Subtitle: Adventures In Cooking Fried Chicken
This morning after getting back from walking Devon, I was hungry. Not just hungry, but hungry for protein! Meat! Fowl! Something! Well, I had nothing in my fridge except some uncooked chicken thighs, so I decided to make an incomplete fried chicken.
Why incomplete? Well, let's see... I didn't soak it in buttermilk, and I didn't bother doing an Internet search to figure out what the oil temperature should be. Wouldn't have done me much good, anyway, since my digital instant-read kitchen thermometer was dead (needs a new battery). So I just created a breading mixture of flour, salt, and pepper and started cooking.
Oh, before I forget to tell you: I have tried to make fried chicken sporadically through the years, and I have NEVER...
...EVER made it correctly. My chicken always turns out either burned or still raw inside.
Anyway, cooked it skin side down first (Michael Chiarello says that one should always cook the presentation side first), for about five to six minutes. Had my cooktop burner set at 7.
Flipped the chicken. Looking good so far. Cooked the other side for another five or so minutes.
Mmmm... mmmm... removed the chicken from the pan, salted it immediately, and let it rest. Ok, now I'm REALLY hungry.
Cut into the first piece... it's still pink inside! Aaaargh! I can't win! Checked the other pieces... same story! I'll spare you the gory pictures.
Ugh. Ok, I'm off to McDonald's to get a Sausage McGriddle!
By the way, here's the living mini tree, with shiny little ball ornaments...
