I had bought real buttermilk recently. (Usually I use the powdered stuff for pancakes and coffee cakes and such.) I had also thawed a whole chicken. I was originally planning on roasting it whole, but upon spying the buttermilk I remembered a great chicken cutlet recipe with buttermilk and thought I could do something similar with the chicken parts.
I found a good starting point in Cristina Ferrare’s Family Entertaining but the plain breadcrumbs didn’t do much for me, so I used the mix I posted a few days ago. I also repeated, sort of, my earlier Braised Leek Au Gratin thing with some asparagus. I microwaved a few potatoes for a few minutes until just barely starting to soften, then threw them in with the chicken to finish baking.
Buttermilk Half-Fried Chicken
I cut up the chicken into the basic parts, legs, thighs, wings, and breast. I cut the breast in half, then in half again. I saved the back and neck for broth, adding to the bag I had in the freezer.
I soaked the chicken parts in buttermilk and Tabasco sauce for a few hours.
Half Fried Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 cut-up chicken
- 2 cups buttermilk
- a tablespoon or so of Tabasco sauce
- oil
- 2 cups bread crumbs
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp celery salt
- 1 tsp onion salt
- 1 tsp poultry seasoning
- 3 eggs, beaten slightly.
Instructions
- Mix the buttermilk and hot sauce together, then soak the chicken pieces in it for a few hours, refrigerated.
- In a deep dish frying pan, pour in enough oil to get to about 1 and 1/2 inches deep. To test the heat, add a pinch of flour to the oil and see if it sizzles.
- Dip each piece of chicken into the bread crumbs and roll around, then into the egg, then back into the bread crumbs. Fry the chicken a few minutes until browned and partially done. Pick up the chicken pieces with some tongs and let as much oil as possible drain back into the pan, then put the chicken pieces into a baking dish.
- Bake at 375 for 25 to 30 minutes, until done. (Cut into a dark meat piece like a thigh to make sure it’s cooked through.)
Asparagus and Parmesan
Trim the asparagus. Some folks think you can snap the asparagus and it will break where it starts to be tough. Simmer the asparagus in a shallow pan until barely done. (Poke a fork through to test.) Drain and if you’re not cooking right away (perfectly fine) plunge into cold water. When you’re ready to cook it, place in a shallow pan and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and bake at 375 for 20 minutes or so.
Easy Baked Potatoes
I like my baked potatoes to have a crispy skin. I don’t wrap them in foil, butter the skins, or anything. I scrub them, poke them with a fork or a paring knife a few times, and then bake. If I don’t have a full hour to bake potatoes, I microwave them a varying amount of time, gauging how much time I have for them to bake.
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