Southern Fried Chicken

So last night I decided that I would make friend chicken because, well, it just sounded good :op I wanted something "quick" and easy without too much fuss and after quickly looking at some recipes, decided on Paula Deen's Southern Fried Chicken. I figured, if anyone had a good recipe for fried chicken, it would be Paula Deen.

The recipe looked easy enough, nothing too complicated nor were there too many spices involved. Of course, this queen of substitution didn't have everything in the recipe so I had to do a quick search about what to do in lieu of self-rising flour. Lucky for me, the JoyofBaking said I could substitute 1 cup Self-rising flour with 1 cup All-purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt. So I mixed this concoction up and then just measured out as much as I needed. According to some commentators, self rising flour helps the crispy "crust" rise a bit and puff up.

And the result? I cut the recipe in third because I had two large boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken. Because of this, I wasn't sure how it would turn out but I was pleasantly surprised and Brad enjoyed it too. The chicken was pretty juicy still, not dried out and the exterior was both flaky and crispy. It had pretty good flavor but I feel it was lacking some "oomph" so the next time I think I might add some paprika, maybe a bit more black pepper as well as garlic/onion powder. We'll see what happens. Also, as the reviewers and Paula Deen said, the hot sauce in the eggs doesn't add heat really (and if it did, I didn't notice it, but again, I just eyed it rather than measured out a 1/3 cup because I didn't have a lot of hot sauce and Brad doesn't like his food too spicy so again, but I'll probably up that too in the future.

Southern Fried Chicken
by Paula Deen

• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup water
• About 1 cup hot red pepper sauce (recommended: Texas Pete)
• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• House seasoning, recipe follows
• 1 (1 to 2 1/2-pound) chicken, cut into pieces
• Oil, for frying, preferably peanut oil (I just used my deep fryer)

Directions

1. In a medium size bowl, beat the eggs with the water. Add enough hot sauce so the egg mixture is bright orange. In another bowl, combine the flour and pepper. Season the chicken with the house seasoning. 
2. Dip the seasoned chicken in the egg, and then coat well in the flour mixture.
3. Heat the oil to 350 degrees F in a deep pot. Do not fill the pot more than 1/2 full with oil.
4. Fry the chicken in the oil until brown and crisp. Dark meat takes longer then white meat. It should take dark meat about 13 to 14 minutes, white meat around 8 to 10 minutes.

 

House Seasoning:

• 1 cup salt
• 1/4 cup black pepper
• 1/4 cup garlic powder

Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.