol or blood pressure. I keep fats down, but I don't have to be fanatical about it.

John

John, did you just fry in a large cast iron skillet, or similar? Or do you have a dedicated deep fryer?

I was only frying two thighs, so I used a small, reasonably heavy skillet, but nothing particularly special.

John

I rarely find an old fashioned dish that I can't improve upon.

A lot of the "old fashioned" recipes were actually written by people who had to cook every day and actually knew what they were doing. I was astounded at how little of that knowledge most of my students had acquired.

I find the technique and results in some of them right on the money.

Some of the "Home-style" dishes were absolutely nailed a century ago or more - by smart people who knew when they had it and couldn't improve on it.

Bernard:
I sometimes find an old-fashioned dish that I can improve upon. More often, I find that I learn something so I can improve how I cook the old-fashioned dish in what I conceive to be the "right" way. I rarely try a new recipe that doesn't teach me something.
Most often, if it's a meat dish, the old recipe is expecting a LOT more fat in the meat than we get today, and I have to adjust for that. I think the fact that I had to reduce cooking time for the chicken is partly due to leaner chicken these days, and partly due to the fact that I was cooking two thighs rather than a whole cut-up chicken.
Chef Carey:
The Woman's Home Companion Cookbook is a strong argument for your position. Their "recipe" for fried chicken is actually a paragraph or two of text talking about the process, and it's followed by several short paragraphs of variations. I really like that sort of recipe. It's much more informative than one of those that look like a high school chemistry experiment.

Let me clarify, because Chef Carey seems skeptical.

We have much better quality ingredients today than 100 years ago. We also have a century of development of technique. Aside from the classic repertoire of codified cuisine (e.g. Escoffier), most traditional dishes were based on make-do with what is available. OK, if you have exactly those limitations, then probably those traditional recipes and techiques would be fine. But none of us is so limited.

Let's take a traditional American meatloaf. You mix generic ground beef with stuff like rice and dried minced onion and garlic powder and a few other miserable ingredients, form a loaf and smear ketchup on top. Tell me you can't improve upon that!

Let me put this to a challenge. Give me a traditional recipe (at least 50 years old) that you say cannot be improved upon. But it needs to be a real recipe, not boiling an egg.

Please try this for your fried chicken


Mike’s Southern Fried Chicken

The day before serving do the following:

debone 12 to 18 chicken breasts (half breasts)

Marinate the chicken overnight in the refer in the following mixture:

2 cups buttermilk
1 tspn Worcestershire sauce (L and P see coleslaw)
1 tspn Tabasco sauce
1 tspn minced fresh garlic
1 tspn coarse sea salt
1 tspn white pepper
1/2 tspn cayenne pepper (if Cajun add 3X)
1/2 tspn french pepper
1/2 creole or coarse prepared mustard

Remove from refer 3 hours before frying. Leave it covered and in the mixture.

The coating or breading that will be used on this chicken is as follows:

4 cups of white flour
1 tblspn cayenne pepper (X3 if Cajun)
2 tspn coarse sea salt
2 tspns white pepper
2 tspns french pepper
1 tblspn garlic powder
1 tblspn onion powder
2 tblspns ground poultry spice

Combine well and set aside.

Melt 3 to 4 cups Crisco shortening in a skillet or electric frying pan. Heat to 360 degrees to start each batch of chicken.

Place two cups of dry coating mix in a loaf pan. Remove 3 to 4 pieces of chicken from buttermilk mixture and coat each one liberally with the flour mixture. Immediately place them in the hot oil and fry 1 minute at 360 and 4 minutes per side at 320. The chicken is done when it is golden and cooked through. Remove to a warm platter and continue the process until all is fried. Retain any left over flour for the gravy. Serve gravy with spiced buttermilk biscuits.

Please enjoy. Mike

Mike,
I'm not at all sure how I could cut that down to work for me. I'd be cooking half a chicken breast, somewhere in the neighborhood of 3/4 of a pound of meat. And I tend to avoid recipes that require thinking ahead to the next day. I'm just way too lazy, I guess.

The recipe does look good, but it doesn't seem to fit the way I cook these days.

John

Mike, if you use boneless chicken breasts, then it isn't anything like the 'old-fashioned' Southern Fried Chicken that I know. I grew up in the Deep South, and bone-in was/is standard for the real thing. Besides, leaving the bone in contributes much to the flavor.
The seasonings sound great, however! I love using buttermilk as a dip before frying, not that I ever get to fry chicken anymore, trying to control my cholesterol and all that.

You can use, of course, any piece of chick... some of my dinner guests dont like to mess with bones that is why I changed to boneless.... Enjoy.

Oh, I've no doubt that it tastes delish.