Who’s in the kitchen Southern fried chicken: lost and found

We were heading out to a wedding dear friends were making and I wanted to leave enough time to get there since we always get lost somehow or stuck in horrendous traffic. I hadn’t eaten all day and was looking forward to the shmorg. Lucky for me there was no traffic and we got off the highway in record time. Only problem was, the road we were supposed to merge onto was nowhere in sight. Jerry assured me it must be up ahead. “Ahead where?” I asked. We had already passed towns I had only heard of when listening to the LIRR announcements. We stopped at gas stations, convenience stores, anything that was open. I even tried to ask “Siri” on my iphone. “Siri, I’m lost, how do I get to Jericho Turnpike in Westbury?” She responded “Ok, I am checking on directions to Geronimo Road in Westchester.” Thanks Siri, if I wanted to end up there, I would have asked my husband. So there we were, on Swamp Road, starving, frustrated and me vowing to find my GPS as soon as we returned home that night. I love Jerry, and although he’s brilliant, getting lost is just a way of life for him. His career in becoming helplessly lost started when he was about six. He was at the Pineview with his parents and five- year-old brother for a Rambam Shabbat weekend. He was playing with his brother and another friend after lunch. Jerry thought it was a good idea to trek into the forest for an adventure. He assured his brother and friend that they wouldn’t get lost since he always watched Davey Crockett and he thought of himself as “king of the wild frontier” just as Davey was on TV. And trek into the forest they did. At first it was exciting, but after a while, his brother and friend started to get tired and hungry and were afraid they would never find their way out. Again Jerry told them not to worry, Davey would never cry and neither should they. Jerry led the group as they trudged on looking for any signs out of the forest. Just then Jerry noticed a clearing and saw cows coming toward them. The boys panicked. Jerry saw some tractors and told the boys to climb on top of them. All he had to do was wait till the farmer arrived. But instead of the farmer, a car pulled up on the road and the Fire Chief emerged. “Are you the boys from the hotel?” he asked. “Yes,” they answered. “ Do you know that you have the whole county looking for you? Your parents and relatives are very worried. Hop off the tractor and into the car, and I’ll drive you back.” “We can’t; it’s Shabbos,” Davey Crockett replied. The Chief of the Fire Department explained that it was six miles back to the hotel and they had no choice. As the car neared the hotel the road was lined with fire department personnel, police and state troopers and a helicopter overhead as well as all the guests in the hotel. Some were cheering, some were crying and then there was his Tante Rochel. “Your mother is going to kill you,” she said. Jerry had a feeling she was right. He knew so much about Davey Crockett but had no idea how Crockett would handle his mom. To this day, his mom recalls the fear she felt that day. I tell her these days Jerry is still getting lost, but so far we’ve never needed a police escort yet.

Talking about getting lost, I just found my mom’s recipe for the best southern fried chicken. It was in a box of books that I had never unpacked when I moved into my house 20 years ago. I can still remember the way it tasted all those years ago when my mom prepared it.

Ruth Feig’s Southern Fried Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

3 lbs chicken cut up (you can use any pieces you like)

12 cups water

1 cup kosher salt or ½ cup table salt

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp black pepper

Vegetable oil for frying

Paper or plastic bag for coating chicken

Directions

In a pot large enough to hold the water and the chicken dissolve the salt and add the chicken to the water (you can divide into 2 different pots of you like). Soaking the chicken in the salt water mixture will insure crispy fried chicken. Let chicken soak at least 4 hours or overnight.

Rinse chicken well and dry.

Mix dry ingredients in brown paper or plastic bag. Drop 1 or 2 pieces of chicken into bag at a time and shake until chicken is coated. Continue until all chicken is coated with your flour and seasoning mixture.

Heat 1-1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a skillet, black cast iron skillet is the best choice for crispy fried chicken. Oil is hot enough when if a drop of water is added to it, the oil pops. Add chicken to skillet in a single layer, avoiding overcrowding, as it will lower the temperature of the oil. Plan on making more than one batch.

Reduce heat to medium and cook uncovered until chicken is browned on both sides. Turn only once. I usually find I need 15 minutes for dark meat and 10 for light meat. I use a thermometer. Temperature should be 165 F.

Judy Joszef is a pastry and personal chef as well as a party planner. She spent 18 years as a pastry chef at Abigael’s, The Cedar Club, Centro and T42 in the Five Towns, before launching her current business, Soiree. She can be reached at judy.soiree@gmail.com