The Art of Fried Chicken

Many times, we cook things and we find that they are the most amazing dishes we have ever had. But then we might cook something and it's so disgusting we can't even bear to look at it. Well, my take on that situation is to have a note pad. If you are experimenting with a dish baked chicken for example, and you are putting in a "Mediterranean" seasoning but you aren't sure if it's going to taste OK; write down everything you put in it and the order you put it in. Because believe it or not if that dish comes out to be amazing and you can't remember what you did to it and how, you will be upset.

I have a teacher that is currently mastering the art of friend chicken. With her heart in succeeding at this dish, she will aimlessly conquer everything up until taking it out of the grease. And she has stated numerous times that it just comes out "bad." So I told her I will lend my advice. Read on...

INGREDIENTS: 

• Seasonings to season the flour
• Dressing for chicken marinade. Or whatever marinade you like. 
• 2-3 cups of flour (depending on amount of chicken being fried) in ziploc bag.
• Frying oil of your choice. Grapeseed oil has a much higher smoke point than olive oil, so that is what I used.

DIRECTIONS:

* I use Italian dressing to marinade the chicken. This was marinated overnight, and you can let the chicken sit anywhere from an hour to overnight. Of course, I have used other dressings such as Ranch, Blue cheese, Caesar, etc. And they all add their own flavor to the chicken. But I just love the Italian!

 * These are the ingredients I used to season the flour. You can use as many or as little as you'd like.

*Put the flour in a bag. I used a Wegman's shopping bag. Add all the seasonings you want to this bag. Make sure the bag doesn't have holes in it!! I have dropped plenty-o-flour on the floor and hated cleaning it up.

* Add oil (about 1.5 cups) to a frying pan with at least a 1 inch lip around it.You will see bubbles come up from the bottom of the pan. Most people I have talked to, flick water in the pan and when it pops they put the chicken in there. I always hated this method because when it's popping, it's a bit too hot. You don't want to cook the chicken too fast. You want a steady even cook.

 *Turn your stove on Med-High, and wait about 3-4 minutes.

*Your chicken should be ready to add to the flour now, and nicely marinated.

*Take your chicken and put it in the bag of flour

 
*Once you have added a few pieces of chicken to the bag, shake the bag until all the pieces are covered.

*Add the pieces to the oil. Although this seems like a pretty slow process through the pictures, it's actually pretty quick. You don't have much time because the oil is heating up and you don't want it to burn.

*As you can see, the chicken is beginning to cook. You can see blood around the edges of the bones, and you can see that there are bubbles forming in the grease. You don't want the grease too low or too high. Wait until it's done cooking...mine takes around 8-10 minutes to cook thoroughly. Sometimes longer. 

*See that juicy, crispy goodness? Your chicken is done!! And I can tell you that it tasted so delicious.