Between air fryers and fast food, I wonder if the pan fried chicken of days gone by is a thing of the past. I remember as a kid all of the older crowd would bring made from scratch fried chicken to church pot lucks. The running joke was that if you woke up in the middle of the night and smelled fried chicken it was a call to preach.

Now, it seems that very few have that handed down skill of good home made fried chicken.

To the point, I am really starting to wonder if anyone born after 1950 has the skill.

Thoughts?

I was just thinking about this today. My Grandmother, who left us in 2005, made it once a week in her cast iron pan. I can smell it now! I really need to make some now that you have encouraged me. I watched her make it so many times, but I don't have a recipe, per se. And she always cut up a whole chicken.

I forgot to mention cutting up a whole chicken.

I’ve got my Pop-Pop’s cast iron pans....one of them is 12 inches across but is four inches deep...it’s the one he used in the garage for fried chicken and fried mullet

I guess I need to set up my burner out back during the quarantine so I can start cooking out back

My mom did it, too. In her later years, though, she just bought breasts and skinned them before frying them in the skillet. As I remember, she just rolled them in flour and put them in the skillet. I don't recall there being any oil used.

She did the same thing with thin round steak that had been rolled in flour and beaten (she used a heavy pottery saucer), then fried in the skillet. We called it "Country-fried steak" and it was wonderful! She always cooked more than needed for the meal, and we ate cold steak as finger food or in a sandwich. Yumm!

Nothing beats pan-fried chicken (or steak).

flashguy

While not in cast iron, my Mother would slow fry tenderised breast, seasoned by a mixture she got from a well known resturant. I dont know if there is a limit to how much of that one could eat.

The skill of using a skillet...I don't think its a complete loss, just a evolution. I don't miss the whole house smelling of oil or, all the clean-up during a stove-top frying session.

American home kitchen skills declined post-WWII due to two major factors: canned, prepared and microwave products entered the market place and with women entering the workforce, the principal holder's of existing kitchen skills and recipes, were not passed down, nor embraced, by the succeeding generation.

The flip-side today, there's a greater embrace of learning how to make better dishes, understanding and putting into practice skills like braising, canning, pickling, bread/dough making, actually hosting dinners. How-to resources are endless with online connectivity. Tech items like air fryers, the Instant Pot, sous vide machines, high-speed blenders and immersion blenders have allowed home cooks to broaden their skills. I don't think its necessarily a loss, just there's better methods and techniques to get the same results.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
...I don't think its necessarily a loss, just there's better methods and techniques to get the same results.

In some things, perhaps. But there are no equivalents to pan fried chicken; no other technique will yield the same result.

And to answer OP, there are some who still know how, but they would be fewer and farther between, due at least in part for reasons mentioned by corsair. I know my sister could do it (born in 1956), but she learned from our mother for whom pan frying chicken was SOP. Don't get me started on the gravy that came from that and went on the mashed potatoes...

Well, I was born after 1950 and I fixed some last weekend. Cut the chicken up too...

Yes, along with most , from scratch, cooking.

It’ll be lost eventually.

Well, I am 49 and I have taught my boys to make fried chicken in the cast iron. My mom taught me.

My 26 year old made us dinner tonight. He didn't bread the chicken, but browned it and then put the skillet in the oven to bake. Homemade mashed potatoes and honey bacon Brussel sprouts to go along with some excellent pan fried/baked chicken.

Skill? Sure. I CAN do it... often time I choose not to.

It is delicious. But the whole house smells, there are a shitload of dishes, and honestly it is simpler to.just go out and get it.

I use Alton Brown's method and recipe to process whole fryers and to make Buttermilk Fried Chicken in Cast Iron.

His episodes of Good Eats on those topics solidified and made better what I had gleaned from family.

I first had it by my own Grandmothers and the black house help of some friends down South.

You can catch it in some big city Soul Food restaurants. I have a few I like, here and there.

Definitely in decline, though. My own mother hasn't bothered in 30yrs.

I hope to never stop enjoying it on occasion.

Quite honestly, the Fried Chicken dinner at Cracker Barrel is around $10 with 2 sides and DAMN GOOD. Popeye's spicy fried chicken is good too. I don't see any reason to cook it at home, stink up the entire house, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
Quite honestly, the Fried Chicken dinner at Cracker Barrel is around $10 with 2 sides and DAMN GOOD. Popeye's spicy fried chicken is good too. I don't see any reason to cook it at home, stink up the entire house, etc.

For a man with time on yachts and fancy destinations, your fried chicken tastes are very pedestrian.

Not bad, just that vanilla sort of basic-honkey kinda level.

Maybe, people just don’t cook at home as much as they used to.

Yes I can cook it, I grew up on it.

I buy whole fryers and cut them up myself. It’s easy and quick.

Yes I believe it is. My mother and grandmother would make very good pan fried chicken. Now your making me hungry for some.

Yes, it's not done as much as in the past.

The batter crust on pan fried chicken is much different than deep fried, when Mom made pan fried, she always put lots of black pepper.

One big difference is chicken parts. These days, no more necks, gizzards from restaurants, that you got at home.

Oh yeah, it's becoming a thing of the past. My grandmother made it all the time. She used a brown paper bag to shake it up as I remember. It was wonderful. Gosh, she died back in 1965 or 66 and my mother, who knew how to do it, never really made it much thereafter. It made such a mess of the kitchen I think she just said to hell with it.