Asian Inspired Salad

Somethings Granny will never cook. 
"I'm not buying all of that extra stuff just for 1 recipe!"
That's usually the response I get when I try to persuade her to make something new.  But I have a feeling Granny is going to add a few things to her list once she gets a taste of this super yummy salad.
My recent trip to Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney was the inspiration behind the salad.  So of course I headed to Pinterest to see what I could pin.
I'm so glad I found the dressing for the salad from The Pioneer Woman. She uses it for her Asian Noodle Salad.

I knew I wanted to add a bit of chicken (and no noodles) to my salad so I went back to Pinterest and found Honey Ginger Chicken Wings from Leanne Bakes.Instead of using chicken wings I used chicken breasts so I could slice it up and top off my salad.

Throw some crispy romaine, red & green shredded cabbage, carrots (ok, so really I just bought a package of cole slaw), tomatoes, and a few crispy wonton strips into a bowl [I always eat my salads from a bowl when I eat at home, pretty sure that's not normal] and top it off with Leanne's honey ginger chicken and toss it with Ree's super yummy Sesame Ginger dressing...don't forget the cilantro! Of course any favorite salad ingredient could be added to individualize the salad.  Most Asian inspired salads I see have mandarin oranges, but since I'm not really a fan of those I left them off. 

I was almost ready to join Jeff Houck's Plate Licker's Club, almost! I think the only reason I didn't is because I forgot to add the sprinkle of sliced almonds that would have surely sent my tongue into overdrive and straight for my bowl.
In the meantime I'm going to pack up my leftover dressing and drive it to Granny's so she can see what she's missing out.

Some folks call it stuffing, I call it dressing

I'm baaaaack!!!
It's been forever since I've cooked with Granny. But I was finally permitted back into her kitchen and just in time since she was cooking chicken and dressing.
Some folks call it stuffing or cornbread dressing or turkey and dressing, but we call it chicken and dressing. No matter what the label it's still an American classic.  I feel pretty sure that the Native Americans and Pilgrims ate this at the very first Thanksgiving.  We only get it a few times a year at Granny's house. One of those being Thanksgiving and the other being our annual Super Bowl Family Dinner and perhaps once or twice more depending on Granny's mood.
Of course I tried to blog Granny's Chicken and Dressing for Thanksgiving, however, she all but put me out of her kitchen as she told me in her best Sweet Brown voice, "ain't nobody got time for that!"  So here we are some three months later and she welcomed me back into her kitchen to so I could clook Chicken and Dressing.

Granny starts by slicing and dicing some celery and onions.  The veggies are then tossed into chicken broth and simmered.

In the meantime, Granny prepares a few made from scratch biscuits (hardly ever, she usually uses some freezer biscuits) and her skillet cornbread (click here for cornbread recipe).

Once both breads are cooked up nicely, Crumble them up in a large bowl.
Add seasonings, veggie/chicken broth and mix it all up. Continue adding broth until the mixture reaches the right consistency. 

Transfer the mixture to a large casserole dish and bake at
425° approximately 25 -30 minutes (or until golden brown).
Serve with chicken (or turkey) and top with Giblet Gravy (recipe coming soon).
Unfortunately, I always forget to take a picture of the finished product!

Ingredients:
2½ cups Chicken broth
2 ribs of celery
1½ onions

1½ Tbsp sage

3 tsp poultry seasoning
dash of garlic salt
sprinkle of thyme

½ tsp. of ground black pepper

I'm excited to share someone has finally done their homework....My cousin Tosha made her very first pie.  She made a Brown Sugar Chess Pie that served as one of the desserts at our Super Bowl Family Dinner (and it was really good).  Way to go Tosha!!!

A Day in the Life of Fried Chicken

As I was chowing down on a piece of it yesterday I tried to recall just when I fell in love with that chicken.

Walk with me for a minute down memory lane[cue harp and fog machine].

Let's go back to the eighties when we packed up Granny & PawPaw’s Oldsmobile and headed to Disney World for the first time. Granny’s fried chicken was breakfast, lunch and dinner for that road trip. 

