Fried Chicken & Collard Greens

November 30, 2007 | By | COMMENTS

IMG_1.JPG

The plan was for my usual roast chicken (which, by the way, you should only salt until it has a light coating: those who said it was too salty took my recipe too literally!) but then, as I was standing there in the grocery store, I spotted collard greens.

“My, my,” I said to myself in a Southern accent. “It’s been a long time since we here attempted fried chicken.” (You may remember that was a disaster). “And I done never cooked collard greens before. Why, I see a mighty fine supper in my future.”

Tags: , , , , ,

Categories: Misc. Entrees, Recipes

  • http://rainydaysandsundays-c.blogspot.com/ Clare K

    Nicely done!! I’ve always been a little afraid of making homemade fried chicken, but you’ve inspired me. And that pie…I’m kind of missing the “innards” shot on that one.

  • jsd517

    Adam,

    You are so right about Ina’s recipes. They always work!!! As for the fried chicken recipe–this one has been a lifesaver for me–the hubby loves fried chicken, I hate to fry–the mess, the oil, you know the drill, but when I discovered this recipe it was your basic win win situation.

  • Delilah

    Aunt Polly, you can come cook for me any time! yum!

  • atlantaismyplayground

    I’m drooling.

  • http://www.spicedish.typepad.com EB

    As a girl with a VERY southern grandma… I’d have to say she’d approve whole-heartedly! Nice job.

  • http://cultofdomesticity.blogspot.com laura

    I keep thinking about doing fried chicken but I’m so afraid of the spattering oil. Yours look so good though that I MUST try it–maybe this weekend!

  • tulip

    Adam, this is why I love you. Seriously. Yummy food cooked well at home using great recipes that work!!! You make me feel like I can cook better and you give me the tools to do it!

    Happy holidays and I THANK YOU!

  • http://www.cookyourlifemovie.com/ zeep

    Hi folks, sorry to threadjack here (and AG, feel free to pull or move this post if need be) – but for all you Seattle-ites, I just found out that the film “How to Cook Your Life” (http://www.cookyourlifemovie.com/) will be playing in Seattle, at the Metro Cinema near the U District for a limited time starting today… It hasn’t gotten much (if any) promotion, so I figured this would be a good place to spread the word.

    Ok, now back to your regularly scheduled food blogging – Adam the fried chicken looks scrumptious!! Good god man, you’re killing me. :)

  • Jules

    You know what else is good to brown with the bacon in the greens? A chopped onion.

  • http://www.shelbsandcheese.com Shelby

    I saw on your facebook status that you were frying chicken – so glad to see that it was a success! My boyfriend is a big fan of fried chicken, so I might just have to give this a go. Not until finals are over though, sadly.

  • Mel

    I recently read Huck Finn for the first time

    don’t worry, Adam, I missed it in high school too. I read it a week or three ago for a uni class.

    that chicken looks amazing!

  • Tina

    this looks amazing… I’m a long-time reader who’s never posted. I’ve made quite a few of the recipes you’ve written about and have never been disappointed. That roast chicken was the best I’ve ever had in my life. I sent your how-to link to all my friends. I also loved the cavateppi with sun-dried tomatoes – which i make all the time now, and I’m sure I’m going to love this fried chicken. Keep up the fantastic work! I’m a writer myself, and I truly appreciate your sense of humor and your ability to make us all salivate for more. :)

  • http://chewonthatblog.com Hillary

    Adam, you made that sound sooo easy and delicious! I have never tried collard greens or frying my own buttermilk kitchen (mainly because I live in a house with a kosher kitchen) but maybe I should someday!

  • wonders

    The Aunt Polly comment made me giggle. That fried chicken look mighty tasty!!

  • http://www.sweetnicks.com Cate O’Malley

    I don’t know which to try first – the chicken or the collard greens. No one else in the house will eat collard greens, but I don’t care – I’m going to make them on Sunday anyway. And somewhere, no doubt collecting dust, I actually have that Lee Bros. cookbook. Time to dig it out.

  • http://www.sweetnicks.com Cate O’Malley

    I don’t know which to try first – the chicken or the collard greens. No one else in the house will eat collard greens, but I don’t care – I’m going to make them on Sunday anyway. And somewhere, no doubt collecting dust, I actually have that Lee Bros. cookbook. Time to dig it out.

  • http://www.ramblemagazine.com Christina

    Ok, so frying scares me — both because it looks dangerous and because it oozes fat — but I might give it a try now. Someday. Soon. Unless I again read your fried onions article … That could have ended badly. But fried chicken and collard greens — I would be a hero if I made that to my friends.

