New Fried Chicken Recipe

Folks-
A few months ago, a newspaper published what they believed to be the original recipe for "Colonel" Sanders' Kentucky Fried Chicken. I tried it, and, you guessed it, changed it. In some ways, this is just a tad easier.
I guess I'll call it "Edly Fried Chicken."

Edly Fried Chicken

2-Cups Flour
2/3-Tsp Salt
1-1/2-Tsp Italian Seasonings
1-Tsp Celery Salt
1-Tsp Black Pepper
1-Tsp Dried Mustard
4-Tsp Paprika
2-Tsp Garlic Salt
1-Tsp Ground Ginger
3-Tsp White Pepper
1-Tsp Turmeric
1/2-Tsp Chili Powder
1/2-Tsp Garlic Powder
1-Tsp Chicken Bouillon
3-Eggs
2-Tbsp Milk
Chicken cut into parts
Enough cooking oil to fill a large frying pan 1/2" deep

Beat the eggs and milk together. Throw all of the dry ingredients into a gallon-sized plastic bag and shake them together until they are thoroughly mixed. Rinse and pat dry the chicken parts. Throw the chicken parts a couple at a time into the bag, and shake it to coat them. After coating the chicken parts in the dry ingredients, dredge them through the egg mixture, recoat them in the dry mixture, and set them aside for at least a half-hour in the refrigerator. Once the chicken parts look like they are coated in batter instead of powder, fry them at medium heat in a large skillet with at least a half-inch of oil in the bottom. Turn them over after at least twenty minutes and continue to fry until all pieces reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

Note: Omit the chili powder, garlic powder, turmeric, and powdered chicken bouillon to essentially copy the KFC recipe. For an even more faithful version, use 1/2 Tsp Thyme, 1/2 Tsp Basil, and 1/3 Tsp Oregano instead of Italian Seasonings, and add about 1 Tsp MSG for the modern version.

Mrs. Knott's Buttermilk Biscuits

Folks-

A couple of summers ago my family went to Disneyland for a week-long trip, driving down Highway 101 past Santa Barbara and Solvang. One of the highlights of the trip was the one day we spent at Knott’s Berry Farm. I actually hadn’t been there since I had been a fairly small child, and had almost completely forgotten what it was like. To my adult tastes, it feels like it needs a bit of an update, but it does a good job of being friendly to smaller children while retaining a rustic charm for adults. Before we left for the day, we wanted to try some of the famous Mrs. Knott’s fried chicken. I remember that when we went there when I was a child, we skipped that part because the restaurant was so crowded. We found the same thing happened the day I went there as an adult, but they had a small to-go storefront next to the sit-down restaurant that we were able to get a bucket of chicken from, as well as biscuits and other sides. We took it back to our hotel room and found out that all of it was fantastic—better than KFC! The biscuits were light and flavorful, and the chicken was wonderful!

After that, I was disappointed that I couldn’t get the Mrs. Knott’s food in my area (they haven’t franchised, even though I think that it would work well as one.) So I started looking for a biscuit recipe to help compensate. I found this one at Meemo’s Kitchen (http://meemoskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/09/mrs-knotts-buttermilk-biscuits.html) and have used it several times. While I tend not to like homemade biscuits nearly as much as baking mix biscuits, these are an exception. They have a lot of flavor, and are light and fluffy. I, of course, modified the recipe a little bit (500 degrees F? That’ll cause my oven to start self-cleaning!) My next test of the recipe is going to involve using dried buttermilk instead of liquid. I’ll let you know how that works!

Enjoy!

2 Cups Flour

1/8 Teaspoon Baking Soda

2 Tablespoons Baking Powder

½ Teaspoon Salt

1 Cup plus 2 Teaspoons Buttermilk

1 Teaspoon Shortening

½ Cup Oil

Mix together flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut in shortening. Add soda to buttermilk, then blend into the flour mixture. Roll out dough on a generously floured surface until ¼ inch thick. Cut out with a 2 inch biscuit cutter. Dip biscuits into cooking oil to cover all sides and place immediately on an oiled baking sheet with all biscuits touching. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until nicely browned.