Culinary High

For some reason I've been feeling adventurous in the kitchen this week.

When it comes to patriotism you always think of fried chicken and apple pie.

And that fried chicken has intimidated me ever since I thought I might want to try to make it.  Kind of how bread used to scare the bajeezus out of me.

But this week, while Mark was at work, I made fried chicken (on the bone!).

It wasn't so hard, I just followed the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook's directions.  But I think next time I'll add a bit more flavoring.

I'll admit it made my house smell like a nasty old bar fryer.

But it turned out crispy, not too greasy and Carl enjoyed eating it!  They all did, but he's my pickiest eater...

Here's the recipe:

America's Test Kitchen's Extra-Crunchy Fried Chicken

Serves 4-6
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours (including 1 hour soaking time)

1 qt buttermilk
3 T salt
4 lb bone in chicken parts (sounds lovely doesn't it?)
5 cups all purpose flour
4 t baking powder
1 1/2 t dried thyme (I omitted)
1 t pepper (I used 2 and couldn't taste it-think I'll use way more next time)
1/2 t garlic powder
5-6 c vegetable or peanut oil

1. Whisk 3 1/4 c of the buttermilk and the salt together in a large bowl until the salt dissolves.  Add the chicken and coat thoroughly.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for no more than 1 hour (it will get too salty they say).

2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, thyme, pepper and garlic powder together (I did it in a paper grocery bag).  Add the remaining buttermilk and rub it until it resembles coarse wet sand.  Remove the chicken from the brine, coat thoroughly with the flour mixture and lay it on a wire rack set over baking sheet while the oil heats.

3. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat to 200 degrees.  Pour oil in dutch oven and heat over medium high heat until 375 degrees (this is important- you don't want your oil to get below 315 degrees or it will end up oily and soggy).

4.  Add chicken (as much as you can fit without crowding the pan- I got 5 drumsticks in at a time).  After the first four minutes rearrange if needed to keep browning of the pieces even.  Cook for total of 10 minutes (it only took 6 for me).

5.  Turn pieces of chicken over.  Continue to fry another 10 minutes (6 for me), uncovered and maintaining oil temp of 315 until chicken pieces are deep golden brown on second side.

6.  Transfer the chicken to paper towel lined plate for 5 minutes then onto a cookie sheet with paper towels and wire rack in the oven.  Finish the rest of the chicken the same way.

And wall lah!

Done.

Then, this is the kicker.

Super proud of myself.

I did it.

I made edible Pad Thai.

I never thought it would happen for me.

I'd almost given up hope.

Especially after the last attempt which made my poor husband gag when he tried to take his first bite.

Usually he's a relatively good sport about the food I prepare.

And he's always eaten it.

But that last attempt at Pad Thai he couldn't even choke down one bite.

The only one who ate it was my younger cousin, who was living with us at the time, and somehow lost his sense of smell.

Darn fish sauce.  It's tricky to use.

But this recipe I saw on Pinterest and it boasted several things that appealed to me: easy, authentic (coming from someone who lived in Thailand for a time, and the big thing here... no fish sauce.

I had to try it.

I had everything for it, but wanted more noodles so I stopped by the Asian market on my way home from the lake today.  The lady there was sweet enough to show me the "fresh" rice noodles which you don't have to soak.  You just rinse and pop in the hot pan when it's the right time.

It was pretty darn good if I do say so.

Sarina had 4 helpings.

I doubled the recipe, added 7 chicken breast tenders sliced up and tossed with soy sauce to the recipe.  I think next time I'll triple the recipe (there weren't any leftovers and Mark wasn't home- no way was I going to make the poor guy a guinea pig on yet another pad thai pipe dream) and quadruple the sauce since mine dried up a bit for my taste.

Here's the recipe: http://browniesfordinner.com/2010/05/11/easy-pad-thai/ thank you brownies-for-dinner lady!  Now this mama-in-the-boonies can have pad thai again!  I've always said that since I've moved away from delivery and decent drive time to pick up food to go I'm able to make good pizza, my mexican is decent but that pad thai was something I really missed.  Not any more!  Yay!

Oh yeah, this is the "fresh" noodles the lady showed me from the refrigerator section.

I would have taken more pictures but the kids were ravenous after swimming at the lake all afternoon which left them ridiculously underfoot begging for snacks.  No time for snacks, no time for idle photographing.  But brownies-for-dinner lady has some great photos for you.

Enjoy!