Southern Fried Chicken

Inspired from the menu of The Manhattan Fish Market, Chennai! I was initially wondering what a chicken dish was doing in a seafood joint. But when I wanted to do the Manhattan Fish and Chips for dinner and checked about the availability of cherry snapper (which is actually red snapper - I checked with TMFM!), the fishermen in Chennai happened to be on a strike and cherry snapper was not available. So, I looked at this dish again and found it quite interesting - Country Style Fried Chicken -  with a good old-fashioned Southern taste. And I started hunting for the recipe and found an excellent one - one that can even give KFC a run for their money! It's from food.com by Paula Deen posted by Sharlene W.

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 2 lbs ( 900 grams) cut-up chicken
• Peanut oil for frying

Sauce mixture

• 4 eggs
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 cup hot sauce (I used Tabasco sauce)

Seasoning blend

• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder

Dredging mixture

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Preparation

• For sauce mixture: In a medium-sized bowl, beat the eggs with the water. Add hot sauce and whisk together well. Pour this mixture into a large plastic zip-top bag.
• For seasoning mixture: In a small bowl, combine salt, freshly ground black pepper and garlic powder.
• For dredging mixture: In a another bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt.
• Heat peanut oil in a large saucepan to 350°F. 
• Rinse and pat dry chicken pieces with a paper towel.
• Sprinkle chicken generously on both sides with seasoning mixture.
• Drop a few chicken pieces of chicken into the bag of sauce mixture and squish around to coat thoroughly.
• One piece at a time, roll chicken in flour mixture (You can let it rest for a while so that the flour sticks to it) and drop into hot oil. Fry until brown and crisp. Dark meat (legs and thigh) takes longer to cook than white meat (breasts and wings). Check if done by piercing to the bone in the thickest part with a fork. If the juices run clear, it is done.
• Drain on paper towel and serve hot.