Mom’s Fried Chicken

When I was a kid my mom used to make fried chicken.  It wasn’t like the greasy fried chicken that we saw at picnics every summer, but instead a rich and simple dish that she always served with my favorite foods – mashed potatoes, baked corn, and even simple stuffing.  As I got older, this being my ‘welcome home’ meal after being away at college or work, and it’s still one of my very favorite comfort foods.

 

Now that I’m a mom myself, I love to cook chicken this way because of it’s very simplicity.  It tastes like you’ve bitten into a roasted chicken, but without the hours of basting or the heat of an oven.  It’s faster to prep because there’s no egg or buttermilk wash, no crumbs to season or cereal to crunch, and no slippery parts to dip.  Because this dish is part-simmered and part-fried, it comes together fairly quickly – and while it bubbles away on the stove, you can be assembling your potato salad or husking corn or whatever else you need to do.