Will Fried Chicken Be A Hot Trend for 2010?

I just read predictions on Epicurious about what's hot/what's not for the coming year and had to smile about the thought of fried chicken fever. Everything old-fashioned really is new again. (Mac-and-cheese, anything wrapped in bacon, hot dish casseroles and cupcakes are some of the nostalgic fare that's blown up big in the past couple of years.)

As far as I'm concerned, fried chicken has always been on the front burner. But only once or twice a year because it's so incredibly messy to make.

My daughter invited a couple of friends from college for dinner over the holiday weekend. One was from the South and feeling homesick. What a great excuse to fry some chicken using a slightly streamlined version of my absolute all-time favorite fried chicken recipe from Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock's wonderful book, The Gift of Southern Cooking.

I brined the chicken for a few hours and then marinated it in buttermilk overnight. (It's supposed to be a two-day process, with one day for brining, another for its buttermilk bath.)

Because I didn't have any country ham to render in lard, I used a bit of bacon instead. Yes, this recipe calls for chicken to be fried in lard. Another reason I cook it just once or twice a year.

It turned out as golden as a Tuscan sunset and so crispy it crackled. (I think the inclusion of cornstarch play an important role in the texture of the fried chicken.) The homesick Southerner ate four pieces.

I'm so glad he liked it. That made the extensive clean-up a little easier to take.

-- Leslie Kelly

Comments

[TikiPundit on December 01, 2009 at 08:20 PM]

I agree with you: "Fried chicken has always been on the front burner." So it's not an emerging trend: it's been a trend for decades, if not a century or more.

[Tracy Schneider on December 02, 2009 at 08:59 AM]

I can only hope fried chicken will be appearing on menus everywhere. I love it!