Fried Chicken!

I bought a cast iron skillet about a month ago for the sole purpose of frying chicken. Ok, there are other great uses for my cast iron skillet, but I really wanted to fry chicken. I love fried chicken...my wife does not. So, it's a once in a while thing.

The family was out of town this weekend, so last night I had a friend over to watch football and I made my first attempt at fried chicken. I used this recipe from Paula Deen, who I figured would know a thing or 2 about fried chicken.

I followed the recipe almost exactly. I didn't have self rising flour, but I found out that you can convert all purpose flour to self rising flour by adding 1 1/2 tablespoons of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of salt per cup of flour. So, I made my own self rising flour. The other deviation I took was I used Frank's Red Hot sauce instead of Texas Pete Hot Sauce (by the way, don't worry about the hot sauce, it doesn't overwhelm the chicken, just adds another dimension to the flavor). Also, technically I pan fried it rather than deep fried it, but that's splitting hairs.

Overall, the chicken turned out really good. I really liked the breading and the chicken stayed very moist. I think next time, I will use a smaller chicken and possibly take the chicken breast off the bone to help the breast cook faster. The breasts took almost 40 minutes to get done. The thighs took about 22 minutes (11 minutes per side), the legs took 20 minutes (10 minutes per side) and the wings took about 10 minutes total (mostly because there were almost totally submerged in the oil).

If you attempt to cook this, keep in mind that you need to maintain your oil temperature. I had a thermometer in the oil all the time, and with my electric stove, I had to work a little to keep it at 350 degrees, though the cast iron's super heat conducting capabilities really helped (thanks Alton Brown). Also, have a meat thermometer handy to check the internal temperature of the chicken...165 for white meat, 175 for dark meat. In fact, if you want to go about 10 degrees more done, that's ok...at least Alton Brown says so.

There isn't much I plan to change with this recipe. Next time I will probably season the chicken a little more liberally before dipping it into the wet mixture. I may even try to marinate the chicken or brine it to add a little more flavor to the meat. I won't change the breading mixture at all.

And the true test of good fried chicken...I ate it cold today and it was still good. I think we have a "winner winner chicken dinner," to quote Guy Fieri. Yes, I watch too much Food Network.

So, that's my fried chicken cooking adventure. If I can do it, anybody can. Enjoy!