My grandmother, Nancy Lloyd Suitt, of Hillsborough, North Carolina, taught me how to fry chicken in her farmhouse kitchen. As a child, I loved to stand on a chair beside her at the stove and watch her put a big batch of chicken in the pan to fry. At first she worked over a woodstove, but by the mid-1960s, an electric range had taken its place. Either way, the pan was a big, black, cast-iron skillet, and the chicken was fresh from her henhouse.

Her chickens were small, sturdy, and lean, akin to today’s free-range chickens. (Back then “free-range” wasn’t a word we used; hunting and pecking freely around the barnyard was just what chickensdid.)

为我fried chicken，我通常会在找到整个肉鸡炸药时购买。我喜欢将鸡肉切成碎片，这样我就可以用脖子和giplets制作库存，我喜欢在脆皮，炸翅膀上ni。但是，如果我要喂食人群，我会购买其中一包，其中包含更多偏爱的碎片：乳房，腿部和大腿。

You’ll need one good, heavy pan—maybe two

我的祖母的木鸡比我们在当今的超市中发现的Buxom Superchickens更容易适合一个煎锅。除非您只煎炸几块，否则为什么要花一些时间，只要您已经弄得一团糟呢？我更喜欢一个大型，重型，铸铁煎锅来油炸，因为它在吸收和维持热量方面非常有效。但是任何重型锅都可以完成这项工作：只要确保它足够深，可以容纳脂肪，并且足够宽，可以将鸡肉放在而不拥挤的情况下。如果您没有两个重锅，请分批煮鸡肉。如果您作弊并尝试挤太多碎片，那么您将受到永远烹饪的鸡肉的惩罚，并且（wore）的皮肤是脆弱而不是脆的。

I sometimes pull out my great big electric frying pan when I’m making an extra-big batch. It does a fine job, and it frees up the stove for the potatoes, green beans, and sweet corn that keep my fried chicken company at the table.

A simple coating and then into the pan

Many fried chicken recipes call for all sorts of elaborate batters. Those are great—if you like fried batter. My recipe (if you can even call it that, it’s so simple) is all about the chicken. A quick dredge in flour seasoned amply with salt and pepper is all the coating my chicken gets. This way, the delicious flavor of the crisp skin and tender meat prevails. Many cooks add paprika or garlic powder or both to the flour mixture. That’s fine with me. I can live with most variations, except those that add a whole lot of work.

Use enough fat to come about halfway up the chicken pieces，约1/2至3/4英寸。在将鸡肉放入之前，让脂肪变得足够热，以便当您掉入一小撮面粉时，它会立即“开花”或膨胀，或者在接触式上呈嘶嘶声，不到一分钟的棕色，大约是棕色365°F。（将电动锅设置为375°F，但要对油进行相同的测试。）猪油（租用和澄清的猪肉脂肪）曾经是南方厨房最喜欢的烹饪脂肪，但是固体蔬菜缩短进入了储藏室几代以前，赢得了忠实的追随者。液体油也可以很好地工作，但是选择那些具有高烟点的人，例如花生，玉米，菜籽，葡萄籽或红花。避免橄榄油；我认为它的烟点太低了。

给每个作品应有的关注

If the chickens, the stove, and, in most cases, the fat and the pans have changed over time, it makes sense that the cooking times have, too. Old southern recipes allow 25 to 30 minutes for the entire cooking process. Today’s chickens will usually need more time than that. Yet the traditional formula still serves me well: an initial browning of all of the pieces in very hot fat, followed by a longer cooking session at a somewhat lower heat. Some recipes suggest covering the pan at this time—not this one. While that may keep your stove a little cleaner, I find you get crisper chicken with an uncovered pan. A good pair of tongs will give you some distance from the sputtering fat while allowing you to easily turn each piece of chicken so it gets evenly browned and cooked.

如果果汁透明，将其切成骨头时就没有粉红色，就可以完成肉。肉类温度计在这里真的很方便。寻找180°F的内部温度。每件作品都会有所不同。最有可能先完成腿和翅膀，大腿持续和乳房 - 谁知道吗？乳房过去比大腿更快地烹饪，但是今天的大茶几改变了这一古老的规则。完成每件作品后，将其转移到棕色纸袋中以沥干多余的脂肪。不要堆积鸡肉，直到您准备好食用它，否则它会“出汗”并软化。

Expect the stove to end up with a dew-like coating of grease when the job is done. This mess is worth the little trouble it takes to clean up and can be wiped away in the time it takes to say, “Would y’all kindly pass me another piece of that chicken?” The kitchen smells like fried chicken the next morning, too, but the aroma is gone by supper time. Too bad.

Gravy for supper, not for picnics

在炸鸡后制作肉汁的主要原因是，这真是太可惜了。您创建了没有替代品的主要风味成分 - 滴滴。另一个原因是，您真的应该用饼干，土豆泥或米饭等经典的鸡肉供应鸡肉，所有这些都为奶油肉汁的甜蜜南部洗礼而哭泣。在经济紧张的时期，肉汁也是一种伸展饭菜的方法，即使将鸟还原为骨头后，肉汁也有助于延长鸡肉的味道。最后，因为许多人认为这种美味的肉汁一定很难制作（不是），所以您会为自己的手工制作而获得巨大的赞赏。

尽管肉汁真是太棒了，但没有它，鸡肉仍然很美味。实际上，当我们将炸鸡带上野餐时，我们忽略了绝对不可支配的肉汁，而且我们不会回头。