Fried Chicken and Another Birthday Celebration (Adam turned 19)

My 50th birthday was last week and Rei cooked a lovely meal (with Zeke’s help) but since I wasn’t involved, no pictures were taken. Sigh. What can I say? I get so into the cooking process that I completely forget to take pictures!

We celebrated Easter a day early to leave the 12th for my son Adam’s 19th birthday celebrations. We started the day with eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, and apricot scones (Rei made them…they were delish!).

Adam asked for fried chicken for dinner so Rei and I were happy to accommodate his request. We decided on a menu of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, milk gravy, biscuits, Julia peas, and dessert (spoiler: modified mud pie). It was a lot but we had a good and fulfilling experience cooking this meal. We don’t do this often. I don’t remember the last time we fried chicken. It’s been a while, that’s for sure :P

Here’s the final product…two recipes combined (and mostly followed). I found a Perfect Fried Chicken recipe in our purple binder of recipes which calls for marinading/soaking chicken in buttermilk, salt, and hot sauce for 2–24 hours.

I have no idea what decade this recipe is from or where I got it. Looks like it was cut out of a magazine. It’s vintage, Mother. That makes it extra hip.

Zeke cut up a whole chicken (it was huge) into parts and I put the pieces into a large container, poured a quart of buttermilk over it, added about 1/4 cup of kosher salt and about 1/4 cup hot sauce ( I used Tapatio because that was what was in the fridge).

I poured about 2 more cups of buttermilk over the salt and hot sauce (because that was what fit into the container) and then mixed it all up with my hand. This went into the fridge for about 5–6 hours largely because of when I decided to start dinner. There was nothing precise about this process. Is there ever?

Adam didn’t want cupcakes or cakes so Rei tried making a chocolate cream pie. It didn’t go well. Rei seemed to be near tears after three attempts and decided to hang out in the sun, reading and napping, while I came up with another idea. To be fair, I was a little frustrated. It was just a creme anglaise!

We had ice cream in the freezer and Zeke and Rei had already separated Oreos (double stuff…that’s all they had on the shelf) so when Rei was done moping (I resent that, Mother), I had Rei melt some butter and add it to the crushed Oreos and smoosh (technical term) into the pie pan. (Is it a pie pan if it is made of glass? — Yup.)

After refrigerating the cookie crust for about 15 minutes (recipe called for 30 but the ice cream was melting and we needed to get something into the freezer), Rei smeared in the melted ice cream, or at least half of it, while I made a chocolate sauce. The pie went into the freezer as I made the sauce.

We didn’t have any chocolate sauce so I found a recipe online and followed it. The horror! It was really simple and tasty and I won’t be buying chocolate sauce again, it was just that good and easy.

We took 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder and added 1 cup of sugar to it. After whisking it until smooth, I added 1/8 tsp kosher salt and 1/2 cup cold water. I’m just offended you used water when you could have at least used milk.

We brought it to a boil over medium heat, reduced to a simmer, stirred constantly for 30 seconds, and then removed from heat as instructed by the recipe. Once slightly cool, I added some vanilla, mixed, and then poured half of the sauce over the ice cream.

Looks like I didn’t take any pictures of the pie after this point. I smeared the rest of the ice cream over the chocolate sauce and then poured the rest of the chocolate sauce on top before putting it into the freezer. We probably should have frozen each of the layers but we had too much to do so I took a shortcut.

I just took a pic of what it looks like after being in the freezer over night. It’s not pretty but we are going to cover with fresh whipped cream later before we eat it and it will be fine. It looks ridiculous! 😆

While the pie was in process, I got the peas started. We LOVE the Julia Child frozen pea recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

I chopped up a shallot and added it to 2–3 TBS of butter and about a cup of chicken stock. I brought that to a boil and added about 20 oz of frozen peas. I covered, brought to a boil, reduced heat and left on the stove while we prepared everything else.

The goal was to reduce the liquid as the peas got flavored by the shallot/butter/chicken stock concoction.

Rei cut up some Yukon Gold potatoes (we didn’t peel them) and added to cold water with plenty of salt. Rei brought the water to a simmer and, once they were cooked, drained and prepared to mash them.

Rei added melted butter, warm whipping cream, buttermilk, and more salt. Rei used a hand mixer which is not the best method. We have found that a ricer makes for much nicer potatoes. They were a bit gluey so Rei added some more butter and whipping cream to the top before we covered and placed in an oven to keep warm at 140 degrees. Next time I’ll either mash by hand or rice them; the only problem with ricing them is that you have to peel the potatoes and we like our mashed potatoes with skin — or at least I do!

While I prepped the chicken, Rei got started on the biscuits. I found a Perfect Homemade Biscuits recipe online and Rei being the better baker got to work on the biscuits. They were amazing. I am pretty sure Rei followed the recipe so just follow it. We will be making these again. I just had one with some leftover gravy for lunch. Actually, I popped the dough into the fridge for a few minutes before I cut it out, which the recipe didn’t mention. If you ever make a dough that calls for you to cut cold butter into flour and then add more cold stuff, wrap that sucker up and shove it in the fridge for a while if you have time.

I know there were some steps in between including refrigerating the dough before rolling and cutting them out but I was busy with the chicken and gravy. Yes, those steps included the oh-so difficult cutting butter into flour and then mixing in the wet ingredients.

