My poor blog has been so neglected the past few months and I feel terrible about that. We’ve had quite a bit going on around our house lately so my blog has been on the back burner for a bit. The biggest piece of news is that I’m pregnant! We’re so excited and can hardly wait to meet our little guy, that’s right, we’re having a boy. I haven’t had a lot of energy lately so in turn I haven’t been in the kitchen hardly any over the past few months. I’ve finally gotten through the rough part of the pregnancy and I’m getting my energy back so I’m finally back in the kitchen. I’ve got quite a few things to put on the blog, so over the next few days there will hopefully be quite a few entries.
Southerners have perfected the art of frying foods of all kinds, being from the south I’ve been around southern foods pretty much all my life. There are many different types of southern food but I believe any time anyone thinks of southern food the first thing that pops into their head is some type of fried food. You just can’t beat some of the classic fried foods that southerners have to offer.
The other day I was looking around trying to find what I wanted to cook for supper; the first thing that popped into my head was a classic cheeseburger but then as I looked at a few other websites and I saw where someone had made a chicken fried steak and that looked awesome. I thought about it for a mintue, just to make sure that’s what I wanted, and then I decided that’s what we would have for supper. Nothing like the changing cravings of a pregnant women!
This recipe was so easy to put together and it tasted awesome. There aren’t that many ingredients in this recipe but all the ingredients combined tasted wonderful. This recipe had a little kick to it, so if you’re not a fan of spicey foods then you can omit or cut back on some of the cayenne pepper. The combination of the spicey chicken with the creamy pepper gravy was incredible. This is definitely what I wanted and it really hit the spot.
Since we had a pretty heavy side dish I decided to try to make the sides a little lighter and healthier. So I guess you can say this wasn’t a truly traditional southern meal; otherwise we would have had a couple of fried sides to go with our fried chicken. The sides I made were steamed asparagus and then some squash. The sides were simple and quick but they paired well with the fried chicken.
Chicken Fried Chicken
Ingredients:
2 Medium chicken breast
1 Cup flour
1/4 Teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Cup milk
Oil for frying
Directions:
Pour milk in a shallow bowl. Mix flour, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper together on a plate. Preheat oil in a frying pan over low-medium heat. (I used enough oil to where I had the bottom of the pan coated nicely)
Place chicken between two pieces of wax paper and pound them out with a meat tenderizer (rolling pin or whatever else you have) until they are about half and inch thick or a little less.
Once the chicken is flattened out place it in the milk and make sure it gets fully covered, then place in flour mixture and coat evenly.
Place the chicken back in the milk and then roll in flour mixture again.
Repeat process with the rest of the chicken and then place in the frying pan.
Fry chicken about 4 minutes on each side (until thoroughly cooked) and then remove to a plate that is covered with a paper towel.
For the gravy:
5-6 Tablespoons of reserved frying oil
3 Tablespoons flour
2 Cups milk
Salt and pepper
Once the chicken has finished cooking remove some of the oil from the pan, reserving about 5 tablespoons. Add the flour to the oil and mix together, be sure to stir up all the brown bits in the bottom of the pan.
Once the roux is formed slowly add the milk, stirring constantly. Continue to stir until desired thickness is reached, remove from heat.
Season with salt and pepper.
Top chicken with gravy.
Recipe by: Lynsey