"Southern" Style Chicken

This is a great recipe as not only is it better quality and tastier than KFC but its healthier and a fraction of the cost. KFC is an amazing rip off. I've bread crumbed stuff before on the blog but I haven't really presented it in such a practical way before and I thought it would be fun to show the whole process I do for this recipe.

When I buy a chicken I do it with the intention of getting 3 meals out of it. Considering I pay up to £4.50 for a chicken that makes it £1.50 per 2 person meal, which I consider reasonable.

So I take a good sharp knife a butcher off the legs and wings, then separate the legs into thighs and drumsticks. The crown I roast, we'll eat half on Sunday and then Monday the other half and any left over veg goes in a pie. The limbs go in the freezer until I need them.

I've got some bread that has staled nicely, i.e. it's dry and crumbles in my fingers and hasn't grown any mould. Best way to get it to do this is hang it in an airy bag. Home made rolls and burger buns generally stale very well and it's good to mix up the ones you use.

Using a hand blender I've made this into crumbs. If you have a food processor it's easier, if you have neither use your hands to crumble but it'll take longer. These also go in the freezer until I need them.

When the day comes to make my chicken I take the meat out of the freezer in the morning and give it plenty of time to fully defrost. Then I lay my breadcrumbs out on a plate and season them. The breadcrumbs will be ready to use straight from the freezer.

They need quite heavily seasoning as there's only a thin coating goes on each bit of chicken. You can be quite imaginative with your seasonings and for this batch I've added a generous amount of garlic salt and freshly ground black pepper, then generous half teaspoon amounts of ground nutmeg, ground cumin, galangal, paprika (which is excellent for adding a bit of colour too), garam masala and powdered lemongrass.

The chicken pieces need to be evenly coated in plain flour...

... then dipped in beaten egg before getting thoroughly coated in the breadcrumbs.

Place them on an oiled baking tray and have your oven pre-heated. My fan assisted oven is at 200degC.

I cooked these for 15 minutes, then turned them, brushed with a little more oil and cooked for another 15 minutes, turning once more for a final 10 minutes.

6 pieces of chicken, twice as tasty as fast food and a fraction of the cost.

Beer festival in Brighton

On Saturday I indulged in another rare treat that life sometimes presents us with - the beer festival. If you've read my blog before you'll know that I'm no stranger to ale. This time the venue was Hove Town Hall near my hometown of Brighton. The festival has been hosted here for a good many years now and they've gotten rather good at it. Beer fests can be disasters if managed poorly and without some expert experience but this is not the case with Brighton.

At 11:00 two friends and I queued along with hundreds of other real ale fanatics to enter into the hall where we receive a free glass, brochure and then join another queue to purchase tokens in sheets of 10p squares to exchange for beer. I opted for a half pint glass to begin with as a) I wanted to sample a variety of beers and b) we're short on half pint glasses at home.

I'm naturally a fan of darker heavy beers anyway, but these are especially better suited to the winter drinker than the crisper light styles which I find make fine session pints on a summers day, I did my best to mix it up a bit though.

I kicked off with a Turner's Ruby Mild - dark mild beer at only about 4%. Next I moved onto a light one, Concrete Cow Pail Ale. This is brewed with lager malts, it was weak and I think most of its charm was in the nose which showcased its excellent balance of hops.

My friend recommended the next one - Hip Hop by Langham. It was... fine, if I had to describe it further I would say that it tasted like, well, beer. OK, hoppy light beer, but that's the best I can manage. I followed it up with a local favourite which given that it is the nearest brewery (worthy of mention) to the festival seemed fitting to have - Kemptown Brewery's Red Ale, brewed in the pub I've been going to with my parents since I was a nipper.

Most of the beers I would have loved to try were gone, it was day 3 of the festival and the keen palates of the serious drinkers had drained the really interesting barrels the night before. There were a couple of beers brewed with New Zealand and Australian hops which are favourites of mine, these were gone. But I did manage to find a real treat in my next beer - Rum Porter by Boggart Hole Clough. To me you can't call a beer a rum porter unless you can really taste the rum, and this delicious dark drink delivered delightfully.

Finally, as we approached 3:00 and the morning session was drawing to a close I purchased a pint glass and decided to finish with another speciality beer. I picked out Umbel Magna by Nethergate Brewery. The description in our festival guide read that it was brewed with coriander and I quite enjoy beers with coriander. I think the herb must have been added a little later in the boil as it came through strong in the nose but not so much on the palate, which to be honest suited me just fine as the rest of the beer was nicely balanced and could have been spoilt otherwise.

Time to leave and make room for the afternoon session. Another great festival very much enjoyed, and two more glasses to fill out our cupboard.