People were really trashing Paula Patton yesterday! Paula decided to make a little video where she showed off her “family recipe” for fried chicken and it was a whole mess. First off, too many people were saying “oh, Paula’s mother is white, that’s why her fried chicken recipe sucks.” No – plenty of white folks know how to make good fried chicken. Especially Southern white folks! I feel like not enough people understand that this mess is likely a regional thing and not a racial thing! Trust me when I say that Paula’s fried chicken recipe has likely offended plenty of home-cooks and chefs of all races (Asians too, because OMG).
Paula Patton just ruined my day. pic.twitter.com/TNXvB5VPIj
— I Drink Wine 🇯🇲🏳️🌈🇨🇦 (@_zing_bae) April 4, 2022
First off, never crowd your pan of fried chicken like that. You shouldn’t have 10 pieces of chicken in a frying pan, ever. Just the “cleaning chicken by running it under some cold water quickly” thing has divided Twitter. I clean chicken with water too, but then you have to marinate it, and then if you cook it properly, it’s fine. Others disagree or have different methods. But I think we can all agree that you should never EVER just put raw, unseasoned chicken into a bag of basic flour and then throw it into the frying pan. Y’all not marinating that? Y’all not letting the chicken soak in buttermilk? You’re not even going to put salt, pepper, garlic powder and maybe a little cayenne on it before the flour?? WTF?? And no, you don’t season the chicken AS YOU’RE FRYING IT. No one should do that! You’re seasoning the grease and all of that seasoning will BURN in the grease.
Paula Patton really thought that insurrectionist fried chicken was about to be slapping. Hate to see it.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) April 4, 2022
Miss Paula Patton put on her good apron and fried that chicken like that? pic.twitter.com/h68eADP3Ng
— ADD YOUR NAME (@alexactivated) April 4, 2022
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- WEST HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – NOVEMBER 09: Actress Paula Patton arrives at the Los Angeles Special Screening Of Paula Patton’s BET+ Original ‘Sacrifice’ held at The West Hollywood EDITION Hotel on November 9, 2021 in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 642456482, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Paula Patton, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- WEST HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – NOVEMBER 09: Actress Paula Patton arrives at the Los Angeles Special Screening Of Paula Patton’s BET+ Original ‘Sacrifice’ held at The West Hollywood EDITION Hotel on November 9, 2021 in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 642456668, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Paula Patton, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
I want to say she was bored and just wanted to erupt on black twitter. Her seasoning in hot a** cooking oil makes zero sense. The chicken has not marinated at all so essentially it will be tasteless.
I’m not a very good cook; I rarely if ever fry anything (I know a few people who set fires in their kitchens while frying, so it scared me off) but even my basic self knows you season the chicken! At the very least put some salt, pepper, and maybe some paprika in the dredge, if you’re not going to marinate it.
If her video had been posted on the 1st I would have said it was an April Fools joke.
I use more seasoning just using Shake and Bake.
I recently listened to the KFC v. Chick-fil-A business Wars podcast, and from some of the “old-timey” recipes briefly discussed, it sounds like some people were frying up chicken in flour and that’s it….But I still have to wonder…they MUST have seasoned the chicken, right? But now I’m not sure.
This had me screaming yesterday! That woman knows absolutely nothing about cooking. I haven’t seen Paula respond to this mess but hoping she will soon.
That video was hilarious! Both for the commentator & Paula’s pathetic cooking skills. I am no cook at all, but even I know you don’t season the grease!!!!
If it came out good and she and her family like it how is that “pathetic?”
I think this poor girl is getting dragged because people are bored. Social media wants to watch the world burn.
Please, share your recipe of fried chicken.
I’ve never made fried chicken before and I would DIE to know how how @_zing_bae makes her fried chicken, but I don’t have twitter so can’t ask her, but your username checks out.
After all of the dividing issues in the country we face to today, I think it’s safe to say we can all agree that Paula Patton should stay away from frying chicken.
