TFF: A deep fryer is a fun thing

I had to have had fried chicken on the brain when shopping. That would explain why I picked up two cartons of buttermilk, thinking I needed one for muffins, and one for some pancakes, and forgetting I had a full carton in the fridge already. Or it was karma, and buttermilk fried chicken was fated to be made.

Nothing personal to the rest of the chicken, but for crispy fried chicken, we like the drumsticks the best, so I used only drumsticks instead of carving up a whole chicken. Besides, that makes it much less expensive (especially when you get a big pack of drumsticks reduced 50% off a few days before - a big freezer is a very good thing.)

I took a risk and made the dressing for the salad that was listed with the recipe for the chicken, in Tyler Florence's Stirring the Pot (hence this will be this weeks submission for Tyler Florence Fridays.) A big risk in two ways: first the minor risk of a salad that is primarily tomatoes, which my children do not like, and the bigger risk of making a dressing with blue cheese. Partially because there are some definite opinions about how much people dislike blue cheese in this family, and partially because I am still not sure if my allergy to penicillin will cause me to react to blue cheese or not.

The salad was good, but the dressing was too strong (and I had only a small amount, just in case.) Even using the mildest cheese I could find. I loved the balance of the sweet tomatoes with the barely bitter baby arugula. My kids ate the greens, mostly ignored the tomatoes, but only one of them liked the dressing. At least they both tried it.

Oh and a note about the chicken recipe: Tyler's instructions for the pieces of chicken said to fry them for 20 minutes. I pulled my legs out (boy, that sounds painful!) after about 10 minutes and could have pulled them out a bit sooner. I did pull out the last few earlier and that made a big difference in how they appeared, golden and crunchy.


And very delicious.

I'm not going to post up the recipe here for the chicken. Not only is it in the book that just about everyone should own now, or at least have access to, its fried chicken, so it is fairly simple: marinade your chicken overnight in seasoned buttermilk. Dredge the drained pieces in seasoned flour before frying them in oil. How easy is that? Tyler's recipe uses some seasonings that I didn't use, onion and garlic powder, because I didn't have any at the time, but that's my only changes.

I will, however, put the recipe up for the salad and dressing, also from Tyler Florence.

Cherry Tomatoes with Buttermilk Blue Cheese Dressing
by Tyler Florence, from Stirring the Pot, posted on FoodTv

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch fresh chives, minced
2 pints red grape tomatoes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2-3 cups of a peppery green, I used baby arugula

Place the blue cheese, buttermilk, and olive oil in a medium bowl and stir together with a fork, mashing a little to break up the cheese. Season with the lemon juice, salt, pepper, and chives. Set aside.

Wash the tomatoes, and pat dry with a paper towel. Slice each tomato in half lengthwise and season with a pinch of salt. Arrange the greens on a platter with the tomatoes on top. Serve the dressing on the side.