Cast Iron Pan Fried Chicken

lily-da-vine (73)in #food • 6 years ago

Fried chicken is another one of those foods I love but don't eat often. There's KFC in the city but I've personally never had it and knowing I already can make awesome fried chicken myself doesn't really inspire me to do so. Even still I don't make this often because frying is honestly kind of messy, but sometimes its a bit less messy to do so in small batches in a cast iron frying pan, like I did the other night. Or at least you can pretend it's less messy and deal with it later like I did.

Ingredients:

Chicken Pieces
Spoonful of Yogurt
Salt and Pepper to taste
Flour
Avocado Oil

I don't usually marinade my chicken in anything but this time I used a tiny bit of bulgarian yogurt, going for a buttermilk sort of effect that I think I achieved. I just did this for a half hour or so before frying, it'd probably be awesome if you left it overnight.

I filled my largest cast iron frying pan (I've only got two now.) about halfway with avocado oil. Avocado oil is my favorite oil besides butter and in some ways is more versatile than butter and for sure more than olive oil which I only use for pesto and salad dressings. It has the highest smoke point of ALL the oils even higher than coconut oil or canola oil. It's healthier for frying and has no flavor making it an awesome choice. I use it daily.

I also strain and rebottle the frying oil for future purposes. Avocado oil is suprisingly shelf stable, meaning it doesn't go rancid like olive or hemp oil. Something most people don't realize is much of the olive oil currently sold in stores is actually rancid, it goes bad really quickly and can actually be considered to be bad for you once rancid. That's why many people aren't getting the health benefits that they would from consuming fresh olive oil. All that aside frying in olive oil is literally a nightmare and it becomes toxic when heated after a certain point.

You could say I'm picky on my oils and I'd agree with you. I've learned a lot of the food we eat is actually toxic and most people are unaware, even I was a few years ago.

Heat the pan on high for about 5 minutes, then dip the pieces of chicken in flour and put them in the pan. I only had the six pieces so I only put that many. Any more likely would have crowded the pan and the chicken wouldn't have turned out the same. I just fried it on high, flipping every so often until it looked ready and the inside temp was 160 degrees.