When Popeyes entered the chat with a “Great gowns,” it was over for me.
After reading the comments below I fear I will need to change my take on this. Paula actually started a national debate on to clean or not to clean your chicken. I’m 100% wash/paper towel dry and brine chicken. However, I don’t fry chicken because I find it intimidating. Maybe Paula should join me in roasting her chicken.
Omg! I was reading the comments and laughing myself silly last night. It helped alleviate my stressful day 🤣🤣
Paulah
Always rinse when you take it out of the packaging and there shouldn’t be a debate on this!
Either you eat clean chicken or potentially dirty chicken. Full stop.
I’m not a big fried chicken person, but even I know you soak that sh*t in buttermilk. Yikes! On a completely separate note, I read a really cute book last year called “The Chicken Sisters” about two sisters competing with fried chicken recipes and it made me think of this. Fried chicken is one of those things that everyone has their own tried and true way of doing. This is just a big fail though.
Who could have ever thought Paula Patton would unite the world? Was this what Nostradamus was talking about???
I read that book too! So cute…
Good Lord, she needs to get the Food Network app on her phone, there are so many tutorials on there, I use it all the time, no shame in asking for help!
I’ve been looking for new books to read, so I’ll add that one to the list. Thanks!
Nobody in my life EVA soaked chicken in buttermilk…but I grew up in area that were basically food deserts…so we was happy to get chicken…but we DID marinate the HELL outta the chicken…and NEVA crowded the skillet…so…naw to EVERYTHANG she did 😛
Lala11-7
I saw the Neelys actually soak in buttermilk overnight and I was intrigued so I tried it. The fried chicken was moist and delicious. My next goal is to try making Korean fried chicken.
After I soak the chicken in buttermilk, I like to let the chicken dry out in the fridge for at least few hours. IMO keeps the flour on better. A chef told me to try it and it works good (no, the chicken is not dried out).
I have been a vegetarian for decades, and even I can see that recipe is wrong.
I’m not a fried chicken expert but her method certainly looked… odd.
Right? I don’t fry chicken often because my mother does it better, but ain’t no way…you don’t have to be an expert to know that unseasoned flower is huge no. Hahaha.
I am here for the cleaning of the chicken topic. I have read countless articles stating do not rinse chicken and meat (ground beef I leave alone). But how can you not???
I made baked chicken wings the other day and I must have cleaned that chicken with water four times of soaking and scrubbing. Then I trimmed the edges for the wing remnants. My kids were grossed out by the water and how dirty it looked. But I grew up hearing: Wash EVERYTHING, boil chicken slightly and throw out that first water and then use for cooking and everything was cooked WELL DONE. No pink what so ever.
Don’t clean meat! The only way to kill bacteria is through cooking. “Cleaning” raw chicken means you’re spreading droplets of salmonella all over your kitchen! Cleaning meat meant sense when we were killing and gutting our own animals and couldn’t guarantee a proper cold chain throughout the process; whatever is inside would often be all over the place and at a temperature the would favour bacterial growth. It’s not the case anymore, and it’s likely going to do more wrongs than goods. The water will look gross because of the fat and blood, mixing in there, but it’s not cleaning anything.
Michelle Connolly explains why chicken in US needs rinsing. Second, rinsing the fat and blood off works for me – I don’t want to consume that. Third, good sanitation and cleaning practices help mitigate the spread of bacteria. I thoroughly wash everything in my kitchen after I cook with meat. My kitchen gets bleached down at least once a week. I have worked in restaurants growing up and health inspectors would always state poor sanitation and cleaning habits is what makes many people sick.
To each their own, but that’s how I do it. Veggies also get rinsed and some in a lite vinegar and water rinse.
The USDA says washing chicken is not necessary.
ETA if people want to do it then you do you, it doesnt affect me. But its not like our chicken comes to us in a bag full of chlorinated pool water lol.
