This is how we’ve always made fried chicken in our family: Just 2 ingredients – chicken and self-rising flour, with a little bit of salt and pepper, of course, and the oil to cook it in. No long list of spices. No buttermilk soak. Just good ol’ basic fried chicken.
To be honest, we don’t even make it much anymore. Where we live, there are barbecue and seafood restaurants all over the place, and they serve fried chicken at all of them. You can get a box of chicken for about the same price as it costs you to cook one AND you get free hushpuppies and no kitchen to clean up afterwards. But, it’s still good to know how to fry chicken, and this recipe is it. My mom, my grandmama, my great-grandmothers, they all made fried chicken just like this!
FRIED CHICKEN INGREDIENTS
- Whole chicken, cut up (or any chicken pieces you prefer), salted & peppered
- Self-rising flour
I use canola oil, but traditionally, lard was used, and then Crisco, and my grandmother uses corn oil to this day. Any standard cooking oil should be fine except coconut oil, which has a low smoke point and might cause you problems frying for this long.
Fry chicken pieces on medium, adjusting up and down as needed, until each piece registers at least 165º in the thickest part of the flesh.