Southern Style Fried Chicken
Growing up in the deep south, everything was seasoned, battered, and fried when I was growing up. This is the basic recipe we used to make fried squash, eggplant, chicken, steak (or steak fingers), pickles, french fries, onion rings, and mushrooms. Of course, I’m probably forgetting a few things, but you get the idea. The only real difference for pork chops, fried green tomatoes, and squash is that most people use cornmeal on the squash and green tomatoes but all of them are pan fried instead of deep fried.
Whether it’s called Southern Style, Chicken Fried, or Country Style on a menu, this is the basic way that almost all of these are prepared. The only difference may be whether the item is battered once or twice before frying. The restaurant where I worked as a teenager typically used a double batter method and deep fried everything, but I usually only do a single battery but the fry method is determined by the type of food being prepared.
If you read my Q is for Quilt post, my Aunt Agnes made the very best Southern Fried Chicken I’ve ever eaten. She used eggs and milk before coating her chicken in the flour. I’ve tried multiple times to recreate Aunt Agnes’s fried chicken, but the batter burns really easily when it contains egg. However, I haven’t tried to use the egg and milk batter in years and it might be the way to build up a thicker, crispier crust on my chicken when I’m using gluten-free flour.
Miss JoJo actually fried this chicken. It was her first time to make Southern Fried Chicken, so I was expecting her to become flustered at some point. She accomplished the task at hand, like it was all easy peasy. She even made it in two separate batches, once with regular wheat flour and a separate batch for me with my Gluten-Free Flour Blend. If a sixteen year-old can make Southern Fried Chicken with no problems or complaints, I don’t understand why more adults can’t brave up and fry chicken themselves.
With this picture and very basic directions, given on Facebook, my friend Bewildered Bug, made fried chicken for the first time all the way over in England. She had eaten Southern Fried Chicken while living in Canada and was quite impressed with her own. If you’ve never fried chicken before, give it a shot and let me know what you think.
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- Chicken - boneless, skinless will cook the fastest
- Cooking Oil or Shortening
- Flour or Gluten Free Flour Mix
- Mrs. Dash
- Seasoned Salt
- Garlic Powder or Salt
- Black Pepper
- Season raw chicken with Mrs. Dash, Seasoned Salt, and Garlic of choice. Heavily season with Garlic and lightly season with black pepper.
- Allow the seasoning to soak into the chicken, allow it to sit overnight in the refrigerator to fully absorb. The longer it sits before cooking, the better the chicken will taste. Cover to keep the chicken from drying out.
- Heat cooking oil or shortening when ready to fry the chicken.
- Coat chicken in flour. If the chicken has dried out, dip the chicken in a small amount of water or milk, then coat in flour. Continue coating the chicken with flour while frying other pieces. Set aside until ready to fry.
- Carefully drop battered chicken into the hot oil. Do not overcrowd the pot with chicken. Turn while cooking.
- Chicken on the bone should be cook around 13 to 15 minutes. Slice into it near the bone and meatiest section to check for doneness. Cook boneless, skinless chicken until it floats and is golden brown. Cut into the center to check for doneness. Drain on paper towels to absorb excess oil.
- Gluten-Free chicken will fry almost identically to chicken fried with regular flour. Can you tell the difference below? I think the one on the left was made with regular flour and the one on the right was fried using gluten-free flour. The taste is the same, but the consistency is a slight bit grainier.
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