For a full breakdown on exactly how to fry chicken, I invite you to check out Buttermilk Fried Chicken.
Heather says:
We don’t fry chicken often, but sometimes when chicken thighs are well under $1 per pound the temptation is overwhelming. Recently we had a long conversation on the hidden sources of high fructose corn syrup. One easy way to avoid HFCS is to make your own dressings and marinades. Italian dressing is an incredibly simple marinade for chicken, fish, and pork; it’s also good on salads. Go figure.
*Edited to note* If you don’t want to actually fry chicken you can always oven-fry chicken as a healthier alternative.
Italian Dressing / Marinade Recipe
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup vinegar – experiment and find your favorite (apple cider, wine, balsamic, etc)
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp grated Parmesan
Add all of the ingredients to a cruet if you’re fancy or into a mason jar if you’re me. Cover tightly and shake vigorously. Sure you could whisk it all together, but that takes the fun out of it.
Marinate 3lbs of chicken thighs in approximately half of the marinade. Cover and refrigerate the unused portion. Cover and marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours. About 1 hour before cooking bring the covered dish out of the fridge and allow to approach room temperature.
Never allow food to sit in the bacterial danger zone for more than two hours, this increases the chance of food poisoning. Not only will the chicken not be sitting out for two hours, it will also be fully cooked before serving, ensuring this is a safe practice.
When handling raw chicken, always wash your hands thoroughly before touching anything else. Use paper towels or immediately place kitchen towels with dirty linens to avoid the chance of cross-contamination.
Frying Dredge
- 1/4 cup cornmeal
- 1 cup all-purpose or plain flour
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 3 – 4 tsps salt
- 3 tsps fresh ground pepper
Thank you for sharing a dressing recipe. My plan is to have my refrigerator door shine with mason jars, too! I <3 jars. 🙂
I'll pull out a few more now that it is salad season.
Wow! This sounds scrumptious! I'm all about wanting to have foods without HCFS and other unnatural ingredients!
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Thanks. I would love to have more recipes for salad dressings. Most of the dressings I've made myself I haven't liked much. I love fried chicken, but I must admit it's a lot of trouble. I'm not sure I'm patient enough to keep frying them over and over. I'm also not very experienced at deep frying, or whatever this is. If only someone else would come over and make these! Maybe one day I'll do it. Thanks for the recipe–I'll definitely print it and keep it for that day.
You can always use the oven-fried version which is much less hassle. The last time I think I made real fried chicken was in the fall, so it's not something I'm in the mood for often, either. Although I do admit to having a strong desire for a buffalo chicken sandwich, but I'm pretty sure I could be satisfied with grilled.
Ah-ha! I saw right away where some of my chicken-frying troubles are from: not enough oil, and too crowded of a pan. The dressing looks great; perhaps I can break my son's bottled dressing addiction with it!
Mine won’t be broken until I can find a recipe for Vidalia Onion dressing substitute. Good luck with your next attempt. I have to admit, when I finally got it right, I was less than modest about it. 🙂