As promised, the recipes for last Sunday’s “Georgia” meal. Please bear with me for when I don’t use “proper” cooking terms. I’m the “Bad Cook” for a reason.
COUNTRY FRIED CHICKEN: (adapted from Favorite Family Recipes)
- 4 chicken breasts (halved & pounded flat)
- 2 c. buttermilk
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 c. milk
- 2 c. flour
- 1 Tbsp. paprika
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper (less if you’re not a fan of spicy…in that case, we can’t be friends)
- 1/2 Tbsp. garlic powder (or more if you’re Italian and can’t taste garlic unless it’s fresh)
- salt and pepper to taste
- vegetable/ olive oil for frying
- 1/4 c. reserved pan drippings
- 4 Tbsp. reserved flour mixture
- 2 c. chicken broth
- 1/2 c. milk
- salt and pepper to taste
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Place chicken pieces in a plastic freezer bag and pour buttermilk over. Place in refrigerator for 2 hours (or overnight). (Just speaking from experience, do yourself a favor and double bag this…cleaning up buttermilk off the shelves of the fridge while you’re trying to cook is no fun.)
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Whisk together eggs and milk.
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In a separate bowl combine flour, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, and salt and pepper. Stir until well combined and then remove about 4 Tbsp. of the dry mixture. Set aside for gravy.
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Remove chicken from bag, shake off excess buttermilk, and dredge each piece in flour mixture. Then dip in egg/milk mixture. Dredge in flour mixture once again. (Your hands will be coated with flour. It’s VERY annoying and you can’t take pictures with your phone during this process.)
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Add oil to a large skillet until it is about 1/4-inch full. Heat oil on medium-high heat until it reaches 250-degrees.
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Add each piece of chicken to the oil without overcrowding, for about 3-4 minutes on each side or until crispy and golden on the outside. Stand back and don’t burn yourself with the popping oil.
- 6 cups of cubed sweet potatoes (or yams…practically the same thing)
- 1/4 c. butter
- 1/3 c. brown sugar, packed
- 1 Tbsp. molasses
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. ginger
- 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp. cloves (crushed)
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Cube sweet potatoes and boil until they are bright orange. (Don’t ask how much water to put in the pot—just eye ball it like I do.)
- On stove, melt butter in skillet.
- Add brown sugar and spices. Stir until melted.
- Add molasses and stir.
- Drain sweet potatoes and pour into casserole dish.
- Pour sugar and spice mixture over potatoes and toss to coat.
- Bake until sweet potatoes are tender (about 25 minutes).
FLUFFY BUTTER BISCUITS: Ingredients:
- 2 cups All purpose flour
- 1 tbsp Baking powder
- 1/4 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Salt
- 6 tbsp unsalted Butter (frozen)
- 1 cup Buttermilk
- Preheat oven to 450.
- Combine dry ingredients.
- Grate frozen butter into dry ingredients. (YEs, I said grate it…apparently this is one of the many secrets to the light and fluffy biscuits. Don’t tell anyone or Cracker Barrel may go belly up.)
- Cut with pastry cutter (or two forks if you’re like me and have no idea what a pastry cutter is) to make it crumbly.
- Make a well in the mixture and pour the cold buttermilk in the middle.
- Mix together until a dough forms. (And sticks all over your hands.)
- Lightly flour your cutting board or other flat surface. (And the counter, and the floor , and your shoes so you end up tracking it all over the house…)
- Shape the dough into a ball. Try not to warm the dough up too much in the process.
- Stack the dough. Cut the rough ball of dough in half, then stack one piece of dough on top of the other. Gently press the pieces back together into a ball, then cut the dough in half again, stack again, press again. Repeat that process three times to create air pockets in the dough which make up the flaky layers.
- At this point I shaped the dough into a rectangle and used a glass to make the round biscuits. Try not to pull up quickly and create suction because that will seal the edges and the layers won’t be flaky. (I TOLD you this was a complex thing…you’re probably wanting to pop open a can of those refrigerated biscuits right about now, aren’t you???)
- Put biscuits on tray in fridge to make them cold again for another 15 minutes. Then pop them in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until they start to get golden brown on top.
- Bon appetite!
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Liked your southern meal. I think I used to have the same set of dishes.