I cannot believe it. Well, there are actually a few things I cannot believe. For one, that it has been so long since I posted. I promise, this post will more than make up for it. Second, in four months, give or take a day, we will be on our way to Louisiana with all of our stuff, a loaded U-Haul truck, and our kitty companion. Four. That is so not long at all! We are definitely getting excited, but at the same time we realize how much work there is yet to be done, from selling books and unused items to packing and making travel plans and everything in between. It will be sad to leave New York, but we are looking forward to the new adventure!
So in celebration of this momentous occasion, I am sharing our latest adventure in food: our southern feast. I love to try making new foods, and one that I had wanted to make was fried chicken. Like, someone's grandma's fried chicken that you could imagine gobbling up on a Sunday afternoon after sizzlin' in a cast iron skillet in an old quaint kitchen. I had never done that. In fact, I've barely ever fried anything in my life. Enter Colin.
Colin is one of our dearest friends here, and he is a wonderful uncle to our Dora kitty. He watches her for us when we go away, and we (ok, I) make him delicious meals to repay him. I always say, "Colin, tell me what you want to eat. Something you wouldn't make yourself." The first time, he wanted appetizers. So I made mozzarella sticks, stuffed mushrooms and potato skins. This time, Colin wanted fried chicken. I was so happy because I had been looking for an excuse to cook up a batch! So I went way overboard, per usual, and concocted an entire southern feast with fried chicken as the main event, green beans slow cooked with tomatoes and bacon (SO GOOD) and oven roasted potatoes with cheese, bacon and parsely. AND... homemade cherry pie for dessert. If I do something, you know I do it all the way. So no, this is not the healthiest of meals. It is damn delicious, and I am waiting for my parents to come up to visit so I can bust it out again. But rest assuered, the flavor from this meal can sustain you for quite a while-- it is that good.
And it's cookin' like this that makes me feel like I'll be absolutely fine in Louisiana.
Now, let me be honest and admit right away that NONE of these are my own recipes. However, I scoured the internet like no one's business to find these recipes (ok, and I found a few by chance on Pinterest), but they are hand picked.. especially the chicken and pie recipes. I found the green bean recipe in Paula Deen's Southern Bible and the potatoes I stumbled upon on Pinterest.
Below, I will post the recipes for each dish from our southern feast. Don't be crazy like me and make it all in one afternoon. 4 hours of cooking is a small price to pay for this wonderful meal, but let's be honest. There are things you can do ahead of time which will make you much less like a zombie by the time you're done. I'm going to post them in the order that I did them though, just in case you want to be crazy and have a cooking marathon. Your friends and family will love you forever though, I promise! Here is a rough schedule of what I did:
- Marinate chicken in buttermilk over night or as soon as you wake up in the morning. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge (preferably on the bottom shelf) until you're ready to bread it. This will keep the chicken so so moist and delicious.
- Make pie crust. While crust is in the freezer firming up, make pie filling. Then pop that bad boy in the oven.
- Boil water and boil the potatoes. While potatoes are boiling, cook up the bacon, making sure to reserve the bacon grease. I also used down time to prep the green beans and make the topping for the potatoes. Get potatoes roasting so that they finish with everything else
- About 30 minutes to a half hour before you want to start frying your chicken, shake it in the flour (twice) and then let it rest on a rack for 30 minutes to an hour. Why, you might ask? Letting the chicken sit makes sure the breading layer adheres to the chicken. This way, less falls off as it fries.
- As you're warming the oil for frying (make sure you use a candy thermometer clipped to the pan to make sure you're getting your oil hot enough to fry but not so hot it burns or catches fire), get the green beans going.
- Fry your chicken.
- Everything should finish at about the same time. Inevitably, there were things that finished first, so I put them in serving bowls with foil over them. No big deal. And honestly, there's so much flavor in this meal that no one cares if it's room temperature. It's just as good.
