That said, stylistically, it can’t be faulted. So I figured that I could somehow manage to take what the Colonel started and bring it to its ultimate conclusion—that is, deep chicken flavor; a flab-free skin; juicy, tender meat; and crisp, spicy coating—I might just be able to recapture those first fleeting childhood tastes of fried chicken as I remembered them.
Inside Out
I started with a working recipe of chicken pieces simply dipped in buttermilk and tossed in flour seasoned with salt and black pepper, then fried in peanut oil at 325°F until cooked through. A few problems immediately became clear. First off, timing: By the time my chicken was cooked through (that’s 150°F in the breasts and 165°F in the legs), the outer crust was a dark brown, bordering on black in spots. Not only that, but it didn’t have nearly as much crunch as I wanted. Finally, the meat underneath the crust wasn’t completely desiccated, but I wouldn’t exactly describe it as moist, not to mention its rather bland flavor. I decided to fix my chicken from the inside out.
Ingredients:
2 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
4 teaspoons garlic salt
2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cup all-purpose flour
How to make it :
Beat the egg and milk together in a bowl.
Combine the flour with the garlic salt, pepper, poultry seasoning and paprika in a big plastic bag.
Put the chicken in the bag, seal it and shake to coat it.
Dip the flour-coated chicken in the egg mixture and again in the flour mixture.
Heat the oil in a skillet to 365 degrees F. Brown the chicken on all sides in the hot oil.
Turn the heat down to medium low and give the chicken another half an hour or until it is cooked through.
Drain it on paper towels and serve.
