Gimme. Or to be more precise, what flavourings do you use? Maryland Fried Chicken makes the best fried chicken, but uses the worst quality meat.* But you can barely taste it, because the seasoning is so good. I want to make it at home, but you don't tend to get fried chicken seasoning in a jar round here, so I was wondering what you 'merkins use on yours. *(Kentucky Fried Chicken just tastes of chicken and coating. Tennesse Fried Chicken is kinda meh. Of course, I'm only talking chain fried chicken, so that doesn't mean anything, but maybe it does!)
All I've ever done, which I learned from my mom, is salt and pepper, dreg in flour. I have seen some people use a little paprika in the flour but I've never tried it.
I place the chicken I'm going to fry in a 1-gallon ziploc bag. I squirt enough Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing into the bag to coat all the pieces but not enough for the pieces to get submerged. I close the bag, massage it around a bit to make sure all the pieces are coated, and then stick it in the fridge over night. When I'm ready to cook, I'll put two-cups of all-purpose flour into a big bowl and season it with salt and pepper, using about double to three times the amount of pepper relative to the salt. I'll also heat up the grease I'm going to use so it's good and hot when I'm ready to get going. I then get the chicken bag from the fridge and dredge the coated pieces through the flour and then they go straight into the oil. About 2 minutes on each side of a large breast will get it done all the way through. I pull it out and place it on a baking rack to cool with paper towels under the rack to catch the grease because if you place it directly on a plate or hard surface covered in paper towels the parts of the chicken touching the towels will get soggy as it retains the grease.
There are no Chick-fil-As around here for hundreds of miles. And when I am somewhere where there are Chick-fil-As and I'm jonesing for some fried chicken, it always happens to be Sunday. I'd try making my own, but I really don't want to spend half the day cleaning my kitchen afterwords.
Ya know, there are only a handful around here, and that still happens to me. Damn near every time I get a CFA craving, it's on a Sunday! Go figure!
