What's for Dinner Wednesday?

Well, if you follow little 'ole me on Instagram, you will know this was actually Tuesday night's dinner.  And, man was it good.

It had been a year, a YEAR, people since I had had good old southern fried chicken.  Why?  1) I went gluten free a year ago, so store bought or the tried and true KFC was NOT happening and 2) I thought making it at home would be  difficult, tedious and well downright messy!  this gal is the one cleaning the kitchen

Not anymore.  I was CRAVING me some southern fried chicken and while meal planning this past Sunday I stumbled upon this recipe in Ina Garten's  Family Style cookbook.  With just one substitute, we could make it gluten free.  And, it did not look difficult at all not that I cared about the difficulty as  I was having hubby make it for moi. 

After the frying process, but prior to baking in the oven.

Oven-Fried Chicken
Serves 6 (or 2 if you are REALLY hungry, or love lunch for the next day)

Ingredients:
2 chickens (3 pounds each), cut in eight serving pieces  ***this girl went the easy route and purchased already cut pieces, 2 breasts and 4 drumsticks for us-choose what you want.
1 quart buttermilk
2 C all-purpose flour (this is where we substituted gluten free flour)
1 TBS kosher salt
1 TBS freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable oil or vegetable shortening (we used Canola, worked just fine)

Directions:

Place the chicken pieces in a large bowl and pour the buttermilk over them.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (we placed in a large ziploc, remember I am the clean up gal)

Preheat the oven to 350*

Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a large bowl.  Take the chicken out of the buttermilk and coat each piece thoroughly with the flour mixture.   Pour the oil into a large heavy-bottomed stock pot to a depth of 1 inch (hubby used more and found it easier to keep the temp consistent) and heat to 360 degrees on a thermometer.

Working in batches, carefully place several pieces of chicken in the oil and fry for about 3 minutes on each side until the coating is a light golden brown (it will continue to brown in the oven). Don't crowd the pieces. Remove the chicken from the oil and place each piece on a metal baking rack set on a sheet pan.  Allow the oil to return to 360 degrees before frying the next batch.  When all the chicken is fried, bake for 30-40 minutes, until the chicken is no longer pink inside.  Serve hot.

***the stockpot works out perfectly, unlike when using a traditional frying pan the grease does not fly everywhere!!

Mouth Watering!!!!  This is hands down the best fried chicken I have ever had, and this girl loves her fried chicken.  It was light and not greasy at all!

We served it up with a good dose of homemade mashed potatoes.  Only thing missing was the gravy (next time).

I will let y'all decide whose plate was whose this girl is not ashamed one bit and don't let him fool you, that was only the first plateful. 

Trying out another new recipe tonight, Taco Sliders with Chipolte Aioli.  Will let you know how it turns out.

Enjoy!!