Southern Fried Chicken

I love fried chicken! found this recipe a while back, made it once but was not really satisfied with it. Tweaked it and finally got something close to my favorite, store bought fried chicken. I also marinated the chicken with coke, one of my favorite drinks, and the result was awesome! This chicken is best marinated overnight to let all the goodness of the spice infused coke be absorbed into the meat.

Ingredients

For the marinade

750ml Coke

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper powder

1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce

1 tablespoon cajun spice

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 teaspoon mustard

1 tablespoon ginger powder

A few sprigs of thyme

For the coating

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

equal amounts of everything that was used in the marinade except the coke and thyme

1 teaspoon salt

6 big chicken wings

2 eggs

Method

Mix the marinade and soak the chicken overnight. You want all the flavour in the chicken wings.

In a bag, mix the flour and spices.

Heat up a pot of oil.

Dust the chicken once, dip  it in the beaten eggs and dust the chicken with flour again.

 

When the oil is hot, fry the chicken and remove it when it turns golden brown.

This chicken is best served with coleslaw and mash. 

Enjoy!

ORANGE AND HERB PORK BELLY

Most of you who know me well know of my love for all things pork. Besides ribs, the belly cut is my favorite part of the pig. The Chinese have been making excellent crackling for as far back as I could remember, and during the Christmas season,  decided to do something which had the crackling of the siu yoke but the flavor of the season.

This is quite a simple, straight forward recipe but if done right, produces a crackling that is extremely crispy and a meat that melts in your mouth. The only problem is that this takes up a lot of time, but trust me, it's worth it!

Ingredients

1kg pork belly

Half of a yellow onion, roughly chopped

One whole garlic, finely chopped

2 sprigs of Rosemary, roughly chopped

2 sprigs of thyme

1 orange, sliced

Some orange juice

Half bottle of orange marmalade

Salt

20pcs Cloves

Rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon plain flour

Method

With a meat pricker, prick the skin thoroughly

Using a sharp knife, score the skin

Turn the meat over to the flesh side, poke small holes and stuff the cloves in them

Rub a mixture of chopped garlic, onions, rosemary, thyme and orange marmalade

Put it on a pan, skin side up and fill it with orange juice until it reaches just below the skin

Rub salt on the skin and let it sit for 4 hours in room tempreature

When that's all done, put the pan in an oven, preheated to 250 degree Celsius and lower the temperature to 160 degree Celsius for 1 hour

When the first hour's up, increase the temperature to 180 degree Celsius

When the second hour's up, increase the temperature to 200 degree Celsius

When the third hour's up, spray some rice wine vinegar on the skin, increase the temperature to 250 degree Celsius and leave it in the oven until the skin is slightly charred. Don't worry if it's too charred as you can scrape it off at the end of it all

When the meat's done, let it rest for 30 mins before cutting it.

With the remainder of the liquids in the pan, heat it up and add some flour to thicken it and you will have an excellent sauce to go with the meat.

I was so anxious to eat it I totally forgot to take a picture of it before it was cut! Believe me, it was mouth watering!

So, try this and enjoy the results. It's totally worth the work and more!