Bird is the Word!

Today is listed as National Fried Chicken Day ... yet another bizarre food holiday ... probably created by the Colonel himself to promote sales.  Fried chicken has been around for hundreds of years originally brought over to the U.S. by Scottish immigrants, and then later perfected by those southern cooks!

Here's my Fried Chicken Recipe:

If you have time and want to bother, you can take your chicken pieces and cover them with buttermilk and let stand overnight.  This is optional, but does seem to help keep the chicken moist.


You will need ...

3 eggs
1 cup hot red pepper sauce
2 cup self-rising flour
2 1/2 lb chicken, cut into pieces
2-3 teaspoon seasoned salt (Lawry's)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
2 tsp. pountry seasoning (or just some crushed sage will do in a pinch)

Heat oil (peanut oil works best but any grease will do) to 350 degrees F in a deep pot.  Do not fill the pot more than 1/2 full with oil.

In a medium size bowl, beat the eggs. Add enough hot sauce so the egg mixture is bright orange (about 1 cup). Dip the seasoned chicken in the egg, and then coat well in the seasoned flour.  (NOTE: if you prefer a thicker coating, you can "double dip").  Place the chicken in the preheated oil and fry the chicken until brown and crisp.  Dark meat takes longer than white meat. Approximate cooking time is 13 to 14 minutes for dark meat and 8 to 10 minutes for white meat. Meat juices should run clear when pierced with fork.

Serve with homemade cream gravy and a batch of 7-up biscuits!

Cream Gravy

3 tablespoons drippings from frying chicken
3 tablespoons flour
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup cream
salt and pepper to taste

Pour all drippings from skillet into a small bowl; measure and return 3 tablespoons to the skillet and place over medium heat. Stir in flour until well blended, scraping up brown bits from bottom of skillet. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbly. Gradually add milk and cream; boil until thickened and creamy, stirring constantly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

7-Up Biscuits

2 cups Bisquick

1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup 7-up
1/4 cup melted butter

Cut sour cream into biscuit mix, add 7-Up. Makes a very soft dough.
Sprinkle additional biscuit mix on board or table and pat dough out. Melt 1/4 cup butter in a 9 inch square pan. Place cut biscuits in pan and bake at 450 degrees until golden brown.


Question ... Why did the chicken cross the road?


PLATO: For the greater good.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross roads.
KARL MARX: It was a historical inevitability.
CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK: To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.
HIPPOCRATES: Because of an excess of phlegm in its pancreas.
ANDERSEN CONSULTING: Deregulation of the chicken's side of the road was threatening its dominant market position. The chicken was faced with significant challenges to create and develop the competencies required for the newly competitive market. Andersen Consulting ,in a partnering relationship with the client, helped the chicken by rethinking its physical distribution strategy and implementation processes. Using the Poultry Integration Model (PIM), Andersen helped the chicken use its skills, methodologies, knowledge, capital and experiences to align the chicken's people, processes and technology in support of its overall strategy within a Program Management framework. Andersen Consulting convened a diverse cross-spectrum of road analysts and best chickens along with Anderson consultants with deep skills in the transportation industry to engage in a two-day itinerary of meetings in order to leverage their personal knowledge capital, both tacit and explicit, and to enable them to synergize with each other in order to achieve the implicit goals of delivering and successfully architecting and implementing an enterprise-wide value framework across the continuum of poultry cross-median processes. The meeting was held in a park-like setting enabling and creating an impactful environment which was strategically based, industry-focused, and built upon a consistent, clear, and unified market message and aligned with the chicken's mission, vision, and core values. This was conducive towards the creation of a total business integration solution. Andersen Consulting helped the chicken change to become more successful.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.
MOSES: And God came down from the Heavens, and He said unto the chicken, ``Thou shalt cross the road.'' And the chicken crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.
FOX MULDER: You saw it cross the road with your own eyes. How many more chickens have to cross the road before you believe it?
RICHARD M. NIXON: The chicken did not cross the road. I repeat, the chicken did NOT cross the road.
MACHIAVELLI: The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why? The end of crossing the road justifies whatever motive there was.
JERRY SEINFELD: Why does anyone cross a road? I mean, why doesn't anyone ever think to ask, What the heck was this chicken doing walking around all over the place, anyway?
FREUD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.
BILL GATES: Our soon-to-be-released Chicken '98 will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook.
OLIVER STONE: The question is not, ``Why did the chicken cross the road?'' Rather, it is, ``Who was crossing the road at the sametime, whom we overlooked in our haste to observe the chicken crossing?''
DARWIN: Chickens, over great periods of time, have been naturally selected in such a way that they are now genetically disposed to cross roads.
EINSTEIN: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road moved beneath the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.
BUDDHA: Asking this question denies your own chicken nature.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON: The chicken did not cross the road... it transcended it.
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER: It was an instinctive maneuver, the chicken obviously didn't see the road until he had already started to cross.
COLONEL SANDERS: I missed one?
PHYSICIST: Because the chicken's momentum had a positive component towards the other side of the road.
QUANTUM PHYSICIST: Because you measured its momentum too precisely.
MATHEMATICIAN: Because of the intermediate values theorem.
ALGEBRAIC GEOMETRIST: Well, consider a faithfully flat etale coherent sheaf...
C PROGRAMMER: cross_road() was called from get_other_side()
C++ PROGRAMMER: chicken->CrossRoad() was called from chicken->GetOtherSide()
OMAR KHAYYÁM:
MARKETING DIVISION OF MICROSOFT CORPORATION: Where does your chicken want to go today?
MARVIN: The other side is just as dull as this one. Don't talk to me about chickens.
ARTHUR DENT: Why did the chicken cross the road? 42? No, that doesn't make sense.

HAMLET:


To cross, or not to cross, that is the question: -
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind, to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous side;
Or to take arms against a road of troubles,
And by crossing end them?