Now, don't be intimidated by pie or making the crust yourself. It is super easy to do, I promise! The link to the original post for the crust recipe has an awesome photo-by-photo tutorial that is worth checking out if you've never done it before. I love this crust, and I think it will be my go-to for years!
Perfect Pie Crust
(makes 2 9" pie crusts)
From: Your Home Based Mom
- 2 1/2 c. flour
- 1/2 c. butter, so cold and just out of the fridge
- 1/2 c. shortening at room temp.
- pinch of salt
- ice cold water, add teaspoon by teaspoon until right consistency has formed (I just put ice in a liquid measuring cup with a whole bunch of water)
1. Place flour, salt, (cold) butter and shortening in a bowl.
2. Use pastry blender to combine ingredients until small pebbles form.
3. Add cold water a teaspoon at a time until the dough begins to hold together well and form a ball, stirring after each addition. (OK, I totally got impatient and added it 5 tsp. at a time until it started getting close, and then went tsp. by tsp. It takes a while!)
4. Do not over handle the dough. Dough should be soft and moist, not wet.
5. Divide dough in half.
6. Place ball of dough onto wax paper and flatten. Place another piece of wax paper over the top and roll out the pastry into a circle. If your pie pan is 9 inch make sure your circle is bigger than 9 inches so you have enough for the edging.
7. Remove the top layer of wax paper and place pastry into pie pan. Remove other piece of wax paper and press pastry into pan. Use your fingers to crimp the edge of the crust (I stink at this, so I used a fork).
8. Freeze for 30 minutes to firm up the pastry. This helps prevent pastry from shrinking during baking.
9. Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork to prevent bubbling during baking.
10. Once you make the filling, add to shell and bake. I made the filling while the pastry was in the freezer. I put the other ball of dough into the fridge for those 30 minutes, then rolled out, cut into pieces and faux-wove it.
President's Birthay Cherry Pie
Makes one standard pie
From: Boulder Locavore
Note: my pie dish (this Emile Henry beauty) is a deep dish pie. The link for the original post to this recipe has a deep dish version, which I used for my pie. The only reason I knew it was a deep dish pan was when I made a pie for Christmas and it looked very empty. The Pyrex pie dishes are most likely to be standard size.
·2
cans (16 ounces/can)* pitted tart/pie cherries ( I used the jarred kind from
Trader Joe's)
·1/3
cup liquid from drained cherries**
·1/3
cup granulated sugar
·1/3
cup light brown sugar
·2
1/2 tablespoons arrowroot starch or cornstarch
·¼
teaspoon ground cinnamon
·1/8
teaspoon almond extract
·1
tablespoon butter, cut into very small pieces to dot on pie
·Pastry for double crust 9 inch
regular pie (gluten free or regular) *see above*
1. Preheat oven to 425
degrees.
2. Drain cherries
reserving ½ cup liquid for a deep dish pie or 1/3 cup liquid for regular pie.
Place both cherries and liquid into a large saucepan.
3. Stir in granulated
sugar, brown sugar, arrowroot or cornstarch, cinnamon and almond extract. Cook
over medium-low heat until sugar is fully dissolved. Simmer for an additional
minute and set aside.
4. Prepare the pastry
crust fitting one crust into the pie pan. Roll out the second crust and cut
into ½ inch wide strips.
5. Pour cherry mixture
into pie crust, dot with butter and weave pastry strips on top of the filling.
6. Bake at 425 degrees
for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350 degrees and bake an additional 35
to 40 minutes until pie is brown and bubbly.
7. Cool completely (if you can wait!) and
serve.
Oven Roasted Potatoes
Serves: 4-6
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ lb bacon (I used Trader Joe’s center cut)
- 3 ½ lbs. Yukon gold potatoes
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ c. parmigiano-reggiano, freshly grated
- coarse salt, pepper
- fresh parsely, chopped
1.
Scrub potatoes and place in a large pot. Fill pot with
water until potatoes are covered by 2-3 inches of water. Bring water to a boil
and cook for 12-15 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender. My potatoes were
fairly large, so this took close to 15 minutes.
