Tags
comfort food, fried chicken, frontier food, laura ingalls food, laura ingalls wilder food, little house on the prairie food, prairie food
This recipe is my homage to a specific food-related memory I have from the Little House on the Prairie television series. Remember the lunch buckets Ma sent to school with Mary and Laura? The props masters chose tin buckets, covered with a piece of cloth. A strange, food-obsessed child, I always wondered what a mother in that era would have packed in a bucket! Then, during one episode, I remember Laura plops herself on the steps of the school house and pulls out… a piece of fried chicken.
In “These Happy Golden Years”, Laura writes about a dinner of fried children served with the first new peas and potatoes of July. The acid-saltwater bath, originally a butchering practice, makes a beautiful brine that adds juiceness to the meat. I used chicken tenderloins because they cook more evenly, but you can certainly use any cut of the bird, with or without bones, including pieces of whole chicken.
You may be tempted to add spices to the flour-don’t. Shake and Bake has sold us all on the false notion that the breading makes the fried chicken. The real flavor comes from the meat and the fat-and this recipe ensures that both of those elements are top quality!
First make a brine with salt and vinegar…
Then cover it with water and let it stand in the frig for at least an hour.
Once the fat is hot in the skillet, dredge your chicken through plain flour and fry!
KFC doesn’t have anything on Ma Ingalls!
Ingredients
Three to 3 and a half pounds of chicken (if using whole chicken, cut into serving-size pieces)
One tablespoon kosher salt
Two tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup flour
Four tablespoons butter
Four tablespoons shortening OR oil (I used olive oil)
Instructions
At least one hour before frying, put the chicken pieces in a large bowl with a cover. Sprinkle the salt and vinegar over the pieces and then cover them with cold water. Place in refrigerator and let stand until it’s time to fry.
Place flour in a pie pan and heat the fat (butter, shortening or oil) in a skillet over medium heat until it’s hot but not smoking. Meanwhile, drain the chicken pieces on a paper towel. When the fat is ready, dredge the chicken through the flour and then place in the skillet. Fry until the pieces are thoroughly browned. My tenderloins took five minutes on each side-larger pieces, especially those with bones, will take longer. If you are doing larger, bone-in pieces, once they’ve browned you can reduce the heat and simmer the pieces with a lid in the skillet another 10-15 minutes until the meat is no longer pink OR you can transfer the pieces to a baking dish and bake them at 350 degrees for 15 minutes until they are cooked through.
The finished product. Delicious!
Enjoy!
Bite From the Past 
I’m so happy I found this blog. 🙂
I live in Denmark and it is just impossible to purchase ‘The Little House Cookbook’ anywhere. To be honest it hasn’t even been translated into Danish. But I finally got a hold of an English copy at the library.
And now I’m so exited to make some (or perhaps all :)) of the recipes from the stories I’ve loved since I was a child.
But I have some questions though, that I hope you can answer. 🙂 The author keeps mentioning a ‘bake-oven’. And I have (or at least had) a pretty good idea what that is in Danish, but then she started talking about using either a ‘bake-oven’ or a casserole in one of the recipes (Stewed Jack rabbit and dumplings) and that kinda threw me off, I must admit. And when I tried googling it, all I got was results for Easy Bake-Oven, which I’m pretty sure it’s definitely not! 😉
So, what I’m asking is: What in the world IS a ‘bake-oven’?
Thanks in advance.
BTW: Your pictures look delicious!
Thanks! It’s so neat to have a reader in Denmark! I don’t recall the term “bake oven” in my English version but it would be a regular oven. A casserole dish is a deep dish that can be used for both baking and serving the food. They usually look something like this in America: http://www.target.com/p/corningware-2-5-quart-ceramic-casserole-white/-/A-14213776?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=Google_PLA_df&LNM=%7C14213776&CPNG=Kitchen&kpid=14213776&LID=PA&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=14213776&gclid=COrdsYyWib0CFbFFMgod5xoAmQ
Thanks for reading my blog!!!
Thank you for answering my question! Although, in this case/book, I’m sure that ‘bake-oven’ does not mean a regular oven, because Ms. Walker writes about using either “a bake-oven, 4-quart or 2 smaller casseroles” when making Salt Rising Bread (yes, I have the book right next to me 🙂 ). In the recipe, she continues: “Bake the risen dough in the covered bake-oven or the casseroles in a stove oven preheated to 350 ºF”
Anyway……..I’m pretty sure (eh…..hope, is more like it), that the author uses the word bake-oven instead of a regular bread pan, which was actually my first thought when I first came across the word. But it could also be something like this, I think: http://www.amazon.com/SuperStone-11-Cloche-Dome-Baker/dp/B00004S1D5/ref=sr_1_7?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1394503352&sr=1-7&keywords=bake+oven. Or perhaps this: https://www.etsy.com/dk-en/listing/174858651/cast-iron-dutch-oven-drip-drop-self?ref=market (Dutch oven)
I think I have a bit of experimenting to do. 🙂
Also, a casserole (kasserolle) in Danish is a small pot, like this: http://www.salling.dk/shop/scanpan-classic-kasserolle-10893p.html. It is generally used for making gravy or cooking vegetables and I don’t think it is oven-safe.
I was probably thinking of the Danish definition of casserole and that might have added to my confusion. 😉
Bottom line……..I have a couple bread pans, so I’ll just use them and see what happens. 🙂
I would guess that term is referring to a “Dutch oven,” which is a type of pot with a lid that is used similarly to a casserole.
Laura writes about a dinner of fried children???
Yep!