This is what I was going to say, the only thing you do when you “clean” chicken is spread germs around your kitchen! I’ve always known that but even in my online health insurance training classes last year they said do not ever rinse raw meat, ever, lol.
I know it’s a personal thing for a lot of people, but in grad school for public health, we took an intro section on food safety (scared the crap out of me and I’ll basically never eat at a buffet or potluck again), and the public health experts said not to “wash” chicken.
@Chicken: those classes are terrifying, eh?! I’m never eating store-bought potato salad (it’s not so much the mayo you have to worry about, it’s the raw onions!) and yeah, buffets are forever banned (and cruises).
As I said, washing the meat probably comes from when we raised, slaughtered and gutted our own animals (it remains a common practice in many places and it’s probably the most ethical source of meat) and the best thing we had to keep food cold was an icebox. Anyone who read The Jungle also knows that industrial slaughterhouses were an abomination (yes, worse than today) so I understand where it comes from. But practices have changed quite a bit (even if work conditions remain awful in slaughterhouses) so there’s no actual benefit to wash your meat nowadays. Doing so greatly increases the risks of cross-contamination in the kitchen
you should clean your sink after that
clean your chicken, put it in a clean, non-dripping bowl, and clean the hell out your sink, chopping board and knife and whatever area you used. clean your hand too, obviously
you know, I’m just coming back to say that I don’t rinse off chicken breasts or thighs, but I always wash a whole chicken when I’m getting ready to roast one. I rinse it and then pat dry and then do whatever else the recipe calls for. (I always use a recipe, I know, its the easiest thing but still, lol.) I wonder if that’s bc I use older recipes (like Julia Child) that call for it?
Washing the chicken doesn’t do anything. The high cooking temperature will kill off bacteria.
If you don’t brine your chicken, you are missing out.
I am a huge fan of fried chicken. My mama made it best. 🙂
@Merricat, I brine my turkey and a Jewish friend explained her MIL would brine chicken in salt water. Never heard of the practice BUT I did brine our chicken breasts for dinner and then dry rubbed them before grilling and the entire family was blown away by how good it was.
I have seen a recipe for brining chicken in pickle juice which kind of intrigues me.
I’m not that good at frying chicken pieces, but I can make really good chicken nuggets. I dont know why one is easier for me than the other lol.
I’m screaming! Lol! **adds “frying chicken” to the list of life skills I need to teach my kids.
Well…..I bet she’s got a great personality.
come ON people…this woman put her hands-and probably her mouth-on Robin Thicke’s dick. that’s really all you need to know about her.
You speak the truth 🤣
I am sorry but should we wash chicken?
I have never heard of this, and looked it up and google said it was unnecessary?
I was taught to rinse and pat dry all meat before cooking. Even if it’s unnecessary, it doesn’t hurt and made my mother and grandmother feel better.
Chicken in America is chlorinated because their farming hygiene standards are so poor. So you need to rinse the chlorine off before you cook it there. This isn’t a thing in most countries.
“After slaughter, the chickens are rinsed with an antimicrobial chlorine wash to protect consumers from food-borne diseases.
This is done to treat high levels of bacteria, a symptom of poor hygiene and low animal welfare conditions not allowed in UK farming.
The practice of chlorine washing chicken is banned in the UK, but it is common practice in the US poultry industry.”
this is not the case anymore, fewer than 5% of US chicken processing plants still do this.
And even if they did:
“It’s not consuming chlorine itself that the EU is worried about – in fact in 2005 the European Food Safety Authority said that “exposure to chlorite residues arising from treated poultry carcasses would be of no safety concern”. Chlorine-rinsed bagged salads are common in the UK and other countries in the EU.
But the EU believes that relying on a chlorine rinse at the end of the meat production process could be a way of compensating for poor hygiene standards – such as dirty or crowded abattoirs.”
So it’s not about the chlorine itself.
