Recipe from “The Gift of Southern Cooking” by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock
You can’t get more Southern than this fried chicken. And we’ve even provided the buttermilk to soak it in and the lard to fry it! It will take a bit of time to cut your chicken into pieces.
Watch: How to Cut a Chicken into Eight Serving Pieces
Remember to use Kosher salt for the brining, and if you have any ham or bacon leftovers from the recent box, I recommend using them to flavor your cooking oil.
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Fried Chicken, Broccoli & Potato Salad
Ingredients
- Chicken – Cut in pieces
- Buttermilk – 1 quart
- Lard – 1 pound
- Butter – 1/2 cup
- Country Ham or Bacon (optional) – 1/2 C, cut into 1/2-inch strips
- All-purpose flour – 1 Cup
- Cornstarch – 2 TB
- Salt – 1 tsp
- Black Pepper – 1/2 tsp, freshly ground
- Potato Salad
- Potatoes –
- Cider Vinegar – 1 1/2 TB
- Sea Salt – 1 tsp
- Black Pepper – 3-4 grinds
- Onion – 1/4 cup, finely chopped
- Eggs – 3, hard-boiled, pushed through a sieve
- Mayonnaise (homemade if poss) – 3/4-1 cup
- Broccoli
- Broccoli – washed and cut into pieces
- Butter – 2 TB, unsalted
- Garlic – 1 clove, minced
- Parsley – 1 TB, finely snipped
- Black Pepper – freshly ground, to taste
Instructions
- Brine the chicken in a bowl overnight by letting it soak in water at a ratio of 1/2 C Kosher Salt to 1 quart of Water. Add enough water to cover your chicken.
- The next morning, rinse your bowl and drain the chicken. Then put it to soak all day long in the buttermilk. Use as much as you need to cover the pieces.
- You might make your potato salad ahead of time since it’s served cold, but if you are thinking of making it more than a day in advance, be aware that the onions will only get stronger over time.
- Potato Salad: Place your potatoes in a pot of cold water, and cook until tender, but not mushy. Drain and let cool off until you can peel and cut them into 1/2-inch cubes. Gently toss the potatoes in a bowl with the cider vinegar, salt, black pepper, and chopped onion. In another bowl, combine the sieved egg yolks with the mayonnaise, and mix in to the potatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- When it’s time to fry your chicken, drain it on a wire rack, discarding the buttermilk.
- To fry the chicken, add the lard and butter (or cooking oil) to a heavy skillet or frying pan. Blend the flour, cornstarch, salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl or on wax paper, and dredge the drained chicken pieces, patting well to remove excess flour.
- You can also prep your Broccoli during this time: Bring a big pot of salted water to boil, add broccoli and cook for about 5 minutes, until tender, but maintaining a bit of bite. Drain and plunge in lightly salted ice water till cooled. Drain and set aside.
Back to the Chicken
- Bring the temperature on your skillet to medium-high and heat the fat to 335°F (170°C).
- Reducing the temperature of the oil, fry the chicken pieces skin side down in batches, so as not to crowd the pan, for 10 to 12 minutes on each side, until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through. Most importantly, the internal temperature should be right around 180° degrees.
- Drain on a wire rack or on crumpled paper towels.
- While the chicken is draining, complete the last step of the broccoli: Melt your butter in a big skillet. When hot and foaming, add the broccoli, reheating, and cook one more minute after sprinkling it with garlic, parsley, salt and pepper.
- Serve the chicken hot, warm, at room temperature, or cold with your potato salad and broccoli. Yum!
Notes
- Ingredients not included in this box: All purpose flour, cornstarch, cider vinegar, mayonnaise, butter (except Real Food Large 3-5), Salt, Pepper.
Ginny
Hi, this recipe for fried chicken is over the top. Am I reading this right, the chicken marinates for 2 days? And I can use cooking oil instead of butter? One more question: How much cooking oil should I use? Have you made this chicken? I know I said one question lol. Thanks for your response
admin
Hi Ginny,
This recipe is adapted from a very traditional Southern recipe. As with all recipes, my approach is always to feel free to adapt things and just use the recipe as a guide/inspiration. Marinating items is always best when things can sit for a while, but life isn’t always perfect, so what’s the harm to marinate for less? If you want to sub one cooking fat for another, it will just turn out a bit differently but it won’t be a problem, you are still proceeding as per the basic blueprint of the process… I personally usually use less cooking oil/fat than more, you can always add more if the chicken doesn’t seem to be frying properly. Hope this helps. THe most important thing is to go forth in the kitchen with great ingredients — and particularly that most important one — love — and armed with both of those I find everything almost always turns out great. : )