Whatever you probably thought about fried chicken up to this point has probably been a complete lie. For one, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Popeye's, and the like has nothing on the homemade version. No sir, none of that mutant-super chicken for me. Secondly, there really is no need to spend half an hour in front of a pot of boiling oil to enjoy the moist and crispy texture of a well-executed fried chicken.
Instead, as I learned from the brilliant Ina Garten, all you need to do is fry your chicken pieces first in an inch of vegetable oil for around three minutes on each side just until it turns a light golden brown and stick it in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes to finish cooking the chicken through. It is really that simple, but you would never have guessed from the results. I modified Ina Garten's recipe a tad by adding baking powder to the flour mixture, which helped give the skin of the chicken (my favorite part) a crispier texture and even coloring.
Grilled chicken can be nice, but fried chicken is a completely different specimen. It's definitely up there as one of the quintessential comfort foods, shortcuts and all.
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