Fall weekends: fried chicken, beer, and football

I think the hubs gets a bad rap from time to time.  I'm beginning to realize that most folks think I do most of the cooking at the house, which couldn't be further from the truth.  I consider myself a decent baker, but when it comes to cooking meat I let the hubs do his thing.  Smoke an 8lb brisket - done.  Make shrimp kabobs - so tasty and done. Sear tuna - done, done, and done.

I think the only meat dish that's 100% mine is my meatloaf.  I make chicken breasts, tacos, shrimp scampi, and poached salmon, but most of the time if there's meat in the house the hubs is the one who cooked it.

And now it's fall football season, which only means it's time for fried chicken on the weekends.  I asked the hubs for his recipe and he looked at me and went, "ummmm, I don't measure so I have no idea what I use."

It's like the man is scared I'm going to steal his fried chicken recipe even though I don't eat chicken off the bone! I swear I'm really a vegetarian who's trapped with the world's biggest carnivore and eats meat in order to keep the peace.

Without further ado, here is the hubs' fried chicken recipe (if you can call this a recipe!).

Ingredients: 

- 6 pieces thawed chicken (plus one half-way defrosted chicken breast if you want to make chicken strips)
- Salt
- Texas Pete Wing Sauce
- Paprika
- Ground Back Pepper
- Flour
- 3 eggs (that's the one thing he measured!)
- Lots of oil for cooking the chicken (The hubs uses vegetable oil because we bought a huge tub of it on sale. He's used peanut oil in the past and really liked the peanut oil.)

Step 1:  Season chicken with salt, paprika, and pepper.  To quote the hubs, "a bit of salt, but more paprika and pepper than salt." 

Step 2: In one large bowl combine 3 eggs and hot sauce (enough hot sauce until the mixture is "bright orange").  In a separate medium bowl pour in flour ("enough flour to cover the chicken").  My guess is start with a cup of flour, if you need more later, add it! 

Step 3: Dredge the chicken by first coating it in the egg/hot sauce mixture and then rolling the chicken in the bowl of flour.

Step 4:  Place chicken in a pan/Dutch Oven of warm oil on medium heat.  Cook roughly 10 minutes for chicken wings.  Breasts and thighs will take a few minutes longer.  If fully submerged in oil you don't have to flip the chicken pieces. 

Step 5: Eat chicken! Look I've burnt myself enough on fried chicken to feel comfortable saying, "let it cool down a minute or two first!" 

Optional Step for Extra Crispy Chicken:  Dredge the chicken twice. Super crispy and yummy. 

What's your favorite fall football food?  When the weather really starts to cool down we'll start making chili on the weekends and as much as I love fried chicken strips I can't wait for chili season!