Why We Can't Get Enough Fried Chicken

[mbig]

Why We Can't Get Enough Fried Chicken
Why We Can't Get Enough Fried Chicken - WSJ.com
With so many delicious variations, it's a dish we can all agree on
By JOSH OZERSKY
Aug 30, 2013

HAD YOU PLACED a bet a decade or two ago on what would be the "It" dish of 2013, would you have put your money on fried chicken? Old-fashioned, hard to eat, messy to cook, downmarket and déclassé, it once seemed to belong to the South—and not in a good way. Yet now, against all odds, this old-school classic is trending feverishly.

Fried chicken, like America itself, looks different than it once did. Rock-star chefs in hipster enclaves have foodies in a tizzy over weekly fried chicken nights. Boldface-name fine-dining chefs are giving the dish the kind of painstaking attention formerly reserved for turbot and Wagyu beef. The modernists, too, have gotten their tweezers on it, crafting diabolically clever new versions undreamed-of in Dixie. Regional takes on fried chicken, formerly known only to a few lucky gluttons, are broadcast far and wide on Instagram. And most radical of all, Korean immigrants have brought their own version of the dish to this country—one so spicy, crisp and addictive it threatens to snatch away the South's golden-brown crown. "Fried chicken is a rural dish from our past that has become even more beloved in the modern moment," said John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi and the dish's leading scholar. "It's a primal food, eaten with your hands, with a bone at its core. It's something we can all connect with, whether we're from the South or not."

It's also about as simple as cooking gets. The first American cookbook, Mary Randolph's "The Virginia House-Wife," published in 1824, dispenses with the recipe in a single sentence: "Cut [the chickens] up as for the fricassee, dredge them well with flour, sprinkle them with salt, put them into a good quantity of boiling lard, and fry them a light brown." A tweet, basically.

[....... Several Recipes and More Interest/History at link ........]

Slideshow: Why We Can't Get Enough Fried Chicken - WSJ.com

KOREAN-STYLE | Korean 'Stain-Glassed' fried chicken at A-Frame in Los Angeles

MODERNIST | Fried chicken with Scotch bonnet chili sauce at Perry St. in New York

NASHVILLE HOT| Nashville-style hot chicken at Prince's Hot Chicken Shack
​

If anyone can't see the rest due to subscription issues would be glad to post it, but I think leisure section articles are universally visible.

 

[Mr. Invisible]

Thanks for posting this dude. I will have to be on the look out (and probably search) for more types of fried chicken.

 

[vesper]

Ahhh yes fried chicken...probably a favorite of more than some will admit. It's certainly on Hubby's list of favorite foods. He's a leg man. I think the secret to good fried chicken is a cast iron skillet. In preparation, I personally remove the skin. After cleaning I soak it in a bath of salt water for a few hours in the refrigerator. Just like the old timers, I dredge it in flour but add a few more spices. I don't use lard to fry but vegetable oil. A helpful/healthful trick to remove the excess oil after cooking is to place the chicken pieces onto a layer of stale bread. It works like a sponge to absorb the excess oil. I usually serve potato salad and lemon meringue pie with the chicken. Two more items on Hubby's list of favorite foods. And at that point if there was something we weren't seeing eye to eye on, it usually breaks my way.

 

[Medusa]

l like it with a sauce made from honey , chili pepper ,ginger

 

[Superfly]

Other than a big, thick, juicy ribeye steak charred on the grille, cooked to a perfect medium rare, my favorite meat is chicken. It's so versatile. I usually buy several bags of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and tenders, when I go grocery shopping. They are like a blank slate. You can do so much with them.

 

[rhinefire]

Popeye's has waffle batter chicken but it is not as good as I hoped it would be. I tried frying some fillets in pancake batter and it was OK but very good cold in the fridge.

 

[tessaesque]

I don't like breaded meats....so most fried chicken is out for me.

 

[Superfly]

Popeye's has waffle batter chicken but it is not as good as I hoped it would be. I tried frying some fillets in pancake batter and it was OK but very good cold in the fridge.

Hm... I've never tried that. I usually use Zatarain's breading when I want my chicken breaded. It's got a touch of Cajun seasoning to it, and you roll the chicken in it and then bake it, so it's much better for you because it's not fried in oil. But every now and again, I want something fried. :lol:

 

[JumpinJack]

Ahhh yes fried chicken...probably a favorite of more than some will admit. It's certainly on Hubby's list of favorite foods. He's a leg man. I think the secret to good fried chicken is a cast iron skillet. In preparation, I personally remove the skin. After cleaning I soak it in a bath of salt water for a few hours in the refrigerator. Just like the old timers, I dredge it in flour but add a few more spices. I don't use lard to fry but vegetable oil. A helpful/healthful trick to remove the excess oil after cooking is to place the chicken pieces onto a layer of stale bread. It works like a sponge to absorb the excess oil. I usually serve potato salad and lemon meringue pie with the chicken. Two more items on Hubby's list of favorite foods. And at that point if there was something we weren't seeing eye to eye on, it usually breaks my way.

Mmmmm----mmmmm. Finger lickin' good. I'm from the deep south, grew up eating fried chicken (it's a wonder my arteries aren't clogged). It's one of my favorite foods, but a rare one, since it's so fattening and unhealthy. Fried chicken with the skin, fried to a real crisp, with mashed taters on the side smothered in milk gravy. I can see where the meal you whip up for hubby ends in you getting your way!

 

[Sharona]

Georgia schools have retired their fryers.........

 

[Goshin]

I like fried chicken, but I've quit cooking it at home; partly for health reasons and partly because its a mess and takes a lot of oil.

We eat it out sometimes though. KFC usually.