Susan in FL

We too had a fried chicken dinner last night, but I can't honestly say it was outstanding. What was different for me from all those years ago when I successfully made fried chicken was -- probably #1 -- that I didn't have my heart in it; that I did the buttermilk thing (back in the day I dipped in egg before flour mixture); and that I cooked the non skin side down first. There is good news and bad news. The bad news is that the skin/breading turned out too salty. I love salt, so that's saying something coming from me. I used the proportions someone mentioned from Martha for salt to buttermilk, and then I too generously salted the flour mixture. If it hadn't been for that, the very crispy skin would have tasted absolutely delicious. One side cooked too brown. It was the non-skin side which I browned first, as somebody talked about upthread. The good news is that inside, the chicken meat was the tastiest and the juiciest fried chicken I ever made. This was really fun. However, it did bring home to me just how much my cooking style and my tastes in food have changed! It's not worth it to me to go through this much time and mess to eat fried chicken. I would truly rather eat the take-out we get sometimes on Friday nights from one of the Publix in town. We really do love pressure-fried chicken which is what they have. We had our favorite sources for that kind of take-out fried chicken when we lived up in Delmarva Chicken Land. But back to the cook-off topic... We used our favorite brand of buttermilk, which is very thick and rich. The flour mixture had the same secret-ingredients-seasoning in it that I used to use, with the addition of a couple of pinches of cumin, and of course the too-much salt. I fried in peanut oil with a little bacon grease, and used both of my cast iron skillets. I failed to note how long it cooked. I could not bring myself to make "my" bacon and egg potato salad without my son being here. This is a public forum, and if he were to read this or to otherwise find out that I made that without him here ... oh my. I'm going to make some to take with me when we go to Pensacola this week to attend and celebrate his Winging Ceremony, with the Navy.<---Proud mom words. Instead, I made mashed potatoes and a pan sauce, using ooops, I mean gravy, and corn and green beans. I felt like I was eating a Swanson TV Dinner. Just kidding.... though it looked like that, it tasted much, much better than that. We drank a bottle of 2003 Beaujolais-Villages. I've really had a good time with this. What a great thread. Thanks to all who have organized it and participated! Is there any idea of what and when the next cook-off will be?

I just clicked the link that I provided above, and I see it didn't turn out well. Sorry about that. Anyway, Abby was the one that sounded the best to me, and yes, that's the address. I hope to hear follow-up, too. If it's good, I'll go there the next time I'm in Miami!

Yes.

There's a thread about the foods and beverages that have been spilled on keyboards and how to clean it up, but what about all the drooling on keyboards that is going on as a result of seeing the good food in this blog?

Amy, unfortunately, I don't have any first hand experience with tracking down good beer in Miami, but click here for PubCrawler's search results for brewpubs and beer bars. Some of the reviews describe the beers as pretty decent.

I just found the thread yesterday, and remarkably, read through it all to bring myself up to date. You have my praise and appreciation as well.

Great piece of writing, Brooks! Do some editing to adapt it to whatever readers, and you can publish that baby! And don't stop there, I agree... You are headed for the Iron Chef. I can't wait... we all knew you when. Very seriously now, I enjoyed that, and as usual, learned a bit from you. ...but of course! That is like Duh. Then, when we have that three inch layer of clumped up gob of dough substance on our fingers, we can release it into the trash and not have to continually replace the flour mixture. Thanks. ROFL, Susan!Our chicken goes into the buttermilk today.

Way cool, besides everything else in your blog, you have other eGers! Hello, everyone, and thanks for your roles in this!

I think it great fun when it is done deliberately and with malice aforethought but it reminds me too much of my first dinner disaster - pork chops, mashed potatoes and cauliflower! ← Really!! When he first told me he was fixing this dinner, I did cringe, with the thoughts of the presentation. And I also thought maybe with no color, uh-oh, vitamin-free dinner. But actually it turned out with a nice (and comical) plating, and was nutritious as well as good!

Confession: those are some promotional shots taken about 2 years ago, just after we finished. So, no, our kitchen isn't anywhere near that clean! A. ← Whew. I feel better now.

I was going to open this post by writing, "Russ likes to play with his food", but decided not to. It didn't convey in the way that I wanted that even though we are mature, intelligent, sensible and sophisticated adults (LOL!), we like to have fun in the kitchen, and this was one of the silly kind of playful things we sometimes find ourselves doing. He cooked last night and decided to make a white dinner. Baked cod, baked sweet onions, rice, mashed cauliflower with white cheddar sauce, and you guessed it white wine. Today's afterthought: Obviously he gave no thought at all to St. Patrick's Day!!

Your kitchen is gorgeous. I adore it. I want it! I have intentions to get black appliances, but unfortunately can't afford a plan for when yet. Nevertheless, I've been looking at black refrigerators. I would also like to have a range much like yours and your photos helped visualize for me what it would look like in that scheme. But your kitchen is so clean...!?

