Fried Chicken from a whole chicken

I have to find more creative recipes for my freezer full of whole chickens.  There are only so many times that you can have a roasted chicken even with different flavors.  I know because I have reached my limit :)  I decided to cut the whole chicken up and made fried chicken. 

Check out my horrible cutting job.  At least it was done!!  I pulled the bones out of the thighs in the process because I was having a lot of trouble with dividing the thighs from the drumsticks.  Luckily, it ended up being better because it was super easy to eat without the bones :)  My husband actually liked them better.  I love learning from my mistakes especially when they turn out great!

Then, I mixed up the House Autry Chicken Fry mix.  Have you ever tried this product??  I got one bag and tried it (with a sale and coupon) and I loved it.  The next time that there was a deal, I picked up a ton of bags to try again.  This is the first time that I have gotten it back on the menu because I didn't think about cutting up the whole chicken again.  Sometimes I get things stuck in my head and forget to be creative but I was trying to work with the things that I had so it was a good idea!!

It mixes with water to make a coating for the chicken.  Not really impressive huh?  It just looks like a tan mixture.  The first step is to dip the chicken into the wet mixture and then coat with the dry mixture.  My husband helped me so that I can take pictures and be in charge of frying so he did the messy work of coating the chicken. After the messy coating process, the chicken goes directly into the hot oil in a skillet (or deep fat fryer) to cook.

 We take it out and put it on a cookie sheet with cooling rack sitting inside it recommended on America's Test Kitchen (my favorite PBS show).  Then, we put the fried chicken into the oven to make sure that it is baked all the way through.  Doesn't it look nice???

The finished product is a yummy and very crispy chicken which doesn't have to be soaked for 24 hours in buttermilk or brined.  It is super easy and very quick fried chicken that you can do on a weeknight without a lot of cost or planning (especially if you aren't defrosting a whole chicken). 

I hope that you enjoy this frugal tip to make your own fried chicken at home!!  It is easy to use with boneless chicken breasts or tenders so if you aren't interested in whole chickens, I highly recommend that you try it with boneless chicken.