  • http://www.blackcoffeeandadonut.com Xani

    I agree– Ina’s recipes are flawless! I’m getting a Le Crueset for Hanukkah this year, and then I am definitely making that chicken!

  • http://bigpikchur.blogspot.com Jules

    You’re Aunt Polly! I love it, esp. since one of my friends recently told me that of the Will & Grace characters, I’m Jack (and I actually agreed with her!)!

    The food looks fantastic…

    Jules

    House of Jules

  • http://cagirlostinthesouth.blogspot.com joanne

    Hey no fair. I did try a recipe from Ina, and I wasn’t pleased with it at all. It was for a chocolate cupcake recipe of hers and it used Hershey’s syrup. It was so sweet, that it tasted more like sugar, than chocolate. I have tried a few others of hers and have had pretty good success though.

    When I have made fried chicken it would take forever, a day soaking in water, then in buttermilk. I am going to try this one to cut the prep days down to one!

    I still haven’t gotten the courage up to make greens. I think I may give this one a try. I don’t like my greens that spicy also, so thanks for the tip.

  • http://passionfood.typepad.com mimi

    Looks great — the first time I tried fried chicken I almost wound up in the ER — the oil exploded and burned me — scars for life (but I’m kind of proud of them). The next time I tried Ina’s recipe and it worked perfectly! Are you going to share the pie recipe? Looks fabu.

  • http://tokyoastrogirl.blogspot.com/ tokyoastrogirl

    If you A) ever give up men and as a result B) break up with Craig and then C) decide that half Japanese food bloggers are your new thing so D) I leave my husband because he decides that half Japanese food bloggers are no longer HIS thing then E) maybe we’ll end up together and F) I can be the lucky recipient of a homemade fried chicken, collard greens and apple pie supper when I get home from work.

    Sounds like a plan, no?

  • Angeline

    Alton Brown did an excellent segment on butchering a whole chicken, I’m sure its floating around somewhere online.

  • Egaeus

    Adam, sorry, but after seeing your videos, I doubt very seriously whether you can successfully reproduce a southern accent. However, your fried chicken and collard greens look downright respectable.

  • Egaeus

    Adam, sorry, but after seeing your videos, I doubt very seriously whether you can successfully reproduce a southern accent. However, your fried chicken and collard greens look downright respectable.

  • http://www.andrewskitchentable.com bsh711

    Fried chicken is my back up dish when I don’t want to make anything, but I gotta eat something… I don’t always soak in buttermilk, but often I cut up the chicken into nuggets so I can keep the bones for stock and get more surface crispy area. My father (from deep south) always added a pinch of cayenne to his flour/S&P mix, but I use garam masala.

    Other tips for frying chicken without a thermometer, 1) keep the oil lower and turn up to high at the end to turn brown 2)you should be able to tell the pieces are done when the spitting oil calms down…

    The one thing that would really make your collards truly Southern is your own pepper sauce… it was always on my table at home growing up for greens and black-eyed peas. Its basically picked peppers and then the vinegar is used as a condiment.

    I love to see you try biscuits and cornbread, Adam!

  • http://fingerineverypie.typepad.com Julie

    Hmmm….I seem to remember that you bandied about the idea that we might get together for a fried chicken soirée. Now that you’ve aced the recipe, I may have to start getting pushy. Although my southern-boy husband feels that my collard greens are the best ever, ditto my cornbread, and even more so my recent apple-pie exploits, I haven’t really nailed fried chicken. Teach me, teach me, please.

  • Sonny

    Well done, Adam, on the greens from someone who knows greens. Ask your Aunt Ellen about eating greens at Grandma’s house when we were kids. And, thanks again for that absolutely great Thanksgiving dinner. Bragged on you all next week at the office.

  • Anonymous

    “I remember sitting in a chair at the Borders in Atlanta with index cards, copying recipes out of her book because I was too cheap to buy them.”

    Take pictures of the pages with your camera phone (which I know you have because you used it when your real camera was in the shop). You’ll feel like James Bond stealing secret documents and you’ll save a ton of writing in the store–I do it all the time.

  • Anonymous

    I’m clicking on your site for the first time after a friend recommending it. I’m throughly impressed with your first foray into collard greens and your successful second attempt at fried chicken. I’ve never baked it after frying it before, I might have to try it. My mother has been cooking since she was a child and has never once use a thermometer. She never used one and she never really raised me to use one. Nowadays I just wait until I think the oil is hot enough and put it in. Maybe it’s just habit by now.

    Of course I am a Southerner and this type of food is like second nature to me. Either way, great job. :)