Right Wing Nation

When I was a kid, my folks referred to deep-fried chicken as “restaurant” chicken. My Appalachian great-grandmother called it “city” chicken (to her, the town of just under 2,000 people where we lived was the city). KFC is “restaurant” chicken. Any fried chicken you order in a restaurant is most likely going to be “restaurant” chicken.

People called it “restaurant” chicken because nobody deep-fried anything at home, much less chicken. We had fried chicken every Sunday. But fried chicken wasn’t “restaurant” chicken, because it wasn’t deep-fried.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with deep-fried chicken. I love it, always have (and whatever happened to broasted chicken?) But it’s not fried chicken, at least not what we had at home. And the problem with deep-fried (”restaurant”) chicken is inferior gravy.

Think about it. If you use, say, two cups of oil and you’re going to make gravy, unless you’re going to make a gallon of gravy, you have to pour most of it out. That’s not just oil. It carries flavor — lots of it. So you’re pouring flavor down the drain, and end up with an inferior gravy.

Forgive me if I seem focussed on gravy, but it is the whole point of eating — at least when you’re talking country food.

At any rate, I’ve been seeing lately these odd recipes, like “Just Like KFC Fried Chicken.” I find them odd because, well, why would you want your fried chicken to taste just like KFC? Why would you want to make “restaurant” chicken at home? There’s more than a little cognitive dissonance there, at least for me.

Speaking of cognitive dissonance, perhaps I haven’t been paying attention, but it’s only been recently that I experienced (and noticed) these “flaky” biscuits. Yuck. In whose bizarre, alternate universe are biscuits supposed to be flaky? Are these people confusing biscuits with croissants? Flaky biscuits. I find the whole concept disgusting.

But back to fried chicken. You need a heavy skillet (cast iron is good). Eat it with either mashed potatoes or biscuits. Here’s how you do it.

Season about a half cup of flour with salt and pepper. You need no more than a quarter cup of fat of some kind (I fry up some bacon and use the drippings, then crumble the bacon into the gravy, but you can use lard, crisco, vegetable oil, whatever you want). Put it in the skillet and turn the heat up high. While the fat is melting and getting good and hot, dredge the chicken pieces in the flour.

Add the chicken pieces to the hot fat (place no more in the skillet than will fit comfortably — if you’re frying more chicken, do it in batches, and use the oven to keep the chicken warm, or do it in two skillets, and consolidate the fat from them at the end to make the gravy). Fry them over high heat for about five minutes, until they’re a light golden brown on bottom, then turn them. Fry again for about five minutes, until the other side is a light golden brown.

Cover the skillet, turn the heat down to medium-low, and cook the chicken for about 25 minutes, turning the pieces over halfway through.

Uncover the skillet, turn the heat up high, and fry about four minutes on each side, moving them around to keep them from sticking, until you’ve crisped the chicken. Remove to a plate.

Add seasoned flour to the pan and make a roux. How much flour depends on how much gravy you want. The proportion is 1 T. flour to 1 c. liquid. Add milk — not water, and not stock, milk — and stir it over high heat until it boils and thickens (I never measure the flour, so I don’t add a lot at first, then adjust it by adding more). I toss in the crumbled bacon.

Last night, we had the gravy over these biscuits (no biggify this time):

Here’s the gravy:

And here’s my plate (wings are my favorite piece):