Fried chicken in all its Southern glory

Who doesn't like Fried chicken?  That's right pretty much no one.  My foray for this weekend has been to make a start at climbing the mountain of mastery of skillet frying and where better to start than a classic buttermilk brined Southern fried chicken dinner

I dub this menu:  The Aunt Bee Saturday night Mayberry jail dinner

I started with some good, organic chicken from Diablo Foods, a nice full leg (drumstick and thigh) for both Patty and I.  I started on Friday actually.  Into a quart of whole buttermilk with a dollop and a half of sweet paprika some cracked pepper, salt and a few hefty shakes of Crystal hot sauce went the chicken -- covered and set in the fridge Friday afternoon.

Brine on the hoof

Part two was putting a cup of black eyed peas into a pot with about three inches of water for covering.  It always makes me feel so virtuous when I do my bean soaking  (death to canned beans!!)

Much Time  Passes.......

Mid afternoon on Saturday commences.

The chicken comes out of the fridge and is remove from the luscious brine (discard) and set to come up to room temp for a while on some slotted racks where i apply some seasoning  (best to do this directly as #1 putting spices into the flour wastes spices and #2, spices can burn during frying (no bueno) and the flour crust will protect from that  (muy bueno).  so into my trusty shaker goes some smoky paprika, garlic powder, back pepper, onion powder and cayenne and gets liberally ( a lot) shaken onto our warming chicken.

After applying the rub, I let it sit and think about its nature for around an hour to let the rub really apply itself, then go full metal Southern Aunt Bee and place a cup or two of peppered flour into a brown paper grocery bag, and shake it up good and plenty.

Then into the 350 degrees oil in a cast iron skillet, flipping often for 20 or so minutes till internal temp is 165 degrees.

Use a splatter shield, I implore you...... and watch your temps 

The beans, you haven't forgot about them have you,  simmered for an hour or so in water,  crushed garlic with a bay leaf plucked from the trees by my driveway until they were soft but not too schmooshy, then drained and garnished with chopped cilantro with a drizzle of garic infused olive oil. 

 They would be just fine like this, but wait  a sec....

While frying the Chicken I also got a bit pot of Collard and Mustard green steaming in a tbls of olive oil and a slug of chicken broth. To this I added a dusting of minced garlic and let that percolate next to the sputtering chicken.

Of course it needed something to tie it all together and that is gravy. When chicken was done frying and was cooling on a rack, I took 6 tbls of reserved fry grease, some pan scrapings, flour and a tip of cornstarch, added to some homemade chicken stock and made country gravy.  A generous dose of Crystal hot sauce makes it as authentic as if it was delivered by Aunt Bee to your jail cell and after Sheriff Andy picked you up for having too much fun on a Saturday night.