On Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:17:54 -1000, dsi1 > wrote:


>Good point. I completely missed the part about 4 to 5 cups of oil. Only
>a Mr. Bungle would use that amount! Personally, I think using the
>correct amount of oil and frequent turning makes for a juicy chicken. Of
>course, it's important not to overcook the chicken.
>

I grew up in VA, and we had pan fried chicken at least once a week. I
don't remember my mother using more than a film of oil in the pan. And
I don't remember her actually using oil. It was probably Crisco, or
bacon fat, or a mixture of the two.

It's odd, cause I helped with frying that chicken most of the time.
You would have thought it would have sunk in in all those years, as to
exactly what was done.

I do remember that it was fried at a fairly high temp for the first
few minutes, then the heat was turned down and the pan was partially
covered after that. The chicken was turned fairly often...

I am still trying to recreate that fried chicken, after leaving home
over 40 years ago. Have gotten closer, but it has taken trial and
error to get there. Nowadays, I tend to use a mixture of lard and
bacon fat and shallow fry/pan fry it. And I find that it needs more
salt than one suspects. I usually salt and pepper it prior to
dredging it in flour and these days I sometimes add a bit of smoked
paprika to the flour. I am still trying to figure out when and if to
cover the pan... and if I should only partially cover it. Some
folks recommend covering the pan right away, and cooking with a lower
temp, then uncovering and raising the temp.

Christine, who has some chicken thighs that might be calling out to be
fried.