I picked this particular spot on the calendar because I knew my husband would be off skiing. It drives him bananas when I fry chicken because he’s the one who cleans the wood floor in our kitchen and frying chicken is a messy, grease-splattering process. So, the first order of business is to lay down a bunch of newspaper on the floor near the stove. It helps catch molten splatters.
Learning to fry chicken is pretty easy. It just takes time. At least mine does because I brine it the day before and then soak it in buttermilk before dredging it in flour with a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch. Then, I fry the bird in lard in my Lodge Cast Iron. This is a variation of a recipe that’s been called the best fried chicken in the world and after cooking it and eating it for the past five years, I’d have to agree. It’s from The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock.
The trick to getting the chicken golden brown and crispy is getting the cooking fat to the proper temp. An instant-read thermometer is essential for that. And it’s important not to crowd the pan. Too many pieces at once brings down the temp and cools the oil and makes for greasy chicken.
On Sunday, just for the heck of it, I decided to do a little experiment, frying half the chicken in lard and the other half in peanut oil. I sent the young ladies to the store for the lard and guess what they came back with? Crisco! HA! Crisco was invented as an alternative to lard.
A second trip to the store and we were in business. I stressed several times the importance of being overly cautious when working with red hot cooking grease, emphasizing the point with a cautionary tale about a woman I knew who ended up in the ER after a mishap. Also not a bad idea to keep a box of baking soda handy just in case there’s a flare-up. Never throw water on a grease fire.
We sat down to a big Sunday lunch that included greens, red beans and rice and lumpia made for me by my friend Veronica. Hey, the Filipino spring roll might not exactly match up with the rest of the meal, but thought I’d make use of the hot oil by frying some up.
In a side-by-side tasting, we all agreed: Lard rules! The chicken fried in lard was crispier and more flavorful. Good thing we were having it for lunch, so we could take a long afternoon walk to help digest. It’s not something I eat that often, but it sure is a great treat when I do go to the effort of making this labor of love.
— Leslie Kelly
