An Introduction, or I Will Conquer Fried Chicken.

Growing up in the southern United States, I've eaten my fair share of fried chicken. I've had it at fast food chains, in small local eateries, at large chain restaurants, and at various holes-in-the-wall.  I've had good fried chicken, bad fried chicken, and possibly mediocre, forgettable fried chicken (if so, I've forgotten it already).  I've listened to the "to egg wash or not to egg wash" debates.  I've witnessed people arguing over what constitutes "fried"-- deep fryer?  Cast iron skillet?  Is "oven-fried" heresy?--and what constitutes "Southern fried" in particular-- just flour, salt, and pepper?  Buttermilk?--and not long ago, I decided to experiment.  I decided to make fried chicken.  How hard could it be?

People who make good fried chicken will say it's as easy as pie... if you buy the right chicken, coat it with just the right amount of flour mixture, let the chicken stand for just the right amount of time, and are extremely careful about keeping your oil at a constant temperature.  So, yes, I would agree; it is as easy as pie.

Pie ain't easy.

I'm not saying that making a pie turn out well is necessarily difficult for everyone, but when someone says the word easy, you generally don't think of a process that can take hours, or days if you include chilling dough, to complete (or do you?  I don't.). And it can take multiple tries before you perfect a pie recipe.  If you're like me, the failures make you push harder. I can now make an apple pie I'm not ashamed to let other people eat.  

But I've failed at fried chicken, oh, three, four times?  Each time, I can tell you what went wrong.  And I will, in future posts.  I will also tell you where other recipes went wrong and where they succeeded. Hopefully I can help other unsuspecting cooks not make the same mistakes.  But this is also to help reassure people that mistakes are OK. Expected, even.  Cooking is an adventure full of surprising (and often ridiculous) predicaments.  I started this blog because I'd like to have some company on my adventure.

And because I'm determined that fried chicken will not defeat me.