Southern me up!

Not to toot my own horn (okay maybe I lie), but I can make some damn good fried chicken. It is one of the main perks from being of southern decent, though as many know fried chicken is widely known and a global delicacy. In fact, I'm constantly hearing vegetarians say that the only meat that sounds good to them is bacon, and meat eaters insist that is a main reason why they could not be vegetarian. Myself? I might give up bacon before fried chicken, though bacon is something I can eat more on a regular basis. I think I don't make fried chicken constantly not just for obvious dietary reasons, but becase I do not want to grow tired of it. I want each fried chicken meal to be more special then the last, and this new and improved recipe I have flourished has done just that.


So lets begin. Any southern woman probably has her own secrets for making fried chicken, and I'm going to tell you exactly what I think about all of  that: there are hundreds of ways to make it. There is so much room for creativity with such basic ingredients so use your imagination. However, I insist on a few basic guidelines, such as a cast iron skillet and a dry rub that sits on the chicken overnight.

Ingredients: (for 3-4 people)




 Cast Iron Skillet
1 Whole Chicken (4 lb. or so)

1 C Buttermilk
1 large egg
1 T cornstarch
1 T Salt
1 T black pepper
3 C flour (all purpose)
Peanut oil or vegetable oil for frying
1/2 cup of honey
3 T butter

Spice rub:
1 T salt
2 t black pepper
3/4 t lemon pepper
1/2 t garlic salk
1/2 t onion powder
3/4 t cayenne
1 t paprika

It is much more economical and environmental to use a whole chicken. Please please please, it is not as hard as you think to cut down a chicken. For me it not morally right to buy a package of chicken that just has one cut, such as the legs, and I admire the variety each piece gives to a meal. You can easily find you tube videos that show you how to cut down a chicken.

The night before you fry the chicken, place all of the pieces of chicken in a bowl. Combine the spice rub separately then generously portion all over the chicken, rubbing the spicy into it. Seal the bowl with plastic tightly and let sit over night. The reason you need to use a smaller chicken is so the pieces are not so huge and will be able to cook evenly with the batter so the outside does not burn.

The next day let the chicken sit out to almost room temp while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. The only way I will cook fried chicken is in a cast iron skillet. You will probably need to do 2-3 batches because you do not want to overcrowd the skillet. Mix 1 egg and the buttermilk in one bowl, in a second bowl combine flour, cornstarch, salt, and pepper.

In a small saucepan, heat honey and butter on med-low stirring constantly (I used a local produced wildflower honey, but I think any will be delicious). Once it simmers, remove from heat and let cool. Fill the skillet about half way with oil. Peanut oil is more expensive and very rich, and this time I used half peanut oil and half veggie oil which worked out great. Heat at medium. Be careful, cast iron channels heat very well and you might have to turn down the heat just a notch once warmed up. You want the temp of the oil at 350 degrees.

Dredge each piece first in the egg batter (with right hand), then straight into the flour batter (left hand). Set each piece aside, it needs to sit for five minutes. If it goes straight into the oil you risk the chance of the batter not sticking as well. Carefully drop the chicken in the skillet. It should take about fifteen minutes to fry, turning each piece over once. Do not touch the chicken until the batter gets crispy or the flour can fall off. You can use a thermometer to see if the chicken is at 160 before pulling it out. Once you pull it out (setting on a paper towel or wire rack,) lather the hot chicken in the honey/butter with a brush. If you need to do more then once batch of chicken, keep the cooked pieces in a slightly warm oven to keep warm.

I am excited to experiment with the honey-butter lather further, such as fusing it with some fresh herbs. I also usually take some of the oil out of the pain after frying, add some flour and whisk it with milk to make gravy-but it is refreshing to mix things up a bit.

The journey is more fun then the destination

One of the best parts about our short Durango trip was driving there! Utah is absolutely gorgeous right now with all of the snow, if you hadn't noticed, and made for one content car ride.

Durango Coffee Company not only made me a bomb 'shot in the dark', but is a home cooks dream!

Durango Bagels: Cinnamon sugar bagel with raspberry cream cheese

Fuzziwig's Candy Shop: Valentine display

Besides the railroad and steamworks brewery, Durango also has a fun main street scene. I was pleasantly surprised to find they had a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory! They also have a small but kick ass candy store, an amazing culinary and coffee stop, and a really decent bagel shop.

