give it a fry, won’t you?

I seem to talk about my mom a great deal here.  Whatever our relationship became, I learned  a lot about cooking for those you love from her.

She could fry a mean chicken.

Seriously.  I don’t know if I exaggerate with the veil of memory or what, but her fried chicken was so good you couldn’t do anything else but attack it like a starving cougar.  It took me a long time before I even thought about giving it a try, but between Man Unit’s persistence and my procurement and subsequent reading of this book, the desire grew to make an attempt or six.

I think I tried my first batches around the time before we got married.  I remember being brave enough to serve a batch when my wedding party came to help me find a dress.  I remember green beans, biscuits and the chicken.  Man Unit tells the story of one of them stealing the last piece right out from under him…so I suppose those first batches weren’t too awful, but it still wasn’t what I wanted.

Years passed and I’d keep trying.  Different fats.  Different pans. Different cooking times.  Brining, marinating.  Combinations of multiple recipes, all trying to find the best and closest-to-perfect fried chicken.  Then for my birthday a couple of years ago, Man Unit hunted down an out-of-print book that I’d put on my wish list: The Southern Cook’s Handbook : A Step-by-Step Guide to Old Fashioned Southern Cooking.  Where the previously mentioned book was a beautiful piece of work written in high prose, this is a comb-bound, plain language how-to manual that teaches you how to divine that skill set that your mama had of never using recipes but instead listening to what the food had to say. The section simply titled “METHODS” and Chapter 5 on Frying Foods struck a chord.  And even though they didn’t suggest it, my fat of choice to fry chicken now is…

lard. And I had to go to the Mexican foods section of the local grocery to even find it and they only sell it in these big ass tubs.  All the better to fry you with, my dear.

So here with my own additions are the instructions for Step-By-Step Pan-Frying.

1. Bring refrigerated chicken to room temperature.  DO NOT FRY COLD CHICKEN, as it will fry unevenly and get brown before it’s done.

2. If you’re going to be frying more than a batch or two, heat the oven to 200 degrees to keep the done batches warm.

3. You will need: a skillet, tongs, a paper or plastic bag or a covered bowl, paper towels, a platter, a cooling rack, your selected fat, flour, salt and pepper.

4. If the chicken is fairly wet, pat it dry. Throw a few cups of flour generously seasoned with salt and pepper into the bag or bowl (I use a plastic bowl with a lid).  Toss in the chicken and shake vigorously until well coated.

5.Place skillet on stove burner set between medium and medium high.

6. Measure fat and heat it in the skillet.  You want your liquid to be about a half inch in the pan.  Some will tell you to use a thermometer at this point, but I find the Guide’s method to heating the fat foolproof.  As it heats, it will begin to shimmer and move around slightly (usually after 3 to 5 minutes). You can tell when oil is properly heated by flicking a pinch of flour into the skillet.  If the flour begins to brown or burn immediately, the fat’s too hot.  If it spreads into a flat film and begins to sink, it’s too cold. This was my error: timing to heat the fat.  I think I’ve been starting with oil/fat that wasn’t hot enough all this time.  If the flour makes a hissing sound and moves about quickly, you’re ready to fry.

7. Using your tongs, place one layer of chicken in the skillet so that the pieces do not touch.

8. Bring the heat down to medium.  Fry until coating is brown slightly on the bottom side and solid. Turn ‘em over.

9. Continue turning until evenly browned. This next part is important. Adjust the heat as needed so that the oil/fat makes a constant sizzling sound throughout the process.  If the sound isn’t continuous, heat is too low.  If oil smokes or pops or coating begins to burn, heat is too high.  Set the skillet off the burner momentarily to cool slightly. In other words, listen to your food.

10. As each piece becomes completely brown and done, drain it on a cooling rack placed over the platter lined with paper towels. White meat cooks faster than dark (I don’t care, we are fiends for a drumstick) and pieces cook faster at the center of the skillet than the edges.  I’m sure it’s done when the juices from the biggest piece in the pan run clear.

Good times.  Have at it.