Basic Fried Chicken Recipe

Thanks to Shantelle for sending this in!

Never fried a chicken?  Well here's a nice simple recipe for you to practice with!

• 2 1/2 lb cut up chicken pieces (you can buy pre-cut chicken at the grocery store or cut up your own fryer chicken -- I like to buy a pkg of drumsticks and a pkg of wings since everyone in my family fights over those if I fry a whole chicken).
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup Flour
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 ts Freshly ground pepper 
• Vegetable oil - to 1 1/2-in depth in your skillet

Arrange chicken pieces in a shallow dish and pour buttermilk over them.  Cover and let sit for 10 minutes.  Turn all the pieces and let sit another 10 minutes.

Combine flour, salt and pepper in large plastic bag.  Drop in chicken pieces one at a time and shake well to coat.

Heat oil in large 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.

Add chicken pieces in a single layer (don't crowd).  You'll have to do a few batches.

Decrease heat to medium. Cook, uncovered until browned for about 15 minutes.  Use tongs to turn.  (wings take a bit less time than other pieces do)

Cook, uncovered, until browned on underside, about 15 minutes more.

Layer a cookie sheet with two layers of paper towel and transfer chicken to this to blot out the extra fat.

Now that you have the basic recipe, you can start adding spices you like to the flour mixture to come up with your own secret recipe.  I like to add a bit of chili powder and paprika sometimes for spicy wings or a bit of sage, thyme and onion powder for tasty drummies.  But I still make the basic recipe with no extra spices at least 1/2 the time.

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