Durango-Silverton Railroad

Really our whole point for going to Durango for a few days was to ride the railroad: one of Ziggy's Christmas present. It was also my first train ride. The train was built in the 1880's from Durango to Silverton for mining purposes. The station is still in its original location and has been open to the public for years and years. During the winter it only goes about halfway: to Cascade Canyon.

The train operates very slowly, it takes two hours each way and we got out in Cascade to eat lunch and explore a little bit. The river is completely frozen in some sports, but is starting to break, and as the train descends you can see it slowly melting more and more.

Delicious Steamworks brews and bites

You can refer to my explanation on the previous post about why you should visit steam-works brews, but of course I need to give examples of the food! So we ate three meals here, two for dinner and one for lunch why we left.

The first night I tried the plum infused Kolsh (cask beer). I wasn't too impressed. I don't get the whole cask thing: when they are trying to bring old school brewing back but this is a useless attempt because brewers have found much better techniques to store beer in modern day and age. There is a reason why they stopped storing in wooden barrels. Anyways, the Kolsh hardly had any plum flavor at all. Just a watery flat beer. The Lizard Head Red Ale was awesome though! It was so rounded with flavor and packed a punch.
That night I had the cornmeal crusted red trout with a cilantro-lime slaw and garlic mashed potatoes. I was stupid and thought it would be too dark to bring my camera along so no good pave photos, you just have to take my word.

Second night: I ordered the 3rd eye p.a. (very hoppy, almost some citrussy flavors, delicious also), and the gyro with a ceaser salad. The gyro was really good, the meat juicy and tender and the pita bread fresh. I know they had to have used pre-frozen meat because I've worked with it before. I still very much enjoyed it, and the salad was very different and inventive. The romaine was almost shredded because it was cut so thin. They garnished it with tiny roasted almonds that really gave it a nice texture and flavor element.

The third/last meal was probably the best. I ordered fish tacos that also had the cilantro-lime slaw and a Cuban aoili. Once again, I know there are slim chances of fish being fresh in Durango, but it still rocked. Two tacos and I was stuffed. Also, Thursdays are two dollar pint days! I had a different pale ale, and the steam engine lager which is very much like an amber ale in color and richness. Ziggy also enjoyed all of his meals, and actually ate almost everything. They serve the kids free ice cream as well, so he is the one who suggested we keep going back!

My tribute to Steamworks Brewery!

Zig and I took a mostly Zig vacation to Durango so we could ride the Durango-Silverton train. At first I was excited about trying some new restaurants, of course the center around almost all trips for us. After two disappointing meals, one at a supposive great pizzeria and another at the Irish embassy that has terrible Shepherd's Pie, we ended up having three meals at the Steamwork's Brewery in the 2 1/2 days we were there.

Durango has an exceptional brewer scene for such a small mountain town. These include Steamwork's which is by far the largest restaurant/brewery, Ska Brewing, Carver's, and Durango Brewery.

On our first night we headed over to Steamwork's, I really needed a awesome beer after driving three hours then swimming for a couple more hours at the Rec center. I wasn't expecting much as far as the experience. I know how the Brew Pub scene is, when food and service is usually an after thought to the beer. We were seated right away. There were many families, it was noisy, nothing I didn't expect, but when fifteen minutes floated by and we hadn't even been greeted by our server I'm thinking "Great, I knew it."

This is where I mentally put my foot in my mouth: The young woman who was our server came and apologized for our wait. This is usually good enough for me, I know how things get backed up without it being anyone fault really. I ordered a beer for myself and a milk for Zig. It took another ten minutes for her to come back with our drinks, and when they did she insisted she was would buy my beer that night. I'm thinking "Wow, that's awesome of her." It was about another ten-fifteen minutes for our food to arrive, and the supervisor personally brought us the food and apologized again for the wait and told us my entree was on the house as well. The server kept apologizing, and made sure we had everything we needed.

I have never really received this great of service when things started getting backed up for a restaurant, especially at my local brewery. I usually don't even get an apology for the wait, let alone for multiple employees to go out of their way to make sure my dining experience was turned around. Steamwork's has won me over not along with awesome service, but delicious food and beer. They have taken pub food to the next level, where you can have higher class meal at an exceptional price.