I have been getting a kick out of this about the backs... besides stock, the only thing we have used backs for has been crab bait! Now I have a whole new outlook on them.

Thank you for the suggestion. I had already returned from Tampa when you posted, but I have made note of Thai Pan Alley for my next trip. I ended up at Jasmine Thai, on Mabry, and enjoyed the meal. P.S. Welcome, and hope to see more posts from you!

Wow! Y'all's chicken looks sooooo good! I hope mine turns out that pretty. Thanks for all the photos and details.

Welcome back, Percy... great pictures and write-ups. Thank you so much for reporting back. I can't wait to hear more! If you were here this past week, you had some fine weather for your trip.

Way to go, Linda and Susan! Nice! Susan, fried chicken has long been picnic food for me, too. Obviously, since it's been several years since I've made fried chicken, recently it's been take-out for our fried chicken picnics. When I was a kid, every picnic that I can remember was fried chicken that my mom made along with her potato salad, hard-boiled or deviled eggs, and sliced tomatoes. She was not big on variety, but the chicken sure was big on flavor AND the heavenly smell... her fried chicken picnics is an aroma I can vividly recall! BTW, is there a hoped-for deadline for making the dishes in the cook-off? I probably won't have the opportunity to do it until Sunday at the earliest. I have decided to brine in buttermilk, which neither my mom nor my ex-mother-in-law did (somehow, it will feel real good to venture out like that), and I can imagine making potato salad to go with it.

Oh my, I bet it was sublime. I didn't realize he had been making Immort Ale for that long! How time flies when you're having fun in the world of beer. Edited to add: Speaking of aging and big beers, I'm now sipping on a glass of Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout '03-'04.... Mmm-mmmmm good.

It really depends on the beer. Most barley wines will age well. Many Belgian beers age well. Lighter styles IPAs, most lagers, etc... age rather poorly and are best consumed fresh. Generally the higher the alcohol content the better it will age. Hops fade quickly from beer as it ages, thus the most noticeable difference will be the mellowing of the floral/pine/citrus hoppy bitterness (assuming the beer exhibited any of these components to start with). In the beer community there is a bit of an obsesion with aging beers and trying them as they age. I am guilty of this to some extent, but I have found that most beer that the average beer drinker will run across is best when consumed fairly fresh. ← Very well described, Jeff. Regarding your comment about aging Bigfoot... I will keep that in mind. We have Bigfoot aging from 1999 on. Sounds like it might be best to start drinking those... We also have some 1999 Brimstone Big Ale. When would you suggest for drinking that?

Thanks, Peppyre. I look forward to that. Elie, as usual, everything looks wonderful. Can you give me some details on your crock pot beans, tomatoes, and pork? Did you not soak the beans first and use enough liquid for them to fully cook in the crock pot? I've been wanting to try that method of cooking beans.

Wonderful blog!! I wish I had the kind of markets you are picturing and others have shown in blogs. I also love to see what bloggers' cities/towns/communities look like. AND, I love your tablecloth and napkins. This is great... thanks.

Patti, I think you would love Russ's fried chicken thighs that I mentioned in this thread (and multiple times in the Dinner! thread ). I've never had the Popeye's naked chicken that you were trying to duplicate, but I intend to try it after hearing your reviews of it! We like chicken prepared this way #1 because it tastes delicious and #2 to save calories (not carbs in particular). It feels funny to describe this preparation in a discussion about real fried chicken like this one, but here's what Russ does. He generously salts and peppers both sides, and places the chicken thighs, skin side down, in a cold pan, this Farberware non-stick pan. Then he turns the heat to one click higher than medium, puts the splatter screen thingie on it, and sits down with a glass of wine and watches some Fox News on TV. Then maybe ten to fifteen minutes later -- I tried to nail him down to a more definate time, but he didn't know -- when they are cooked a little more than half way through, he turns them and cooks them for a few more minutes until done. Starting them in the cold non-stick pan, they never stick. He always gets crispy skin, "with no added fat" LOL, that is juicy on the inside. The better the chicken is, the tastier it is of course. Once in a while we brine for this, but not routinely. We used to like Perdue best when we lived in Delaware, but can rarely find it down here. This isn't a real good picture, but it's the only one I could find.

The only picture I have is from the last time I made it, and out of all the times I've made it, this was the batch I least liked. But, I'll post it anyway. I like it more browned and crispy than this, but still it didn't taste bad!

Wow, that looks so good!! Is the recipe in Les Halles accessible online? I would really like to know how to make that. And serving it on Stilton mashed potatoes... oh my, yes.

If you can call pizzas made at home using Boboli crusts homemade, we had homemade pizza tonight. One had Fontina, corn, pancetta, cilantro, and a few other toppings, and the other was a three cheese pizza with onion and sage leaves. We drank a bottle of Rioja.