I Feel Like Chicken Tonight!

Yeah, that's how the old Shake N' Bake jingle went. And when I'm truly hungry and time's a factor, well baby... I feel like chicken tonight.

I got back from a long day of modeling (upcoming post about that one) and when I got back to my apartment, I needed something quick and easy to make. My default meal in these situations always revolves around chicken.

In this case, fried chicken. Aside from steak, I think fried chicken is my favorite meal. When I was a kid, fried chicken was served very, very rarely. Never as a home cooked meal, and rarely as a fast food option, as neither one of my parents cared for KFC or Popeyes.

So ever since I got out on my own, I indulge myself in fried chicken whenever I get the urge. I've come up with a few tried and true recipes over the years, but I decided to do something a little different tonight.

But first, I made sure to start with the basics. Not any part of the chicken will do. Breasts are okay as far as a boneless, skinless, healthy option goes. But fried chicken defies any sort of notion of "healthy," so that's out the window. Wings are great on their own, but they're more of a snack as opposed to a meal. Drumsticks are pretty good, but there's only one part of the bird that can possibly serve as the vehicle for fried goodness...


Thighs. I get 'em in packs of four. Rip 'em open and trim off the excess fat and skin. Believe you me, when I was just starting to experiment with cooking, I thought cutting off all that skinly, fatty goodness was a sin. But trust me on this one: your bird will taste much, much better if you take the time to trim the excess flab off.

Now, I've battered up my bird with a variety of mixes over the years: flour, seasoned flour, breadcrumbs, corn flakes, panko, etc. Today, I decided to try something a little bit different.

Tortilla crumbs. Frankly, I never knew they made ground up tortilla crumbs. But I was at the local Harris Teeter today and saw this:


I was intrigued. So on a whim, I picked up a container. I was getting a bit tired of the usual flour-and-spice mix I'd almost always dredge the bird in. Time for something with a little crunch!

Okay, so now I've battered the thighs in egg and rolled them in the tortilla crumbs. Time to fire up Old Faithful.

In this case, Old Faithful is the CoolDaddy deep fryer I got at Macy's a few years back. Yeah, she looks a little beat, but she can still fry with the best of them!

Seventeen minutes later... TA-DAAAAAAH!


I sprinkled a little McCormick Chicken seasoning prior to putting the thighs in the fryer. And when I took them out, I doused them in Tony Chachere's Cajun Salt.

There's nothing like piping hot fried chicken, straight from the fryer, on a nasty, grey, drizzly day!