Not your ordinary Fried Chicken

My mom made fried chicken about once a month, maybe more often. We did eat a lot of chicken, mainly because our neighbor raised them and his church "offerings" were in the form of chickens and eggs. I'm thankful that he gave us those chickens and eggs because I know that we would have had a lot more mush (now called polenta) which wasn't a favorite dish of anyone in our family.

My mother's fried chicken did not have a crispy crust -- in fact I had never eaten crispy crust chicken until I moved to Cincinnati. I always assumed that the way my mom made this dish was the way everyone did.

Here's her recipe, which my children loved dressed up with onions and olives (fried in the pan with the chicken), but which I now make crispy, and I'll tell you how at the end of the recipe.

What you need:

1 chicken cut up
a paper bag (lunch bag size is fine) or a plastic baggie
1 cup bisquick
20 shakes of seasoned salt
20 shakes of garlic salt
EVOO (extra virgin olive oil -- you can substitute your favorite cooking oil, but it won't be the same)

In paper bag place the chicken pieces, the bisquick, the seasoned salt, and the garlic salt. Shake well so that the pieces of chicken are well coated.

In the meantime, heat your skillet with a good covering of EVOO. When the skillet is HOT (you can tell because a drop of water will sizzle, or just hold your hand an inch or so above the pan and you'll feel the heat) put each piece of chicken in the pan. Allow about 2 minutes on each side. After you have browned the chicken pieces, turn the heat down to low, and cover the pan. YES, cover the pan. The chicken should be cooked in 45 minutes.

Now days, I put the skillet that I used to fry the chicken in a 350 degree oven after I brown the chicken and cook for 1 hour (instead of the 45-minute pan method). That makes the chicken crispy, more like KFC (if that's what you like). But try it my mom's way. I think you'll like it. Honestly, I prefer my mom's way of making the chicken, but Alan prefers the crispy, so I make it his way.

By the way, the pan drippings make a great white gravy. Add milk, or half and half, or cream to the drippings, stir and bring to a slow boil. Turn off the heat.

NOTE: When my children were growing up I always used an electric frying pan for this dish. When we moved after retirement, I got rid of the electric pan, and now just use a skillet. I recall once, my daughter Becky was making dinner and couldn't find the EVOO, so she used honey to "fry" the chicken in because I had run out of oil. Actually it was quite good. Some mistakes make good eats.

Enjoy!

ttfn