Southern Comfort

Sunday was the day for Church and Chicken. Fried chicken was the standard. None of this baked, healthy stuff. No good ole fried chicken in Crisco usually. My grandmother use to only use fresh chicken. By that I mean she went outside and caught one and we had very, fresh chicken. She would do this and still be ready in time to teach Sunday School.
This was Helon's mother, my grandmother, Mignon. I still fry chicken the same way. Only my chicken comes from the nearest grocery. There is an art to cutting up a chicken, which I learned growing up. There are 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 breast, a pulley bone if large enough( was my favorite) and 2 back pieces, which I never touched. Some people preferred those pieces. So you actually got 10 pieces, and 11 if you cut the pulley bone. For those of you who don't know about this piece, it is the top of the two breast.
Below is the recipe for Sunday Southern Fried Chicken, nothing is exact, but I think you will be able to manage. It is not hard, just a bit time consuming but worth it.
Included in the meal would always be mashed potatoes, and you may think there is no difference in mashed potatoes, unless add garlic, sour cream etc. Not so. I include my grandmothers mashed potatoes. The lumps are part of the great taste and texture, so don't work to hard to remove them.

Helon's Mothers Chicken
1 chicken cut up
salt and pepper to taste(we used lots of black pepper)
buttermilk
flour(not self rising)
Crisco (enough to measure about 2 inches in skillet

You will need and iron skillet, or dutch oven for the best, but do what you can with what pots you have.

Wash chicken really good.
pour buttermilk into a large shallow pan or bowl
put flour in another large shallow pan or bowl
salt & pepper chicken, roll in flour
Dip into buttermilk drain off and roll back into flour

Get grease hot almost smoking, and place chicken in , brown on one side turn to the other, then turn down heat to medium , cover and cook , turning occasionally. Uncover when chicken is no longer running pink when pierced with a fork turn up heat and let crisp up. Turn once. Remove and drain on brown paper or paper towels. This should take about 25 minutes. You just have to watch the chicken and learn to tell by the look. There is no exact, or even a written down recipe.

Hint. It takes longer to cook the dark meat so add the white meat later in the cooking.

Mashed potatoes.
This potatoes recipe is basically boil potatoes, we used white potatoes, Yukon gold are good.
Cover with water add salt bring to boil, and cover and let cook on medium until soft. You can slice the potatoes anyway you want we would quarter.
Drain, add 2 or more tablespoons of butter and start mashing. Add carnation milk(no substitutes) and mash until almost smooth, if possible. Keep adding the milk until you get the right consistency. These are stiff potatoes, and hold up to some thick gravy. Add black pepper to taste, but actually ours were made where could see the black dots of pepper. It is the carnation milk, and butte that makes a difference. The potatoes will be white, due to light butter, don't use yellow margarine.

Brown Chicken Gravy
To top these potatoes, drain most of the oil from the skillet. Scrape up all the brown pieces in the skillet. Add 2 tablespoons of flour, stir until brown on medium heat, add cup of hot water, it will smoke, season with salt and pepper, and cook until thickened.

Hope you enjoy!