Actually, the no chlorine rule is an EU standard so with Brexit may not be a thing anymore. US, Australia, New Zealand and most Asian countries still allow its use.
So whether it’s chlorine rinses or poor and unsanitary meat processing practices – it’s all gross and validates what I have always believed of meat processing.
I watched a documentary years back on how cows are slaughtered and meat is processed. Thankfully I watched it during Lent so it helped me stay away from red meat. A friend of mine said poultry processing (from beginning to end) is not for the faint of heart either.
Don’t. It’s not necessary and the process increases the risks of food poisoning from the water droplets that might contain pathogens flying all over the place. Brine for taste and texture, pat dry so it’ll caramelize better, buy from reputable and ethical sources, cook properly and it’ll be fine
As soon as the nightmare of Brexit loomed we suddenly all because aware of how far our animal welfare standards were about to drop (as well as SO much else) and there was a lot of information on American ‘chlorinated chicken’ and why it was done. It’s the standards rather than the chlorine which is the real issue, for sure! And yep we wash our salads, even bagged ones, but not our chicken I agree with all the comments that all it does is spread bacteria around. Brine yes, wash no!
Why on earth would you wash raw chicken? That sounds like a great way to splash bacteria all over your kitchen.
To remove the chorine it’s been bathed in. It’s an American thing, my comment above explains it
Just use bleach to clean up after wards. Wash in the sink or bowel and try not to splash raw chicken water. Its pretty easy 😉
I Irinse my chicken off and towel pat to dry it off, I’ve always done it.
I then wipe down everything in my kitchen w/ bleach or anti bacterial wipes.
I just have to rinse it at least.
I have never washed raw chicken in my life 🤷♀️
Same.
Thank you. I grew up in a vegetarian household, so when I started to cook chicken and other types of animal protein late in life, it was without the baggage of “what my mother and grandmother did.” I now know that washing chicken was a thing that the mother’s of my friends did. You guys who follow the practice should do as you wish, and I have no comment.
Unless you’re washing with dye infused water, there’s no way to clean off the salmonella splash back adequately. So maybe Im not good at cleaning- my chicken or my counters. But neither I nor those who have eaten my chicken ever had food poisoning.
I’m just coming back to point out my new comment above, for some reason I always wash a whole chicken before roasting it, so saying I had never done it was a lie, lol. But I never wash chicken pieces on their own, just the whole chicken.
Tell me you dk how to clean without telling me you dk how to clean..
Tell me you’re weirdly aggressive, etc.
I don’t cook, can’t cook a thing, but even I know this went left as soon as she started cleaning the chicken. Ooof Paula. Ooof.
ETA: I grew up with my family soaking chicken to clean it.
Chicken should NOT be washed. It is a cultural thing to wash chicken. Usually a Jamaican thing/Asian thing. The bacteria spreads everywhere while youre washing it. Plus, if the chicken is cooked thoroughly, it is redundant. My question to people who wasg chicken: do you wash your ground beef? Do you wash your sausages?
Also an African thing. We use lemons and scrub/soak in the acid.
Actually, that’s a good process. Citric acid is antibacterial.
Also Southern Mediterranean practice from what I have seen from both sides of our families and friends.
Also, if it’s a cultural cooking practice, then I would hesitate to weigh in stating the practice is outright wrong. I grew up seeing cooks rinse off pork, chicken and steaks, then pat dry. And if a cook runs a clean kitchen, bacteria should not be an issue.
Everyone saying washing chicken is unhygienic a) never has witnessed a slaughterhouse and b) doesn’t understand the concept of cleaning a kitchen.
If you don’t want to take the extra step that’s fine, but it’s a very culturally insensitive take on something that makes perfect sense if you’ve seen how animals are slaughtered.
I always wash my chicken with water and salt, then wash the sink and surrounding area with soap/water.
