Fried Chicken and Hush Puppies

For a pre-Labor Day get-together, we pulled out all the cholesterol stops and fried up some chicken and hush puppies. There was also fish, but since we don’t eat fish I’ll skip right over that.

My sister was in charge of the chicken. She used Paula Deen’s method for the first time, and we all agreed that it was the best we’d ever had. Adding hot sauce to the overnight soak really added some wonderful flavor to the chicken. There wasn’t enough of the hot sauce to really make it hot, but the flavor was still there.

Our contribution was hush puppies. For those of you unfamiliar, hush puppies are little fritters made of flour, cornmeal, milk, and onions. There can also be a variety of seasonings and creamed corn. My great aunt, who was an incredible cook, made the best hush puppies I’ve ever had. Sadly, I don’t know her specific recipe, so I set out to find just the right one.

After looking through several, I decided I most liked Alton Brown’s version from I’m Just Here for More Food, an often used book in our kitchen. I used its basics and came up with my own version of his recipe.

For the dry ingredients, I combined 150 grams (you do have a kitchen scale, right?) of AP flour, 142 grams of cornmeal, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon of baking soday, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, 2 teaspoons of salt, and a couple of turns of freshly ground black pepper.

When the dry ingredients are combined, add 1 & 1/2 cups of buttermilk and 1 small chopped onion. A little less onion is fine. Actually, I didn’t quite use all of the onion that Quinn chopped. In common Alton fashion, let the batter rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes.

I volunteered Quinn for the actual frying process. He dropped the batter by tablespoonfuls into the oil (about 340 degrees). Don’t worry about little stray gobs of batter. Those will fry up, too, and are quite tasty. When the hush puppies float to the top, try to turn them over. This won’t be easy, but it will help them get evenly cooked. After 3 minutes or so, they should be done. Use tongs, a spider, or a long-handle spotted spoon to remove them to a rack or a pan lined with paper towels. These will stay plenty warm at room temperature while you finish cooking. Cover them loosely with aluminum foil.

I must say that they were very good. Most of the ones I’ve had in the past were overdone. Golden brown is what we’re looking for, not dark brown. Just about 3 minutes is plenty of frying time. Everyone agreed with me, too, that the shorter cooking time was better. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t turn down one like I’ve been accustomed to eating. Hush puppies are (dare I say) good eats.

5 comments September 2nd, 2006