Finger Lickin' Good

Fried chicken has to be one of the best foods ever invented. So golden and crispy on the outside - so tender and juicy on the inside. We don't have this treat often, but when we do not a crumb goes to waste (though plenty to goes to my waist). Alas - what's a girl to do? Eat less and chew slowly, I suppose.

Of course, this was on the menu yesterday, but we ended up with the garden fresh pasta sauce, so tonight's chicken was well anticipated. I'll admit that I'm a purist when it comes to fried chicken. There are all kinds of seasonings you can add to the coating and all kinds of crunchies you can make the coating from, but my favorite is dredged in flour, into a milk and egg bath, finally to bread crumbs seasoned with salt and pepper before going into the hot oil for frying. Sometimes simplicity is the key. Oh sure, I've tried putting orange juice in with the egg and zest with the crumbs. I've also added Caribbean Jerk seasoning, fajita seasoning, Italian seasoning, garlic and ginger, etc. to the crumbs (which I've swapped out for crushed corn flakes, rice cereal, panko crumbs, and a myriad of other crispy bits) to create a different flare, but I always come back to traditional fried chicken coating - tried and true.

On the other hand, side dishes vary. While Jeff prefers mashed potatoes and gravy with his fried chicken, I'm usually up for something different. Tonight we had sweet potato crinkle cut fries. I bought them in the freezer section, rather than making them from scratch, but a healthy dose of black pepper kept them from being plain. These were actually quite good, with a strong sweet potato flavor. They took about 20 minutes in the oven, so the timing was just about perfect for the chicken.

When the plates were practically licked clean, we were hankering for dessert. I have been contemplating cookies or biscotti for several days now, but other plans got in the way today so were left to improvise which made me think of the grown up s'mores from a couple of weeks ago. While we didn't have the fancy sugar biscuits, cinnamon graham crackers worked just as well. (As a matter of fact, after eating them tonight I don't think we'll be springing for the expensive cookies again. About a third of them were broken and they weren't significantly better than the graham crackers.) Of course, once you put hazelnut spread, dried apricots, and miniature marshmallows on anything, the base is pretty irrelevant as long as its edible. If you haven't tried these yet, you're missing out.

After a busy day it was good to come home to some homemade comfort food and a movie (even if it was a bad sci fi flick) with the guys.