The chicken gets a wet brine in either salt/sugar water, or butter milk/old bay/garlic/onion/s&p/paprika, or i marinate in soy/sake/sugar/garlic.
The dredges i use now are either potato flour or a panko crumb and are seasoned accordingly.
It’s bizarre to cook bland chicken in my books.
Here in Trinidad & Tobago most, if not all, cooks wash their meats, soak them in lime/lemon water (heck, I’ve seen people use a bit of flour in water when they run out of citrus), then marinate them in seasoning. Season the flour then fry those suckers. I’ve never heard of seasoning oil while frying chicken or any meats.
As a Trini, I second that. We wash/soak our chicken in lime water or vinegar water, remove the fat, then rinse it out. Step 2 is we season the chicken with both dry & wet rub seasonings & marinate for a few hours or overnight before cooking. The flour can be seasoned too if frying.
Definitely a cultural thing. My family is from Barbados. My mother is 70 years old and has been washing her chicken her entire cooking life (and her mother/aunts before her, where she learned it from). I wash my meat also. Have never had a case of food poisoning in my family, ever. You “wash” the meat in lime/lemon juice and salt, so essentially brining. That in itself kills the germs, and also gives the meat a lot of flavor to boot. It’s not wrong, just a different way of doing things. (Seasoning the cooking grease instead of the chicken is just bonkers, though.)
Years ago I saw a woman on PBS tell the story of teaching her daughter to cook a roast beef. She told her the first step was to cut the ends off before putting it in the pan. When her daughter questioned why she did that, the woman said “I always do it because that’s how I saw my mother do it. Why don’t you ask your grandmother?“ so they call the grandmother and she says “I don’t know why you’re doing that… I do it because my roasting pan is too small!”
All of which to say that at some point in the Patton family someone forgot to season the chicken before frying and now it’s been passed down as tradition!
🤣🤣🤣🤣
I heard a Greek version of this joke – the woman puts the lamb into the roasting pan and whacks it hard. Kid asks why, mom says that’s what her mom did. They follow it up to great grandma who says it was because the pan was too small.
My 2020 project was trying to replicate my grandmother’s fried chicken. I do rinse my chicken breasts gently under running water, but that’s because it’s easier to trim the breasts that way. I cut the breasts in half, trim the visible fat, and gently loosen the skin and scrape the excess fat from the skin (not a fan of excess chicken fat). Soaking chicken in buttermilk adds a richness to the fried chicken, and I get raves when I cook it that way, but I prefer to skip the buttermilk for myself. I don’t like overly bready fried chicken, so I don’t add bread crumbs to the flour, but I season that flour really well–Old Bay, smoked paprika, thyme powder, black pepper. There’s salt in the Old Bay seasoning so I don’t add extra salt, but the flour, when seasoned, needs to be pink, not white. Not crowding the pan is critically important for crispiness, as is the right temperature for the oil. But my fried chicken is light, with crispy skin, not greasy, and juicy! It’s also important to store the cooked chicken in the fridge on paper towels to absorb moisture–paper towels at the bottom of the pan, and on top of the chicken as well–it keeps better in the fridge that way.
I think my Grandma would approve!
Eheheh. Good thing she didn’t cook cornbread. Folks are still whispering in horror about the Great African-American Usenet Jiffy-Mix vs. From-Scratch Cornbread War of 2006-2009. A nightmare, I tells ya…🥺🥺🤣🤣😈
I have a good friend from high school whose mom was Scottish, and an excellent cook who made the most amazing scones. When my friend moved out of the house, she asked her mom for the scone recipe — expecting some secret-ingredient recipe handed down through the centuries in her mother’s clan. However, her mom replied — in her charming Scottish accent — “Bisquick!”.
Reminds me of my husband insisted the “correct” way to make sauce (Italian marinara) was by not using Ragu – only canned tomato sauce. INSISTED on this. We had dinner at me FIL’s house and he made a wonderful braciole. I asked him how he made the sauce and he replied: Well, I start off with a little Ragu.
