First Post!

Food is a love of mine. I enjoy trying new foods, but I also have my favorites that I know will always give me the satisfaction I'm after!

I also love to cook, so I decided to start off with one of my favorite things to eat and cook:
Chicken Fried Chicken!

It is amazing to me how tender buttermilk makes poultry. The easiest way to get the most tender fried chicken is a buttermilk brine. Once you try it you will wonder what took so long!

My standard spices I throw in my seasoned buttermilk are smoked paprika, salt, pepper, garlic powder and cayenne pepper. I typically let this sit in the fridge overnight until I need it the following evening.

Got my dredging/batter station set up. These will go straight from the buttermilk/ brine and into flour, then into an egg wash and back into the seasoned flour.
Chicken fried chicken differs from fried chicken in two ways. 1. It's boneless chicken and 2. it's double breaded for a really crispy texture.

I love to put the flour in a zip lock bag and add the chicken and shake it all around to coat it. I feel this is the best way to get the breading in every nook and cranny for the perfect crispy texture.

Time to rest! Double breaded the chicken breasts and now letting them rest about 10 mins to help the breading stick while it is being fried!

Chicken fried chicken:
That beautiful color comes from a proper coating and the proper temp when frying. I like to turn the heat up a little after I drop my chicken in the oil to maintain the proper temp.

My homemade buttermilk fried chicken!

Historically I've had an issue making gravy, the consistency was never as smooth as I would like. This time I made a slurry with my seasoned flour and then added it to some of my saved oil from my first two batches of chicken.

I mixed some warm water with the flour and stirred it up to make the slurry. I also used a little more milk than normal, combined with constant stirring I finally achieved the consistency I've been wanting.

It's always a great feeling when I trial an error a dish and finally reach the quality I've been wanting. Cheers! Happy eating!