Gussie's Fried Chicken

I have to say, before we get started

that I'm so happy that this is not my family's recipe. Why? Because the glaze that goes along with this fried chicken

has two sticks of butter in it. Whoo! So, see? I'm not the only one that cooks with butter

Julia Child would be ashamed of me. She'd say I didn't use enough butter. Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Yay

Well, today I want to share with y'all a recipe that came from this gentleman

His name was Herb Traub. And he owned the Pirate's House for years

And Herb was labeled as the finest host in this city. Well, he served a chicken at the Pirate's House called Gussie's Fried Chicken

and their fried chicken came with a honey pecan glaze. Yum. All right, so I've got a chicken that has been cut up

and I'm going to fry this chicken just the way we do at the Lady and Son

Is this an eight-way cut chicken? Uh, yes, it's eight-way, son. At the restaurant, we have a nine-way cut

and it's by Springer Mountain. The finest chicken one can slip in their mouth

That's the only chicken we serve at the Lady and Sons. It's antibiotic-free, hormone-free

The only poultry farm that I know of that is accredited by the Humane Association

And that's very important to me. All right, so you've already touched the chicken, so I'm going to put together your wash

Four eggs? Yes, four eggs, and I'm going to salt this pretty good

And remember, when you're using kosher salt, to me it's so much saltier than regular salt

And sometimes, even though I know that, I... Still use too much

Sometimes I'll get too much. Now my grandmama always taught me to season my chicken earlier in the day and put it in the refrigerator So that chicken would have a chance to marry with that salt and pepper or whatever seasonings you were going to use all day long

I meant to use the house. Yes, about three-fourths of a cup, Bobby

I meant to use the house seasoning on it, but my salt and pepper tub was there

so I used that because we use our house seasoning, which contains garlic

So, Abby, if I have just some plain old garlic sitting around, garlic powder

I'll just sprinkle a little bit of that on it. And my mother always taught me to never buy a chicken over 2 1⁄2 pounds, 2 3⁄4 pounds

How come? She said that was the most tender of the birds and the sweetest

Well, it's hard to find a chicken that size anymore. but I'm happy to say because Springer Mountain

the way they're feeding their chickens, you can still find a 2 1⁄2-pound bird from Springer Mountain

So I love that. And, you know, you can cook them quicker

So Bobby has our eggs. All right, so here's your egg wash. Is it just the eggs and the hot sauce

That looks like you might have used about a fourth of a cup. Well, I was expecting it to be a shaker top

and it was just open, so it went up. So this looks like a lot of hot sauce

sauce, y'all, but it's just going to flavor it, and the heat will

totally cook out. So, this pepper that I put on it would make it hotter

than the hot sauce. So, we put this in here. What about for you dry

Our dry is just self-rising flour, son, and just put as much as you

want to. You want me to season it with salt and pepper? No, because I've seasoned the chicken

with salt and pepper, so we don't want to get it too salty. But we would give

this chicken several, several hours in the walk-in, and then we would pull it out

and we would run it through self-rising flour and then into the fryer

And it's some fine chicken. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. So, I'm sorry that I didn't do this

earlier, but this will have to do. Did anybody find any garlic powder

Oh, thank you, baby. So I just put that in there And of course you can season your chicken with whatever seasonings are your favorite

All right, so I'm going to put in the thighs. I'm going to break that meat away from that thigh bone just a little bit

And we're going to drop these in first because dark meat takes a lot longer to cook than your white meat

About nine minutes, yes or no? No, about 14 minutes. 14 minutes. Seven for the white meat and 14

No, about 10 on your white meat and about 14 on your dark meat

I guess it's been a long time since I was frying the chicken. We're going to go ahead and drop this dark meat in first. Okay

Since it takes longer. Mmm. You going to start the glaze? Well, while you're doing that, I'll start the glaze

Okay, great. Great idea! Since it's been suggested to me to do that

Recipe courtesy of Herb Traub. Yes, Gussie's fried chicken. Which proves that other people use two sticks of butter in one recipe

This glaze starts with two sticks of butter. I'd say Gussie knew what she was doing

I wonder who Gussie was. I'm sure that she was somebody on the staff there that Herb thought a lot of

So to that, we're going to add a half a cup of local honey. Pinch of salt and pepper

And to this, I think this is what's going to make this special. We're going to add a half a cup of chopped walnuts or pecans

I'm using pecans. Or pecans, whatever you want to call them. Pecans

Hey, I'll tell you what. President Jimmy Carter once told me, this is exactly what he said

there are four ways to pronounce that delicious nut. pecan, pecan, pecan, pecan

And he said all four of them are correct. So anytime somebody tries to correct me on saying pecan

I don't listen. Yeah, I just tell them, well, Mr. Jimmy told me

All righty. So our chicken's done. I'm going to turn up your fire, son

Okay, please do. Because it doesn't take but a second to melt this butter and honey

What do you think a pretty fine chop on the pecans No not especially fine Just kind of rough and rusty Yeah well like yeah kind of like you put you know in your brownies or your fudge sauce

So look at this beautiful chicken. You know, it's so hard for me to decide which is my favorite piece of chicken

I like the pulley bone. I love a wing. Great. Tomada. I do love that wing

And I love that thigh. And did I say how much I like a breast and a leg

Well, I think you like the whole thing. I do. All right, son, let's put some mownuts in there

Okay. Thank you. Well, I put what it called for. Well, I know. Let's see

Two sticks of butter, half a cup of honey, half a cup of coarsely chopped nuts

and here we go. Mm-hmm. Now, you know Gussie knew what she was doing

Two sticks of butter on fried chicken. Oh. But you know, I think that most people

when they're going out to eat, they want something very special that they don't ordinarily cook at home

Yes. What do y'all think about Gusty's fried chicken

Awesome. Yum. Yum. Now, you wouldn't want to eat like this every day

but when you would visit the Pirates' house, and walk into Herb Traub's house

this is definitely one of those things that you would love to have

And he would be there with a kind smile and a handshake or a hug for everybody

So to Mr. Herb Traub. So y'all dig in

Yum. Thank you