20 years later and I tell that story as often as I can.
I know that a lot of people do but I never learned to do it growing up. People who do it sweat that it’s disgusting not to but I’ve read that studies indicate washing it just spreads bacteria and doesn’t eliminate any of it.
Lmao! Poor thang. I refuse to fry chicken because I love it so much. And I’ve used everything from brine to buttermilk, injections….and I’ve always seasoned my flour or breadcrumbs. I’ve even mixed panko with flour (omg). Southern fried chicken is a serious dish lol. So sad I’m healthy now. 😭😭😭
Mabs–agreed. I’ve had to opt for baked chicken for health reasons, which is one depressing loss. 😱🥺😭
How did I miss this? Heads off to Twitter to see this mess LOL
The TikTok creator says she’s only using water so the chicken isn’t clean…?
What else do people clean chicken with???
I’ve heard of rinsing (that’s what I do) but are people using soap or fruit/vegetable wash or something?
I’ve heard of people soaking meat in lemon or lime water then rinsing it…I’ve never done this with chicken though.
Oh interesting! Ok sure I can see that. I’ve not done it and made it this far in life, but if that’s someone’s process, why not I guess!
I wonder if it tastes good? There’s not only one way of doing things. The american way or any way shouldnt be a standard for how we make food around the wolrd. I think her way could be a great option for somebody who doesnt have time to marinate.
Well by the look of the number of KFC outlets worldwide a large percentage of the world agrees that we are pretty good at making fried chicken. LMAO.
Organic chicken that is air refrigerated does not need to be washed
Paula Patton is really pretty, that’s all I got.
All the debating of washing or not washing.. the seasoning… Can we discuss how she didn’t check temperature of chicken and ate what clearly looked like pink undercooked chicken? How did she not get salmonella??
Wash with vinegar or lemons. After that I wash the top and sink and all I’ve touched with vinegar.
But before:
No flower, meat gets to greasy. Im not used to that were I live.
To marinade we do use: garlic (or powder), sweet & salty or just salty soy sauce, just salt, maggi cubes or aromat powder (I love maggi cubes, spelled kub). I also use laos/ galanga, ginger (or powder), mixed peppercorns, sometimes 5 spices. I also ad 2 spoons of brown beer when its for the bbq. Mix together and let it marinade over night. This is my receipt for my oven, stew meat or the bbq.
For beef, all the above and I ad nutmeg to the mix, and put very little! soy sauce, and little to no 5spices.
You can leave some of the ingredients out that Ive mentioned, but the basics, especially for chicken is always: wash first with vinegar/lemon, and ad garlic, peppercorns, maggi cubes, a little bit of sweet/ sour soy sauce, and laos (if you also have ginger 👍) . This is the shortcut!😁 when I didn’t marinade the night before.
Seasoning out of a package? Only to make pork meat red. We don’t have much brands to choose from. I don’t eat pork.
I don’t know any better
Her “recipe” is as terrible as her acting.
Wow… Lots of different perspectives here. I’ll throw mine out there for the sake of good chicken:
1. I was taught to wash chicken in water – mostly so the seasoned flour would stick.
2. I wasn’t taught to marinate the chicken. It wasn’t a thing for us. I’m northern, so there’s that. I’m willing to try it, but I enjoyed fried chicken without it.
3. I was taught to put flour in a bag, season it with salt (about 6 grains to a pinch of flour) and sage. Get the chicken very wet, toss it in the bag and take it out when it’s covered thickly.
4. Put the chicken into a pan with oil hot enough to pop water droplets sprinkled into it. Don’t over-crowd the pan because that will lower the oil temp too much and make the coating mushy. Paula looked like she had drummies, which are small, but she still overcrowded it.
