Bangarang Fried Chicken

First, my sincere apologies about taking a...oh...seven month hiatus from this blog. When I started it last year, I had no idea what the following year would have in store for me and nor would I change a minute of it!

Quick recap of the last seven months can be summed up in three words: prepping for baby! For a number of months, my idea of "cooking" involved pouring the noodles for mac and cheese into boiling water or the check-out line at Subway. For a while I made the joke that our kid is going to come out as a subway sandwich. But after months of trying to figure out what I wanted the nursery to look like, or trying to answer questions like "Do we really need a diaper pail?", I feel like we are 90% ready for our upcoming adventure. Good thing too since theres not too much time left to get things in order!

Baby Sheppard Feet

We've also been adjusting to the move that we made out here to Colorado. I've been incredibly fortunate to have met an amazing group of women that I have become excellent friends with after we all randomly decided to start a book club. It was one of those happy accidents that can change your life and I feel confident saying that these women will be friends for life, wherever the roads may lead us.

A view of the Rocky Mountains from the backyard after a storm

But since things seem to have finally settled down and have become a bit more stable (only took eight months!!), and since I've changed my priorities around, I've had more time to cook and try out new recipes. After also recently turning 30 and getting an amazing camera from my husband for my birthday, I realized I really had no excuse in putting off putting up new recipes. So, with out further adieu:

Bangarang Fried Chicken:

chicken pieces of choice (I used 4 drumsticks and 4 thighs)

1qt buttermilk (optional)

~ 2 cups flour

~ 2 tbsp garlic powder

~ 2 tbsp onion powder

salt 

pepper

vegetable oil for frying 

Let me first say that I love how after living in the south for 23 years, it took moving to the mid-west to want to cook like a southerner. The husband, who was born and raised in the south, was craving some home cooking and wanted pinto beans and cornbread for dinner. As appetizing as that sounded by itself, I felt a little bit more could go into the meal so I volunteered to try my hand at homemade fried chicken. 

Fried chicken. The thought struck fear into my heart. Typically in our house we have the greasy bucket o' chicken once a year, on the first regular season football game for the Carolina Panthers. But everyone in my general circle who has attempted to make fried chicken at home has horror stories. The oil was too hot. The oil wasn't hot enough. The outside was burned but the chicken was raw. Even my own mother sent her words of worry. Throw in some high elevation and the most temperamental gas stove-top known to man and I was worried! But with the help of some common sense and the advice of my friend Patrice, I felt at least willing to make the attempt. 

I soaked the chicken in buttermilk. I don't know why other then thats what southern women of old do. And I figured if they did so, there was a reason. 

While that was soaking, I worked on my pinto beans. There's really no recipe for them. But in case you were interested, soak a bag of beans in a bowl of water overnight or for at least 8 hours. Drain beans and rinse. Put them in a pot with one chopped onion, 2/3 a package thick sliced chopped bacon, salt and pepper. Fill with water to an inch or so over the beans. Put it on the stove, bring to a simmer and let it go, stirring occasionally, until desired tenderness and consistency. In my case, it took about 4 hours. 

Once the beans were almost done, I started on the chicken. It had been soaking in the buttermilk for about 4 hours. Honestly, I don't know what, if anything it did to help the chicken. I'm sure it didn't hurt it in any way, but I would say the soaking was not required if you choose not to do so. 

In a large bag, mix together the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Also feel free to add any other seasonings you thing would be good. I've learned that this recipe is easily tailored to your individual families preferences. 

Bring the oil to temp on the stove. Again, because we have the weirdest stove-top ever, I can't tell you what the degree temperature was. I heated mine up on the equivalent of medium-low I believe (although on my stove knob it said super low). It was hot enough that when the chicken was put in, it bubbled and popped without lashing out irrationally at me. And really there was not a huge mess on the stove-top when all was said and done either. Also, its a lot easier to turn the temperature up because you don't have it high/hot enough then to turn it down and not scorch or burn whatever you're cooking. 

Add the chicken and leave it alone! Patrice recommended to make sure there was enough oil in the pot to make sure that the chicken is covered which I think proved to be one of the successes of this recipe. 

After the chicken has been in for about 10-15 minutes, flip it over for another 10-15 minutes. I thought this was kind of weird thinking, "Hey, its frying! It will just flip itself!" But it really doesn't. So flipping becomes required. 

Once you've flipped the chicken and its had time to cook on the second side, carefully remove it from the oil and let it rest for a few minutes, partly to cool but also in my worry, to make sure the chicken was done all the way through! 

I had to do all eight pieces of my chicken in two batches. The above is the first batch and based on looks alone, I was fairly optimistic! But of course...there was still the acid test. So I did what any good cook and wife would do:  I made my husband try it first! 

The verdict was unanimous! I scored a home run! I once again proved my culinary mastery! I made homemade-crispy-and-golden-brown-and-cooked-all-the-way-through fried chicken! It was bangarang if I may say so myself. And the pinto beans and cornbread were the perfect compliment to our southern style dinner. The husband was happy. I was happy. The animals were jealous. All was right in the world! 

Sally, Atira and Bacchus

Now that this first post back is under my belt, I will most definitely try to put more more tasty recipes. I'm pretty excited about some new recipes I've got planned for this coming week. So please, keep checking back. And thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a great day!