So where are we at this point?

— The pie is in the freezer

— Peas are cooking on the stove

— Biscuits are ready to go into the oven

— Mashed potatoes are warming in the oven

Ah, yes, time to get moving on the chicken.

I partially followed Thomas Keller’s buttermilk fried chicken recipe (p.16 of ad hoc at home) for the crispy crust and cooking.

Rei made french fries on Friday night so we heated the same oil in our big oval Le Creuset Dutch oven. The recipe said to get it to 320 degrees first cook the chicken thighs. I got it much higher so I started with the breasts and the thighs. It worked out fine.

But for the crust, I put 3 cups of flour into a bowl, added onion powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, and kosher salt. Then I realized I didn’t have garlic powder so I put in some garlic salt but not a lot because I’d already added kosher salt. I mixed this up with a fork.

I used my fingers to remove each piece from the buttermilk, shook off the excess, and then rolled each piece in the flour mixture and then put on a parchment lined baking sheet (as shown above). She ended up with hands that reminded me of the Titans from Disney’s Hercules. You feel me? The big honkin buddies who are little more than globs of rock or magma or whatever that somehow form cohesive figures? Does anyone get my reference? oof.

I prepped a baking sheet with a cooling rack on top (actually, it was two small cooling racks stacked on top of each other). I set all of this aside while I waited for the oil to heat up. It took a long time.

I used tongs this time to gently drop each piece into the oil. I cooked four pieces at a time, adjusting the heat to make sure the oil stayed hot enough and didn’t get too hot. This was a pain in the bootie and I never did it get it completely right.

As the chicken was cooking, we got started on the last item for the night, the gravy. I found a recipe for Mom’s Country Gravy which we used as the basis for the gravy. It didn’t come out perfectly so we amended the recipe. Surprise surprise.

I heated 1/2 cup vegetable oil in the cast iron pan and whisked in 3/4 cup flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Rei and I switched off cooking and stirring over medium heat until it was browned.

Once browned, Rei slowly added in the milk (4 cups) and continued to stir and cook, making sure no lumps developed.

In process.

This is the final product. It was lacking flavor so we added some softened butter and more salt. Before serving, I strained out the crunchy bits from the chicken oil and added to the gravy along with some of the oil. All of this helped the flavor. I think someone mentioned using butter instead of oil as the basis for the roux and I think that would be a better idea than the vegetable oil. Oh yeah that would have made a big difference. Next time, perhaps.

Meanwhile, the biscuits finished baking and Rei brushed with melted butter before sprinkling with flaky salt. The recipe didn’t call for that; I’m just that fantastic. Plus, you really can’t go wrong with flaky salt.

I cooked the chicken in batches, four pieces at a time as I mentioned above. Once the pieces seemed to be pretty cooked and the outsides were crunchy and brown, I placed them on the baking sheet with the cooling racks and put them in a 400 degree oven to crisp up and finish cooking. Rei managed the temp checks to make sure I didn’t kill the family. You’re the one who doesn’t trust yourself with a thermometer, but if you don’t, I’ll take your word for it.

This was kind of what Thomas Keller recommended but not really and you know what? The chicken was fabulous. I will be updating my notes in the cookbook.

To keep the dishes from being totally unmanageable after dinner, I cleaned as we went along. I hope Zeke appreciated the effort. My mental state needed this because we had a lot going on. Fortunately, Rei and I work really well in the kitchen together when it’s just us two and it feels like a well choreographed dance.

And then it was time to eat. Soft butter and honey for the biscuits. (Obviously)

Yummy milk gravy.

Julia’s frozen peas.

Mashed potatoes. Note: Before serving, Rei mixed in the whipping cream and butter into what became creamy goodness. I still think it was too gluey, but c’est la vie.

The beautiful biscuits.

And the gorgeous fried chicken.

Dinner was amazing and Adam was one happy camper. Actually, all of us were very full happy campers, so full that there was no room for dessert.

I’d scheduled a 9 PM virtual birthday party (Zoom) for Adam so we needed to clean up and get to that. Did he care? Not really but that’s ok. His friends liked interacting with people outside of their families.

And now we have some really great recipes for next time which will most likely not be for another 6–12 months. I know I feel like I need to be eating only vegetables all week to compensate all of this richness.

Rei? What do you think?

Definitely vegetarian dinner tonight! Adam won’t be pleased, because he’s apparently hellbent on getting scurvy and all sorts of lovely vitamin deficiencies, but it’s not his birthday anymore, and I need a vegetable. Or two. Or even three!

Now I hope all y’all understand what I did to get inside here in front of the computer. I was basking in the sun, photosynthesizing (as you do) and reading a lovely book (Chocolat by Joanne Harris) — wonderful book, highly recommend, and the movie adaptation is also one of my favorites! Also highly recommend!

Anyways, I was photosynthesizing and listening to the birds when my dearest darling mother comes out to tell me she finished her part. Now who am I but a loyal, loving child who obediently fulfills their darling mother’s requests?

That was about two hours ago and I only just now remembered to come in. I never said I was quick about it.

And now my book is calling me once again, so here is where I bid y’all adieu — I have a sunburn to go get! Until next time, ciao, and have a jygrenfirdres day!

Rei and Terri :D