The Organic Dish provides easy and delicious, fresh, natural and organic "make-your-own" meals and dinner kits for vegetarians and omnivores in Boulder, Colorado.

I recently visited my former hometown and friends in Nashville, TN.  My good friend Sonya has a fried chicken recipe that is absolutely delicious.  I studied her making it this time (and took a pic) and here’s the goods on the recipe:

Mrs. Sonya's Fried Chicken

Southern Fried Chicken – serves 4

• 2 lb bone in, skin on chicken pieces (breasts, drumsticks, thighs)
• 1/2 tsp lemon pepper
• 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 3 Tbsp hot sauce
• 1 tsp ground paprika
• 2/3 cup flour to coat
• vegetable oil for frying

Everyone has there own way of deep frying and dredging.  Here’s Mrs. Sonya’s way:

Toss the chicken in Hot sauce (use more or less depending on how you like it) and sprinkle both sides with lemon pepper, sea salt, garlic powder.  Let marinate overnight.

Mix the paprika and flour together.  Place the chicken pieces in a large bowl and evenly coat all chicken pieces with the mixture.  Sonya likes it a touch wetter before deep frying, so she adds just a couple Tablespoons of water to the mixture.

Now – you may think this is wrong, BUT the trick to good flavor and good frying is to use the same vegetable oil over and over.  Everytime you fry, use the old and just add a little new oil.  Keep the old oil in a jar.  AND if you have to start with new oil, then you’ll need to fry a couple of potatoes in it to give it some extra flavor.  Good new is that you can eat those fried potatoes!

Use a cast iron skillet if you got one or a stainless steel pan.   Add the oil to the pan.  It should be about 1 inch high in the pan.  Get the oil hot before adding the chicken (about 350 degrees F).  On our gas stove the heat level was between 6 and 7.  You want the chicken to sizzle when it hits the oil, but you don’t want oil to splash everywhere.  Lower the chicken (skin side down) into the pot with tongs.  Fry in small batches and don’t crowd the pan.

Fry one side for ~ 10-12 minutes until deep golden brown.  Flip the chicken and fry the other side for ~9-11 minutes.  Internal temperature of the chicken needs to be 165 degrees F before eating.

Guten appetit!

Beckie   303-736-9930             www.theorganicdish.com            twitter.com/theorganicdish