Chicken and Religion

If you want to be able to feed your soul, you need a good fried chicken recipe and you need to allow yourself to enjoy it. No I don't really care what diet you are on. I don't care if you are a vegetarian. Fried chicken doesn't count. Ok fine. Go to the gym 2 extra times, whatever validation you need but if you don't eat fried chicken you will have serious problems convincing me you are a fully formed adult human. Soul food is for the soul, so stop counting calories for a moment and let yourself feast on the most delicious spicy herbed buttermilk fried chicken you have ever tasted... I guarantee you will never crave KFC again and you will be able to skip church at least once a month.

Why is fried chicken so important? Because it is everything we love about life. It is extravagant. It is mouth-watering. It is simple yet it brings signficant pleasure. It is a self-love thing though it reminds me of the best parts of any kind of love. It's why all French food has butter, butter and more butter in it. Life is too short to not eat fried chicken and too long to go without it. The little pieces are as good as the big ones and anything that goes this well with jalepeno cheddar grits is perfect in and of itself. Enough said? No? Well if you are too dense for food to be the religious experience it was meant to be then you aren't reading this blog anyway. And if you are looking for the low-fat version then you should never visit France (where they are signficantly skinnier than we are) and you should stop reading now. I use lard in my fried chicken and would use double-lard if I could find such a thing. I will do an ode to rendered pig fat in a future post.

Ok now down to the part I love. Fried chicken is EASY to make and make right every time. You will need:

• 1 cast iron pan
• 1 meat thermometer
• 1 chicken - if you take the skin off I have no pity for you, if you want to kill your spirit that is your problem but I have it on good authority a kitten dies every time you eat skinless chicken...
• 1 quart of buttermilk
• 2 T of poultry seasoning mix (get it at HEB or other stores)
• 2 T of rubbed sage
• 2 T of fresh cracked pepper (I grind mine in a cast iron mortar because pepper is awesome)
• 1 T of kosher salt (please please please use kosher salt instead of that other nasty stuff, your food will be less salty and won't taste like chemicals)
• 1 bag of HEB 'frying flour' (I have no idea if you can get this where you live)
• 3 huge spoons of Crisco - each will be about the size of a small fist
• Half a 'stick' of lard

The rest is the least complicated recipe in the land. Cut up the chicken (I will post a video of boning a chicken for those of you just learning soon) into 8 parts. Put the buttermilk and everything else in a large plastic Ziploc bag. Make sure it seals well and doesn't leak. The last thing you want is to throw away everything in the fridge because tainted buttermilk leaks everywhere. Trust me I know this from experience. Shake thoroughly and put in the fridge for at least 8 hrs. The buttermilk will tenderize the meat but it needs time. Ive done it for up to 3 days but stop seeing a difference after 10 hrs or so.

Turn the heat on. On my gas stove I turn it to 3-4 which is medium-high. Add 2 spoons of Crisco and half the lard and let it go all pretty and clear. Make sure it isnt too hot. I like to let it warm up and then add a 'flick' of water. When the water starts making a beautiful crackling sound it is hot enough. And now all you have to do is use some tongs to grab the chicken out of the buttermilk and dredge it in the flour. I also like to add the extra batter that forms from the buttermilk drippings because it allows me to eat the whole time. Cook until the meat is 180 but make sure you don't burn it (keep the temp low enough). Biggest mistake I've made is frying with the fat too hot. Raw chicken and burnt batter suck big time.

And that is it. You may now take time to thank the universe for the gift it has given you in the form of crispy seasoned fried heaven.

Welcome to my world of delicious bacterially infested rotted milk

Yep that's it. Everything good in life comes from bacteria. Cheese, wine, cured meat, beer and all the good things in the world are the result of fermentation (ok the Austin Healey is not fermented in any way that I am aware of, but everything else).

Just out of the cheese press

After a day worth of drying

At BiteOn we believe that bacteria are our true friends. We used a mesophilic starter culture in making this gorgeous pepper jack (there will be fully aged pictures coming soon - in cheese parley that is around 2 mo).

My contribution to BiteOn will be my cooking (both the successes and the failures) as well as general cooking and entertaining related fair. My favorite new hobby, as you probably guessed, is cheese making. Hard, soft, cultured, or otherwise, I simply love the process. I am also not thrilled with the cheese sites out there and the way they instruct so I will be posting video and tutorials along the journey. Keep in mind I have only made 6 cheeses so far and have only tasted one (it was awesome but not ready yet) so don't treat this as the cheese bible or anything. However if you are like me and could totally care less about failure then you can cook along with me and my family.