Savory Spice Week: Day 4

I grew up on a "working farm."  "Working farm" meant that if one person was working then everyone was working.  This created amazing work ethic in the long term, but also some slightly cranky youths.  There were a variety of jobs on the farm and some opportunity to choose tasks, particularly if you could excel a bit at them.  There are also a lot of very hungry people as all this work is primarily manual labor in the hot sun, and blowing dirt.  I discovered that learning to cook would be a very good idea.  You see, while cooking is messy and hot work, at times. It does not take place on an ancient, open aired tractor that is pulling an equally  "antique" implement through dry dirt with temperatures over 100 degrees.... if you get my drift.  Cooking certainly did not get me out of all or even probably all that much field work, but every little bit helps, right?

In my memory, one of my early cooking successes was fried chicken. (Right after some fascinating cookies that I think my mom largely let me invent).  My mom raised chickens off and on and there came a time to, ahem, "harvest" her crop.  I had no interest in butchering chickens, so after duly being instructed how to do so, I immediately fled to safer grounds cooking the fresh chicken.  There is, absolutely, nothing as amazing as incredibly (like within minutes) fresh chicken fried to perfection.  I mixed and mingled my own secret blend of herbs and spices.  I think there were something like ten.  I have no idea the quantity, but know that being able to clearly see flecks of this and that when dragging the spoon across the dredging flour was key.

I have not fried a whole fresh chicken in more than a decade and certainly not had access to such "fresh" chickens. I have, however, made chicken tenders sometimes based on the Pioneer Woman's Recipe.   Here photos and method are perfect in our eyes so we've stuck with this as our go-to recipe the two or so times a year that we indulge.  Here is my earlier take during a prior Recipe Week here on the blog. This time, I tried the very same method, but just used the Savory Spice Lake Barkley Fried Chicken Seasoning instead of season salt.  This blend consists of salt, roasted garlic, onion, California paprika, black pepper, regular yellow mustard powder, sage, rosemary, Mediterranean thyme, parsley and Greek.  While not all of those were in my original recipe, there is a fair bit of overlap, which made this a promising experiment.

Here's how it went:

Ingredients:

2lbs - chicken tenders

1/2 quart of buttermilk 

1/4 c. + 1/2 tsp Savory Spice Lake Barkley Fried Chicken Seasoning

1 1/2 c. Flour

Canola Oil

Directions:

Marinate chicken tenders in a casserole dish covered with buttermilk mixed with 1/2 a tsp  Savory Spice Lake Barkley Fried Chicken Seasoning  for 15-20 minutes (or longer).

 

In a pie pan, combine flour and 1/4 c. Lake Barkley Fried Chicken Seasoning.  (This is slightly less than the package recommends and I think the package is correct here that just a couple tablespoons more would be perfect.)   Add to this 1/4 -1/2c. of buttermilk very slowly while stirring with a fork. You are looking for little clumps to form, but not big chunks (see her pics-- this stage is key for crispy goodness).

 

 

Heat about an inch of oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Test heat by dropping tiny bit of flour mixture in the oil. You are looking for an immediate sizzle and plenty of bubbles.

Dredge all the chicken strips and add to the hot oil a few at a time, trying not to crowd the skillet. They will need to cook a few minutes per side until a nice golden brown. It might take slightly longer if your tenders are thicker. Remove to a paper towel lined plate and cook the remaining tenders. Enjoy!

 

Review -  Today, I make the first half of the strips with about 1/4c. to 1 1/2 cups of flour. Savory Spice Lake Barkley Fried Chicken Seasoning because yes, I was a little gun shy after the great black pepper incident yesterday. I decided that it was a little more subtle than I, with my history of a lot of flavor mixing in fried chicken wanted to go, so I added a few tablespoons more to the remaining pieces and was quite delighted with the outcome. I think that the 1/4 c. seasoning to 1 c. flour ratio recommended on the package would be just right based on our rough tests today.

 Bill and my Mom both had samples and they, as well as our crew, were quite delighted... No left overs and some very happy campers as well as definitely a more reliable method than the mixing at random of my early attempts combined with attempting to "read" the flour for flavors.  I did have lady M help me today and suspect her memories of frying chicken will be somewhat different than my early ones!

Here are the earlier days in this series, in cased you missed one!

Savory Spice Week Day 1 -- Long's Peak Spiced Pork Loin

Savory Spice Week Day 2 -- Summit County Seasoning

Savory Spice Week Day 3 -- Wash Park All-Purpose Seasoning

For those of you that live nearby, you can find the shop and all its wares at 4400 N. Western Ave, Oklahoma City, OK.  If you happen to live elsewhere and want to buy some spices from my brother you can reach him at awblakley (at) gmail.com or the store's phone number will soon be open at 405 - 525 -9119. 

Disclaimer - I am not an owner or employee of the shop and am not compensated in any way by SavorySpiceOKC ...other than the free samples I'm using to cook with that are available to anyone.  I was not asked to write this review and all opinions are my own.