Paula Deen - Good Ol' Paula Deen, Y'all

I became more respectful of Paula Deen after I saw her do several hours of what can only be called 'stand up' at the Metro cooking show last year. Before that she was one of those Food Network personalities that I would turn off the sound to and just read the close captioning. I liked her recipes but that whole "y'all" thing got to me. But she won me over with her humor and command of the crowd.

I came across a recipe of hers that uses eggs and hot sauce. So, since I am ready to try out egg batters, this sounds perfect for my next experiments. What will it taste like? Stick around for more details.

Update: I did the chicken recipe and consider this a very good recipe if one likes the more cracker-like crunchy crust. I believe that the lack of moisture, the vinegar in the hot sauce and the eggs prevented the gluten from developing as much as would be the case with a milk or water soak. This was my first use of a self-rising flour, too. The crust stayed crispy long after the chicken came out of the fryer, again because the gluten hadn't developed. Flavor-wise, even with a cup of hot sauce mixed into the eggs, it wasn't that spicy. I cut large chicken breasts into thirds and found that, when the crust was the right color and crunch, the interior hadn't cooked thoroughly. So, I sliced into the pieces with a knife, cutting through to the center to open the chicken up, and returned them to the fryer. I followed the recipe and did not flour, dip and re-flour. I did an experiment with half with the dutch oven covered, in order to test out the pressure cooker theory. But I couldn't detect any significant difference.

Pressure cooking. KFC and Pollo Campero both use a pressure frying method. I always assumed that this meant they were sealing the chicken in a pressure cooker. But recently I've read up on using a heavy, cast iron dutch oven, the lid of which holds in the steam and allows pressure to build up.

Impressed by the crunch but prefer the classic buttermilk, AP flour batter still.

Southern Fried Chicken

From Paula's Home Cooking/Paula's Party Episode: Decades/Savannah Country cookbook/Mar/Apr 2007 issue

5 stars based on 229 Reviews

Servings: 6-8 servings

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 14 min

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

Paula Deen’s House Seasoning
2 1/2 lb chicken, cut into pieces
2 cup self-rising flour
1 cup hot red pepper sauce
3   eggs

Directions

Heat the oil to 350 degrees F in a deep pot. Do not fill the pot more than 1/2 full with oil.

In a medium size bowl, beat the eggs. Add enough hot sauce so the egg mixture is bright orange (about 1 cup). Season the chicken with the House Seasoning. Dip the seasoned chicken in the egg, and then coat well in the flour. Place the chicken in the preheated oil and fry the chicken in the oil until brown and crisp. Dark meat takes longer than white meat. Approximate cooking time is 13 to 14 minutes for dark meat and 8 to 10 minutes for white meat.

Recipe Courtesy of Paula Deen