Friiiiiiiied Chickeeeenn with Red Beans and Rice

 

Fried Chicken with Red Beans and Rice

I made this dinner a while ago, but have been really slacking on my cooking and blogging since then. October has been such a crazy month, and I had all these plans to make spooky treats, but that'll have to happen in November I guess! I had this meal in mind because this is what I had learned to make in a cooking class I took with Riley back in late September. It was a Fried Chicken cooking class that took place in a small soul food bakery called Blackberry Soul Food in Oakland. The class was only 8 of us, and taught by the head chef of the bakery, Rene Johnson. The class itself was fairly lackluster. Our teacher didn't really allow us to do any of the cooking, we just sort of watched her do everything while she explained how to do it. The meal, however, was amazing. Well worth the two and a half hour wait of drooling/almost fainting out of hunger.

Red beans are normally supposed to be made over the course of 24 hours. The red beans need to soak in your fridge for a while, but because this meal was a last minute decision, we got canned red beans instead and kept the liquid that they came in. This red beans and rice recipe is TO DIE FOR. I seriously could eat it every day. The flavors are just incredible and it really feels like your grandmother just cooked that in the kitchen for five hours. 

The fried chicken came out perfectly, even though I STILL don't have a liquid thermometer. It was fairly messy because the oil flies everywhere, so definitely wear something you don't care much about. This recipe is based after Rene Johnson's Grandmother's recipe, give or take a few small tweaks I made.

This fried chicken recipe is as simple as it gets. If you can read, you can make this chicken and you will forever thank me. 

Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

10 Pieces of chicken (your choice)
1 cup of flour
11/2 teaspoon of Lawry’s season salt (you can find this at most grocery stores)
1 teaspoon of granulated garlic (I used garlic salt)
1 teaspoon of granulated onion
1 teaspoon of pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oil in a large pot to 350 degrees (ummmm I don't have a thermometer so I just had mine between medium and medium-high heat)

2. Place chicken in medium size bowl; add all dry ingredients and stir until all of the pieces of chicken are covered. Let stand in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

3. Put flour in plastic bag, it can be a Ziploc, or even vegetable bag from your grocery store.
Put chicken in bag and shake to insure that chicken is fully coated.

4. Place chicken in oil, if it is a shallow skillet place top on skillet, to make sure the inside cooks through. If it a stock pot (which is what I suggest, you can leave the top off, just make sure your chicken is fully covered in the oil and also make sure you oil is hot before you put the chicken in. If your oil is not hot, your chickens skin wont come out light and delicate. The reason for that is because the flour coating on the outside will become gummy from sitting in the oil, while it heats up. Dark meat should cook for about 12 to 14 minutes, white meat 8 to 10 minutes. 

Red Beans and Rice

This red beans and rice recipe is word for word from Rene Johnson, except I used canned red beans, and Rene soaks dry beans overnight. Oh yeah, and she has sausage in her directions, but not her ingredients, so I got a package of cubed pancetta and used that instead. I also fixed some grammatical errors she had, but who's counting?

Ingredients:

2 cans red kidney beans

1/4 cup of oil
1 1/2 cup chopped yellow onions

1 package of pancetta, preferable cubed already
3 to 4 stalks of chopped celery
1 medium green bell pepper
1 teaspoon Lawry’s
1 teaspoon graduated garlic
1 teaspoon granulated onion
1 teaspoon of black pepper
4 bay leaves
4 to 5 sprigs of fresh thyme

1/4 cup of dry chicken stock (we used chicken stock cubes, so we only used 1 of the cubes because that yielded a lot of stock)
4 cups of cooked rice

Directions:

1. Place beans in a large bowl to soak overnight, or follow the direction on your package for the quick soak method.

2. In a large skillet, heat oil and cook pancetta until fragrant and brown. Add celery, onions, and bell pepper to the skillet. Cook until the vegetables are soft and tender

 

3. In a large pot, add beans and chicken stock, add bay leaves and vegetable/pancetta mix, then add seasonings; stir well and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium low and place lid on pot and cook for 2 hours till beans are cooked and tender.

4. Serve over rice, and remember only 1/4 to 1/2 cup of rice in the south, the rice is just an accent. You want to taste those wonderful beans (I swear to god, this is in the recipe)