Vintage Cooking - Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Betty and I got back in the kitchen and whipped up the tastiest chicken dinner I have made in a while, maybe ever! I'm not much on making fried chicken and gravy, mainly because my grandmother's was so good and I have never been able to replicate it.  It could have been because the chickens were so fresh (like killed in the backyard and plucked by me) and not hormone and saline injected.

The illustrations in this book kill me!

I mean, look at this poor chicken and the "drumsticks"!

I figured the concept of oven frying something was a fairly new one but, it turns out, that it was all the rage in 1958.

The fact that this chicken was cut up by yours truly pretty much goes without saying.  Grew up in Arkansas with chickens in the backyard that were killed and eaten for Sunday supper = you learn how to properly cut up a chicken. I did get a little chop happy with my new cleaver so it's not the most precise job in the world but it works.

Instead of using a paper sack to shake the seasoned flour onto the chicken, I used a Ziplock bag. I love this method because there isn't any of that messy egg wash business.

My fat of choice was a little healthier than what was suggested.  I think.

This chicken takes a while. It bakes 30 minutes skin side down then you flip it and bake it 30 minutes more.

That gives you plenty of time to peel, boil, and mash the potatoes and prepare and steam the green beans.

I even made pan gravy.  That's a pretty big deal for me because I could never get it as good as grandma's so I quit trying.  The only one that gets it close is my sister-in-law.

This is a southerner's death-row meal right here!

Minus the martini, I guess. Although I would think if you were getting ready to leave this world they would let you have a damn drink!

The chicken was the best I've ever made. Moist with a perfectly seasoned crunchy skin. I was so excited to eat this meal that I didn't even clean up the gravy spill before I took the picture.

For dessert they suggested strawberry shortcake made from the back of the Bisquick box.  I didn't have any Bisquick and this was before I went to the Cheater Chef Shortcake Lab so it seemed like carbohydrate overkill.  I opted for simple strawberries and cream.

This was a meal I would gladly tackle again on a weekday. The only thing that was missing from that plate was a biscuit which could also double as the shortcake so you could kill two birds with one stone (no pun intended).