Southern Fried Chicken

I can't believe that it has taken me this long to get around to making fried chicken.  I was afraid that it would be too much work with poor results. WRONG! Aside from having to plan ahead, this recipe was easy and mouth watering delicious. Move over, Colonel!

In order to move things along, I fried the chicken in two cast iron pans (one small and one large) at the same time.  The chicken really needs to sit in the oil and cook so you can easily manage two pans at once.  I also ran out of buttermilk so I marinated the chicken in 1 cup buttermilk and 3 cups half and half.

Southern Fried Chicken
3 pound chicken cut in to pieces or 10 chicken pieces
1 1/4 cups flour
2/3 cups corn starch
Salt
Pepper
4 cups buttermilk
3 cups oil (I used coconut oil)

Combine flour, corn starch, salt and pepper. Set aside 1 1/4 cup of the mixture.  In a large bowl combine buttermilk, salt, and pepper.  Dredge each piece of chicken in the remaining flour mixture and then put in the buttermilk mixture.  Marinate chicken in the refrigerator for 3 hours (or overnight).

Heat oil in a frying pan.  Transfer reserved flour mixture to a pie pan.  Remove chicken pieces from buttermilk and dredge in the flour mixture. Fry chicken until golden brown and cooked through, about 16-20 minutes per batch.  Transfer chicken to a cooling rack.

Adapted from the July/August 2011 Everyday Food Magazine.