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In today's podcast, Paula talks about fried chicken and some of her secrets her mom passed along to Paula.
One of the easiest ways to get great fried chicken is to start with a small chicken that is about 2.5 lb chicken.
If you are going to have fried chicken for dinner, cut up your chicken in the morning and season it and then put it back in the fridge. An hour before frying, take the chicken out of the fridge to come up to room temperature
Make sure you preheat oil to 350 degrees using a thermometer. Use peanut oil if possible and fill your dutch oven or fryer 3/4 full.
Add your dark pieces first because they take the longest to cook and then add in white pieces which won't take as long. Dark piece cook for 14 minutes and white pieces for 12 minutes.
Enjoy with your family!
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0:00
hey y'all welcome to uh what's cooking
0:02
with Paula Dean's podcast today and you
0:05
know uh Phil and I were talking and we
0:08
thought you know sometimes when you're
0:10
shooting positively Paula you're kind of
0:12
rushed and you don't get everything said
0:15
that you want to get said so we thought
0:18
today would be a great opportunity to go
0:21
over some of the Entre that I prepared
0:24
and we'll walk through them
0:27
slowly and like I said I'm hoping that
0:30
if I forgot
0:31
anything that I'll remember to share
0:34
that with you too so today we're going
0:37
to be talking about my fried chicken you
0:40
know I don't know of one Southerner that
0:43
doesn't love fried chicken and there is
0:46
an art to frying chicken at home you
0:49
know it's a little bit of a challenge
0:51
but you can do it you can do it and I'm
0:55
going to share with y'all some of the
0:57
things that my mother told me
1:00
uh one of one of the first things when
1:04
you're selecting your chicken is to buy
1:07
a small chicken your small chickens are
1:11
uh more tender and more flavorful than
1:14
the old birds and you know I have found
1:17
a day I really have to go out and Hunt
1:22
very very hard to find a two or 2 and
1:25
1/2 PB chicken uh they're feeding them
1:28
something that cost causes those
1:30
chickens to get so big so quick and a
1:34
small chicken to this day is still the
1:37
best my mother always said Paula don't
1:40
go bigger than a 2 and 1 12 PB chicken
1:43
that's a tall order for today but these
1:46
breast are so big look they're the size
1:48
of my
1:50
face that's a breast so I like to buy
1:54
like a 2 and 1 12b Bird that's the
1:58
perfect size
2:00
and my grandmother Paul taught me that
2:03
when I'm going to have fried chicken for
2:06
dinner that morning I should take my
2:09
chicken cut it up unless you have bought
2:13
it in pieces season it and put it back
2:16
in the refrigerator and let it have that
2:19
day to drink up the seasonings that you
2:21
put on it so Grandma always taught me
2:26
I've said it a hundred times when I was
2:29
having chicken for dinner PA season your
2:32
chicken that morning honey put it in the
2:34
refrigerator so it can just drink up all
2:37
those seasonings that you put on it now
2:40
when you're ready to
2:42
uh start your
2:45
supper you'll want to take your chicken
2:47
out and let it sit on the counter you
2:50
know maybe for an hour it'll it'll be
2:52
all right uh you want to just let some
2:55
of that chill get off your chicken
2:59
because we're we're going to be frying
3:00
this and we're going to be putting it in
3:02
hot grease and we don't want our
3:05
temperature to
3:07
fall any more rapidly than we can
3:11
help the space that you live in really
3:15
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3:28
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3:35
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3:38
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3:42
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3:45
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3:48
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3:51
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3:53
slpa that's Smith and noble.com
3:56
paaa or call 1800
4:00
659
4:02
3300 that's 1 1800 659
4:08
3300 you know I like to take my chicken
4:11
out and let it sit on the counter for
4:13
about 45 minutes to an hour I like to
4:15
kind of bring it down to room
4:17
temperature because when we add it to
4:19
our our hot oil if it's ice cold it's
4:22
going to drop that temperature and that
4:24
could really give you soggy chicken so
4:27
just remember that tip but you'll find
4:30
that that will really give you a nicer
4:33
uh Fried Chicken if you'll do that now
