PW's Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatoes

I made The Pioneer Woman's Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatoes for a "Welcome Home" meal for my husband a couple of days ago. The fried chicken recipe is from her cookbook, which I love. The mashed potatoes recipe is in the cookbook, but also found it on her website, so if you want to make it just click here for the instructions. I halved the potato recipe for my family of four and had plenty leftover. The potatoes are so creamy and delicious, you will love them.

As for the fried chicken, it was delicious too. It was flavorful and a little less greasy than store-bought fried chicken. However, it was a little time consuming and I found that after I bought the chicken and oil, it was more expensive than store-bought fried chicken. Since we do not eat fried chicken very often (like once a year), I'll probably just buy it next time. But it was fun to learn how to make perfect fried chicken and if you live in an area (like PW) where you can't get store-bought fried chicken, this recipe is for you!

As I pulled the pictures from my camera for this post, I realized that I never took a picture of the plated chicken, potatoes and roasted asparagus that I served with it. I guess I was too distracted by my cute husband after 6 days apart!

Note: if you don't want to buy buttermilk and don't have any on-hand, you can make your own by combining 1 Tbsp vinegar with 1 cup of milk and letting it sit for 5 minutes.

printable recipe

Pioneer Woman's Fried Chicken

1 cut-up fryer chicken
3 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups flour
2 Tbsp seasoned salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp milk
Canola oil for frying

Rinse the chicken and place in a large bowl. Pour the buttermilk over it and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator and let soak overnight, or up to 24 hours. (I actually just started soaking it in the morning, about 8 hours before frying it). A half hour before you are to fry it, pull the bowl out of the fridge to warm it up a bit.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine the flour, seasoned salt, pepper, thyme, paprika, and cayenne pepper in a large bowl.

Add the 2 Tbsp of milk, and stir into the flour. Cut up the chunks with a fork or biscuit cutter until there are little bits throughout. Meanwhile, heat about 1 1/2 inches of oil in a big skillet, large heavy pot, or dutch oven to 365F. This was a pretty steady medium-high heat for me, but it might be different with your stove. Don't let it get too hot or cool.

Thoroughly coat each buttermilk-soaked piece of chicken in the flour mixture, pressing the flour bits onto the surface of the chicken to ensure plenty of good texture! The quality of this picture is terrible, sorry.

Add the chicken to the oil a few pieces at a time. Cook several minutes per side, covering the pot with a lid while it cooks, but making sure to peak in and check often to make sure the oil is not getting too hot and the chicken isn't burning.

After frying, place the chicken on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the largest piece of chicken is cooked through.

Serve with Pioneer Woman's Creamy Mashed Potatoes or with home-made Biscuits.

This meal is featured in Menu Plan 13.