The Naked Basics



Fried Chicken no batter, 1 seasoning 

 Yumtastically Crunchy and Savory!

This chicken dish is, fried chicken simplified. The most important element to making any fried chicken, is your oil temperature. All of the secret batter and special seasonings in the world tastes the same when it's burnt! I am still perfecting my fried chicken recipe for our restaurant. It is a frustrating process. Therefore, I have decided to start over.

I found a recipe in a chicken cookbook for fried chicken and became dumb-founded when I saw that there was no call for seasonings, herbs, spices or coatings of any kind.  The pic looked beautiful! I was moved to fry! Well my loves that chicken was juicy, crunchy on the outside yet surprisingly, flavorful.

While I have made naked fried chicken in the past, I did not pay as much attention to the details of this simplistic way of frying chicken as I have here. Please enjoy!

MJ's Naked Fried Chicken

8-12 small chicken legs (rinsed well and patted dry with a paper towel)
In a heavy bottomed frying skillet add enough cooking oil to reach a depth of at least two inches.
Heat oil on a medium heat.
If oil begins to smoke, it is too high, remove it from the heat and let it cool down.
Place chicken in oil. The oil should have a nice medium level of sizzle. If it is roaring, popping spit-firing and splattering all over the place, there is probably water in your pan or your heat is still too high.
Continue to turn chicken every couple minutes so that it browns evenly. Watch your chicken! The entire frying time should be approximately 10-18 minutes depending upon:
Heat
Thickness of chicken
and your pan (skillet)

When chicken is done, remove with tongs shaking off excess oil. Feel free to drain on paper towel. Next choose one of three final steps (this is what makes it MJ's):

Idea #1 Sprinkle Lawry's Seasoned Salt (R) on chicken and serve hot.
Idea#2 melt a 1/2 stick of butter in a small bowl and add Old Bay to it and drizzle over chicken
Idea #3 Sprinkle chickenwith salt and pepper then use a sweet chili pepper dipping sauce to add a little zing!

Woo Hooo Little Dollies! Eat 'em up :-)

Toodles,

MJ