Fried Chicken

It's my favorite time of year!!  Thanksgiving and Christmas means DELICIOUS food & lots of fun in the kitchen !!  We always make fried chicken for our Thanksgiving Dinner.  This is probably my favorite meal in Ethiopia.

Cut your raw chicken into pieces:  legs, thighs, wings & breasts.  If the breasts are big, then cut the meat off the bone and cut the breasts into two.  If they are smaller, then leave them on the bone and cook them whole.

Soak the chicken in buttermilk.  I make buttermilk by mixing 1 Cup of milk with 1 Tablespoon of vinegar.  Fill a big bowl with buttermilk and soak the chicken (overnight or for a minimum of 4 hours).

Mix up this chicken shake recipe:

2 Tablespoons of salt

2 Tablespoons of paprika

2 teaspoons of garlic powder

1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

Lay out a large piece of foil on your counter top (this just makes for easy clean up).  Sprinkle the chicken generously with the chicken shake on both sides.

Place the chicken in a large bowl of flour and coat it on both sides with flour.

Lay the chicken out on a wire rack (if you have one, you can put it on a cookie sheet otherwise).  You can see how I lay mine out, I have the chicken shake cover chicken on the left and the flour covered chicken on the wire rack on the right.

Heat oil in a frying pan.  I like to use my cast iron skillet.  I also really prefer to fry my chicken in Crisco if I have it.  We have Crisco mailed to us or we pick it up when we go to other Countries.  Using Crisco really makes the Chicken taste good.  If you don't have Crisco, you can use regular oil. 

I like to use a splatter guard to help the grease from getting all over my kitchen.

 Cook the chicken 10 minutes on each side.  It should reach an internal temperature of 180 degrees when done.  When it is finished, let it rest for several minutes (covered with foil) before eating. 

Recipe Credit:  Alton Brown - http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/fried-chicken-recipe.html