Shawirmah or NOT

Take 44 lbs of veal, mastic, cardamon seeds….So, like I said, this isn’t really adaptable for American cooking, so let’s move on to something with easier ingredients and a more modern appeal.

Chicken

One of Lad’s fondest memories of childhood on the Sand Hill’s ranch near Eli, Nebraska has to do with cooking his own dinner. When his parents went to town for the day, he loved to stay at the ranch. At noon, he went out to the chicken house, killed a chicken, cleaned and dressed it, then took it into the house and fried it for his dinner.

I don’t know the method he used for killing those chickens. There are as many methods as there are people. Those of use who grew up on the ranches or farms can well remember those fatal days when we had to help clean chickens. Today, most of use go to the store and purchase chickens already dressed. Some of us never learned how to cut one up because you can buy them already cut.

Lad goes even further. The kids love it when it was “Dad’s turn to cook.” He went down to Kentucky Fried Chicken and brought home a bucket of chicken. He can fry a chicken if eh wants to, but would rather someone else do it. To this day, (2018) Lad still enjoys getting fried chicken from KFC.

When the kids were small, I often bought two small chickens for frying. They seemed to enjoy having some kind of “race” to see who could eat the most pieces. Size was not important, so the smaller ones had less waste, besides, everyone wanted a leg until they were about ten or so when one by one they discovered the part of the chicken mom liked best, the breast or “wishbone”.

As a child, I thought my mother’s favorite piece of chicken was “the last piece over the fence” as my dad called the back. She actually convinced us it was true. By the time the chicken platter got past all of us to her, there was nothing left but the back! I’m not sure I was ever that selfless.

I used to believe that you just “fried” a chicken. I can’t remember not knowing how to cut up and fry one. Now, we have several methods for cooking a chicken!

My Fried Chicken

Cut up one or two chickens into serving pieces – legs, thigh, wings, breast and “wishbone”, front back and tail back. Neck and giblets may be used too. (I never cook the liver and seldom the neck anymore – the necks and backs can be saved for chicken noodles.)

Roll each piece in a mixture of flour, salt, pepper, garlic salt and paprika. Make sure each piece is well coated.

Brown chicken in a mixture of butter and oil – just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. I like to use my electric skillet for more evening browning. When chicken has been browned on all sides and skin is crisp, cover tightly and allow to cook slowly – almost like steaming. This makes the chicken moist, yet the outside says crisp.

(remember, these recipes were written around circa 1980)

Next time – more chicken recipes!