4:37
at the Lady and Sons and at home when
4:39
I'm cooking chicken I will take say if
4:43
I'm frying one chicken y'all I'll take
4:45
maybe two eggs and a half a cup of poine
4:49
hot sauce if you don't have poine hot
4:52
sauce then a good Louisiana hot sauce
4:56
will will certainly be okay and you be
4:59
that with your two eggs and add you know
5:02
maybe a four of a cup of water uh you
5:06
beat that up real good and then you let
5:09
your
5:10
chicken kind of soak in that and you can
5:14
leave it for 30 seconds or 30 minutes
5:18
it's it's really not a problem I've got
5:21
three
5:22
eggs three beaten eggs a little water
5:26
and now I'm going to add a cup of my hot
5:28
sauce and I I know right now you're
5:30
probably saying whoa Paula that's going
5:33
to be so hot we can't eat it but it's
5:36
really not you don't have any of the
5:38
heat but just the flavor that's all
5:42
you're going to
5:44
have so we're going
5:47
to dunk our chicken and I really like if
5:51
I have time uh y'all I like to go ahead
5:55
and put this in the
5:57
refrigerator and let this sit for a
6:00
couple of hours we've got our Dutch oven
6:04
or our deep fryer whatever we're using
6:07
to fry our chicken in uh we want to fill
6:11
it like 3/4 of the way full with peanut
6:15
oil now I recomend peanut oil because it
6:18
gives chicken such a wonderful flavor
6:21
but it has the highest resistance to
6:24
burning like a veeg if you're using a
6:27
vegetable oil or or um
6:30
a solid shortening that's going to burn
6:33
easier than the peanut oil wheel so we
6:36
want to bring that to
6:40
350° and that's important that's
6:43
important that that you have a way to
6:45
gauge the temperature of your peanut
6:48
oil uh so we're going to shake shake the
6:53
uh egg mixture off of our chicken and
6:56
we're going to roll it in self-rising
6:58
flour
7:00
and I always add some extra pepper to my
7:03
flour cuz Mikey likes black pepper Fried
7:07
Chicken so then I roll my pieces in that
7:11
in that flour mixture y'all and then
7:15
you'll want to start by adding your dark
7:17
pieces first your dark pieces would be
7:20
the legs and the thighs and the back if
7:24
you've cut your back out uh so we want
7:28
to drop those first because those are
7:30
going to take longer to cook your breast
7:33
and your wing your pulley bone uh all
7:36
those are white meat and they're not
7:38
going to take as long to cook so drop
7:42
the dark meat
7:43
first and then let that cook for a
7:46
couple of minutes and then drop your
7:48
white
7:49
pieces and you'll uh not want to crowd
7:54
your pan too too much I do like a full
7:58
pan somehow a full pan of chicken will
8:01
fry better than just two or three pieces
8:04
so all your all eight pieces of chicken
8:08
should fit nicely in your Dutch oven
8:11
which is a piece about that tall about
8:14
that big around so it should fit nicely
8:17
and we're going to cook the white pieces
8:20
to for about 12 minutes and the thicker
8:25
thighs and and legs we're going to cook
8:27
for about 14 minutes minut so uh I'm
8:33
giving you those times but you would
8:36
have to be the true judge of this
8:39
because my chicken may be bigger than
8:42
your chicken or your chicken may be
8:44
bigger than my chicken so you'll have to
8:47
make those adjustments
8:49
yourself so we are almost there
8:56
Kitty I think it's done I'd say it's
8:59
it's been in there a good 14
9:04
minutes and but I'm just going to let
9:07
this cook and I kind of got a mess here
9:09
y'all so I'm going to be cleaning this
9:12
up and uh
9:14
then I think that needs to try on my set
9:17
of lips what you think see if my lips
9:21
fit that
9:23
leg but I hope this little short podcast
9:27
will take you on the way way to Fried
9:31
Chicken like your family will say nobody
9:36
fries chicken like my
9:39
mama I hope that happens the space that
9:43
you live in really affects the way you
9:45
feel so my first recommendation is start
9:49
by updating your window treatments with
9:51
Smith and& Noble Smith and Noble's
9:54
beautiful handcrafted blinds draped
9:56
Shades and shutters are custom made just
9:58
for you and they offer different service
10:01
options to fit your needs to get started
10:03
today contact Smith and Noble to get my
10:06
special limited time offer 25% off on
10:10
your winter treatments plus free design
10:13
consultation create a space that you're
10:16
going to love for details about my
10:19
special offer go to Smith and noble.com
10:22
paaa that's Smith andy.com
10:25
paaa or call 1800 659
10:31
3300 that's 1 800 659 3300
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