2.
Meanwhile, partially freeze bacon for easier cutter.
(Ten minutes in the freezer works well.) Slice bacon strips in half, then cut
into 1/2-inch pieces. I like to cut my bacon prior to cooking. It’s easier to
work with in the skillet and easy to drain with slotted spoon.
3.
Cook bacon in a skillet until golden, but still
flexible. You don’t want it crunchy. Remove cooked bacon onto a plate lined
with paper towels. Reserve the bacon drippings.
4.
Check potatoes and if fork tender, drain and allow to
cool. If making this recipe again, I would peel the potatoes before I boiled
them or try leaving the skins on all-together. Yukon Golds have a relatively
thin skin, so I think this would have added a nice look and texture to the
potatoes.
5.
While potatoes are cooling, preheat the oven to 425°
and mince the garlic and parsley. Also, grate the Parmigiano-Reggiano.
6.
Next, prepare the baking sheet by brushing 1 tablespoon
of olive oil and half the bacon drippings on the bottom of the pan. I used a
fairly large cookie sheet for this and it worked well.
7.
Once the potatoes are cool, peel and cut in half, or
quarter if potatoes are large.
8.
Place cut side down on prepared pan and sprinkle with
course salt and fresh ground pepper. Place in 425° oven for 35-40 minutes.
Rotate potatoes halfway through the baking time to ensure an even color. I did
not do this and some of mine were more golden than others.
9.
Reduce temperature to 375°, turn potatoes over and
sprinkle with the bacon, garlic, and Parmigiano-Reggiano.
10. Add
more salt and pepper if desired. Return to oven for an additional 15-20 minutes
or until potatoes are evenly browned and cheese is melted. Remove from oven and
sprinkle with fresh parsley. Makes 4-6 servings, depending on serving size.
Serve immediately!
Extra Crispy Spicy Fried Chicken
From: Meg's Everday Indulgence
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 cup hot red pepper sauce (I used Frank's)
- 4 cups flour
- 2 teaspoon pepper
- 2 teaspoon paprika
- 3 teaspoons cayenne pepper
- 1 quart buttermilk
- Salt, Pepper, and Garlic Powder (to taste)
- 1 (1 to 2 1/2-pound) chicken, cut into pieces (note: we all liked breast meat, so we used bone-in, skin on breasts)
- Peanut Oil, for frying
1. Place cut-up chicken in a large bowl,
and cover with buttermilk. Cover and chill for two hours, or overnight.
2. In a large bowl, add eggs, water, and
red pepper sauce. Whisk until combined.
3. In a large gallon freezer bag, mix
flour, pepper, paprika, and cayenne.
4. Remove chicken from buttermilk (if
marinated) and sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
5. Place all chicken pieces in freezer bag
with flour mixture. Shake until all pieces are evenly coated.
6. Remove chicken pieces one at a time,
shaking excess flour. Dip each piece in the egg mixture, and return to bag of
flour. After all pieces of been dipped in the egg mixture and put back in the
bag, give it a second shake to coat chicken pieces again.
7. Heat oil in deep fryer or deep pan to
350 degrees. Working in batches, drop each piece of chicken into the hot oil.
Fry for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown, turning occasionally if oil does
not completely cover chicken. Keep in mind that dark meat chicken takes longer
to cook than white meat. Watch your wing segments, as well; these will finish
cooking first.
Southern Style Green Beans with Bacon and Tomato
- 4 slices bacon
- 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 lb fresh green beans, ends trimmed
- 2 medium tomatoes chopped (or 28 oz can diced tomatoes, drained)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
1. In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until crisp, 5-7 minutes. Transfer bacon to a paper-towel lined plate to drain.
2. Add the onion to the skillet and cook, stirring until very soft, 7-10 minutes.
3. Toss in the green beans, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook, tossing occasionally until the beans are very tender and the tomatoes fall apart, about 30 minutes.
4. Serve with bacon crumbled over the top.
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