Hey! My apologies for the long hiatus! I hope you all had a nice couple of weekends. The past week has been crazy busy with family, food and fun adventures. Don’t worry, though–I’ve got some tasty recipes coming at ya this week.
Our Easter feast turned out as awesome as I had hoped it would and my family had a great time just hanging out together.
Of course, there were mimosas! For a classic mimosa, I like to mix 1 part 100% orange juice (my favorite is Indian River Select) with 2 parts champagne or sparkling wine. These were so refreshing and the perfect compliment to our Easter brunch.
That’s my grandmother’s banana pudding that I mentioned in last week’s blog post! It was so, so delicious and I was very excited to have my little nephew as an extra special helper while making this family favorite. Sweet, fresh bananas layered with silky yellow custard and crisp vanilla wafer cookies make this meringue-topped dish the perfect dessert for an Easter meal.
And this is one of the only pictures I was able to snap of my Southern Fried Chicken. I’ve been working on this particular recipe for years and it was a huge hit with my family as usual.
Speaking of fried foods…Frying chicken can be such a pain and I generally avoid frying anything since it’s obviously the least healthy way to cook food, but I am a sucker for some good southern fried chicken. It’s great with farm fresh vegetables and awesome with some fluffly homemade waffles and maple syrup… I mean, really…who doesn’t love fried chicken?!
It took me a long time and a lot of testing to get my own recipe just right, but I think I’ve finally got it down.
The most recent find that helped me perfect my recipe is a breading basket. Breading baskets are inexpensive and can save you SO much time when breading and frying. Using this secret weapon results in perfectly coated chicken and way less mess in the kitchen.
To bread chicken using a breading basket, just add your breading of choice to the bottom of the container, snap the plastic sifter into place, then lay your buttermilk-soaked chicken on top of the sifter. Now, cover with the lid and give the basket a good shake. When you remove the lid, you should have chicken that is evenly coated and clump free.
Once you’ve finished breading the chicken, all you have to do is drop the strips into hot oil for frying.
This method would also work perfectly for breading fish or any other food that you’d like to fry or bake.
Here’s my recipe for flaky, golden fried chicken:
For the Marinade:
1/4 Gallon Buttermilk
1 tsp Paprika
1/4 tsp Cayenne
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Dried Thyme
For the Chicken
2 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
3 cups of All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Cayenne
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Dried Thyme
1/2 tsp Salt
1 (48 oz) Bottle of Canola Oil for frying
Begin by cutting the chicken breasts into strips. Then, mix the spices into the buttermilk. Place chicken strips into a gallon-size freezer bag and cover the chicken with the buttermilk mixture. Place the bag in the refrigerator and let the chicken soak overnight. If you don’t have all night, try to let the chicken soak for at least 2 hours.
When you’re ready to cook, heat the canola oil in a large cast iron skillet or enameled dutch oven over medium heat.
While the oil is heating, combine breading ingredients in a bowl or the bottom of a breading basket. Put the sifter in the basket and place marinated chicken on top. Cover with lid and shake until chicken is evenly coated with flour and spice mixture. (If you’re breading in a bowl, make sure each strip is evenly coated with breading mixture and shake off excess flour before placing into the oil.)
Carefully move the chicken strips from the breading basket into the hot oil using tongs.
Fry chicken until it is cooked through and the breading is flaky and golden brown.
Remove chicken from oil and place in a dish lined with paper towels.
Serve immediately.
There you have it! Super easy, delicious, crowd-pleasing fried chicken.
I’ll be back this week with more posts and new recipes.
As always, I’d love to hear from you! Email me anytime at misformimosa@yahoo.com or find me on Instagram and Pinterest!
Until next time… Cheers!
M is for Mimosa 