South For The Winter Week 1

Week 1: Fried Chicken, String Beans a la Creole, Mashed Potatoes

Winner winner, chicken dinner! I never make fried chicken. It’s messy, it’s time consuming, and I DESPISE cutting up a whole chicken. Yuck. But hello, if you’re going to cook southern food for three months, you’ve pretty much got to make fried chicken! So I decided to take the plunge and make some chickie. Full disclosure: I cheated. I used already cut up thighs and drumsticks instead of making a whole chicken. Those are the best parts of fried chicken anyway, so no judging. Gotta think outside the box!

I’m going to make a very bold statement. I thought this chicken was better than Gus’ in Memphis. Their’s is brined (I think) and when we at there last summer, I honestly thought it was a little overrated. This chicken had a little kick from the cayenne, was crispy on the outside and very juicy on the inside. I used peanut oil to fry it up, and in our new cast iron skillet – yay! The green beans were a twofer, although Jarrod pointed out the recipe originated in California, so not southern. (Whatever. Maybe it was southern California?) Close enough, they were delicious. If you’ve read any of my previous food posts on Facebook, you know I don’t make mashed potatoes from scratch. Quite frankly, the lovely folks at Bob Evans make AWESOME ones that you can buy at the store and pop in the microwave, so why would I peel potatoes?

Let’s talk about this cookbook for a second. It’s LOVELY. It was a Christmas present from Jarrod (awww!). It has really beautiful photos and all of the recipes sound SO good. It’s a pretty interesting concept, because she also includes really old recipes, some of them don’t even have measurements. My kind of cooking; I love to throw stuff in and make it up as I go along!

Stay tuned for more “South For The Winter” food posts in the next few weeks! And also probably my post about how I need to go to the gym…

Cheers! ~ Jen