Keep walking with me to the nineties.  I’m rushing to get out the door for middle school and Granny has me wait a minute or two so I can grab a piece of chicken and a biscuit before I go.

[Cue fog machine] Well, that was a worthless trip, because I still can’t recall when I fell in love with Granny's chicken. All that matters is that I am. 

I’ve tried to make on my own before. I thought I knew how to do it, but I never would have guessed all that went into recreating Granny’s fried chicken (and I’m not just talking about the ingredients).  Click here for a printable version of the recipe.

Here’s what she used (She also usesLawry’s Seasoning Salt and Garlic Powder):

Yep, that really is Spaghetti mix… who knew? (Granny wasn’t keen on sharing her secrets with everyone so don't tell her about this post.)

When the chicken first comes out of the package it should be given a cool shower (since this is a family blog I have omitted pictures of the shower scene).

The chicken then undergoes a little cosmetic surgery, having excess skin removed as well as removing some healthy muscle tissue. ( Granny split 4 chicken breast in half to make 8 pieces)

After surgery the chicken gets dressed a in coat of flour accessorized with a few spices.

Granny filled her cast iron skillet chicken tanning bed with about 1/2" of oil and heated on high.  While it was heating she dressed the chicken in her mixture of:

½ c. self-rising flour

1 tbsp.  spaghetti mix

1 tsp. Italian Salad Dressing Seasoning Mix

½ tsp. black pepper

¼ tsp. paprika

¼ tsp. red pepper

¼ tsp. garlic powder

I learned you can put a pinch of the flour mixture in the skillet to check that the oil is hot enough.  

When the pinch of flour sizzles and fries the oil is ready and you can carefully add in the chicken. The flour mixture was just enough to coat the 8 pieces.

Once the chicken is in the skillet tanning bed. Granny sprinkled each piece generously with Lawry's Seasoning Salt. She then reduced the heat to medium and covered.  After about 10-15 minutes Granny had me check the edges of the chicken to see if they were browning.  When we discovered they were, we flipped the chicken over so the other side could begin to brown.

We sprinkled seasoning salt on that side and covered again.  10 minutes later we flipped the chicken one more time just to make it pretty! (I guess that's why...)

Now that's the color we want (think Snooki's tan). 

Granny mentioned the seasoning salt helping the chicken to brown, so that could have something to do with it getting flipped and covered again. See isn't that pretty?
In the meantime, Granny reads the paper and I wait with mouth watering....

Finally Granny says "Well, it sounds like it's ready!" Although I'm really ready to eat it now, I can't help but ask "Sounds like?"  Granny explains to me it's something I'll learn from experience, but I just have to listen to the sound of the frying. ... I'm working on it!

 

Well, now it looks like it's time to eat! ...

But not yet!

The chicken spends a few minutes in this pan lined with paper towels so some of the oil is absorbed, while Granny pours the remaining oil out of the skillet.  She then puts all the chicken back in the skillet and covers it (no heat).  Apparently the chicken is so exhausted from it's busy day that it now has to get some rest.

Who has ever heard that chicken resting before you eat it? Something about the flavors mingling and mixing, yada yada yada...

When the chicken had finally gotten its rest, it showcased its new look to its platemates, crinkle cut fries and toast.  (I was trying to recreate a Zaxby’s meal, but the Zax Sauce recipe I was so excited to find on Pinterest didn’t even taste remotely similar to the real stuff). 

There is no picture because I was so excited to eat that I couldn’t pause for 3 seconds to pick up my camera. And I'm aware of just what that says about me... and I don't care!

For a printable version of Granny's Fried Chicken click here.

 Instead, here is a picture of my mom’s plate who opted to have molasses with her chicken. 

I tried her chicken and molasses to see if it was something I could grow to love.  I’ll just say that when it comes to Granny’s fried chicken, I don’t need molasses, ketchup, barbeque sauce, fries, or toast just the chicken is good enough.