Deep-Fried Chicken (But Low Fat!)
photo by AzArlie
- Ready In:
- 2hrs
- Ingredients:
- 5
- Serves:
-
6
ingredients
- 1 frying chicken, cut up and skinned
- 1⁄2 cup flour
- 1⁄2 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons salt
- recycled shortening
directions
- Cut the chicken into pieces.
- Remove skin and extra fat from each piece (except wings -- too hard!).
- When all pieces are skinned and rinsed, salt each piece on both sides and put into a large bowl.
- Cover bowl and allow to sit in refrigerator overnight, if possible, but at least for an hour or two.
- Heat your recycled shortening (see below) in dutch oven.
- Pour milk into a medium bowl, and flour into another.
- When the shortening is hot enough, roll a piece of chicken in the flour, then dip into the milk, then roll in flour again.
- Carefully drop each piece into hot oil. If the shortening is hot enough, the chicken will float. Depending on the size of your kettle, a whole chicken might be 4-6 batches; just don't overload the kettle.
- Larger pieces may need to be turned over.
- Remove pieces with tongs when golden brown; place on paper towels to drain.
- Serve hot, but it's great cold the next day!
- Recycled shortening: Crisco, for example, comes in a 3-lb. "can" (in quotes because it's cardboard, not metal). The first time you make this chicken, use a full can. When the cooking is done and the shortening has cooled somewhat, pour the liquid into a container (metal coffee can, or similar) except for the brown sludge at the bottom (residue from flour, etc,) which is thrown out. Save the shortening, covered, in your refrigerator until next time. Add enough fresh shortening to the kettle to replace the part you threw out. P.S. When starting with all fresh shortening, adding a little bacon grease will improve flavor of your first batch of chicken.
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Reviews
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5-Stars isn't enough. I used the brown it in the fat, finish in the oven technique since I had a lot of chicken and a small fryer and it came out superbly. I added a little thyme and black pepper to the flour since we like those seasonings on chicken (needed garlic powder but was out). I can't believe how light and non-greasy this is yet perfectly crisped.
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I can vouch! This is precisely how one of grandmother's fried chicken. I prefer using buttermilk but otherwise keep to the spirit of this recipe. I follow up with Tony Chachere's sprinkle. Shortening will give you considerably more crunch than vegetable oil. Always recycle shortening until truly done with or after frying fish. We like frying french fries after the chicken. Helps neutralize odors in your shortening and they taste great!
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
I hadn't lived alone in over thirty years. One of the first things I learned was that I'm a good cook. The next thing was that it's exremely hard to cook for one. The solution seemed obvious: invite people to eat at my place. Often!
Not only did I enjoy the company, but the company always seemed to eat with enjoyment, even gusto. Many of the younger folk, I grew to believe, have just never had homey, old-fashioned cooking. They often react to the meal as if I had performed some feat of magic.!
***** UPDATE *****
Moved to Paris, Tennessee in June, 2009, to live with my brother while he and I remodel a 1930 double-brick house (sound structure, otherwise a pile of trash, junk and other stuff that filled around 40 cubic yards of dumpster roll-off) for me to live in. (The remodeling seemed like a good idea at the time!)
In December, about the time it got too cold to do much work in a place without insulation or heating, I picked up a staph infection in one of my replacement knee joints. This led me to a three-week stay in a Nashville hospital, at least the first part of which I remember poorly. Home now, after missing both Christmas and New Year celebrations (read: dinners!).
Of course, this all took place when I had no health insurance, but all concerned are ore than happy to let me "pay what I can." And this month (February) I joined Medicare!!!!
******UPDATE ENDS ******
ANCIENT HISTORY: I taught high school drama (and English, and once in a while other subjects) for almost 28 years. When I decided I'd had all the fun I could stand, I retired at the ripe young age of 53.
MODERN HISTORY: I've developed a small clientele who insist on paying me for various graphic design, web design, copywriting, and marketing jobs, and returned to my passion for the theatre. I've also expanded my musical explorations by adding my first steel-string guitar to my old standby classical guitar. Also have a mid-grade electronic keyboard, a baritone and a soprano ukulele, and even one of those Marine Band harmonicas from Hohner that I used to have as a youngster.
Since separating from my wife, I've learned--for the first time--what living alone is like, the good parts as well as the not-so-good.
If there's anything to those ads on TV with the laugh-so-much-they-fall-over babies, I must be set to live to at least 150 years old; I laugh an awful lot! And I've learned that crying is okay, too, and actually can make a person feel better.
Never expected to be involved with anything like the 'Zaar, but I'm sure glad I stumbled across it. Lots of terrific recipes, and even better people.
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