5. I think the point where regional differences turned into crimes against nature is when those spices got sprinkled into the oil. What? Burnt spices on one side of your chicken = yum? Well, I grew up on some weird stuff, so who am I to judge, but there’s another thing to be said for blithely putting your childhood crazy out there for all to see. Hey, if she likes it and doesn’t get people sick, why not?
6. So, what happens when you soak chicken in buttermilk? Why is that a thing?
Hey there – so soaking chicken in buttermilk tenderizes the meat quite a bit AND helps the coating adhere better. Other things people do down here involve brining, from pickle juice to sweet tea, to just lemons and garlic in a salty water bath. That helps the chicken have more flavor, too. We do season our flour with more than Lawry’s, pepper, and paprika – I want to see some cayenne and some garlic in that mixture!
I’ve been frying chicken since I was kneehigh to a grasshopper (as my great aunt Leola used to say), and there are lots of ways to brine, soak, and coat chicken, but seasoning the grease with Lawry’s, crowding the skillet, and undercooking those drumsticks – as you pointed out! – just ain’t right.
@Cait, as I read all the various comments on how to tenderize chicken (that’s what all these marinades do) it dawned on me that another secret is the chef involved in cooking. There are secrets that help make a dish “damn good”.
We had a southern lady once bring us her homemade fried chicken and I have not had anything like it since. She also had a cast iron skillet.
Her undercooked, seasoned-grease attempt at bland fried chicken was an affront to fried chicken everywhere.
I dip my chicken in milk/egg or buttermilk and then I put it right in the bag of seasoned flour. I tend to crowd my chicken too. But it’s delicious!
Thanksgiving wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without my Mom and I having our annual argument over whether or not you should wash meat. It ends the same way every year, with me saying if she feels that strongly about it, she can be the one to deal with a big slippery turkey banging around the sink.
I make fried chicken once a year for my son’s back to school dinner, and Carla Hall’s recipe is the best I’ve had, by far, since a childhood friend’s mother!
https://theheritagecook.com/winner-winner-chicken-dinner/
My (white) grandmother was from southern Missouri and her fried chicken was AMAZING. But it was soaked in buttermilk and seasoned and prepared and not just thrown in a frying pan and “seasoned later.” PS, I have never “washed” chicken in my life (I know people who do, though) and have never gotten food poisoning. I watched both my grandmothers cook and never saw them “wash” chicken. (I know the food we buy is different now, but…)
Interesting debate lol. I asked my dad about the chicken rinsing and he says he does it depending on the situation. Like if he’s defrosting meat and there’s extra juice coming out and sometimes he’ll do it with chicken but not always. He always rinses fish too. I never rinse my meat and everything I looked at advised against it since most people tend to just spread bacteria and risk food poisoning by rinsing meat. I haven’t died yet so going to keep doing what I’m doing.
Good grief, hasn’t the world suffered enough?
She was also frying it in avocado oil
As a home cook, who would really love to skewer her for any reason, because she should never be in any kitchen, avocado oil is not a bad choice for frying. It is an incredibly expensive choice, which should come as zero surprise.
Welp!! There goes her pitch for a cooking show.
This made me laugh HARD. Poor Paula, I hope Patti Labelle calls her and invites her over for a cooking lesson.
Celebrities who can’t cook should just not publicly cook. Period.
Oh for the love of…don’t let this woman anywhere near a kitchen again.
This is how I fry chicken: brine in salty water with peppercorns, lemon and orange peel, a few sprigs of thyme and sage (fresh) and a few garlic cloves overnight. Next day pat chicken dry then dip it in egg and dredge in a flour and breadcrumb or panko mix with granulated garlic, onion powder, paprika, chili powder and pepper. Fry in a cast iron pan (crucial) until browned on both sides then put in a 350 oven for about 20 minutes so there’s no pink left inside. And don’t crowd the pan Paula!!
Definitely not the southern way to fry chicken but sounds pretty good.
Somebody must have told Paula that her chicken was good. I have been Vegan for over 15 years but watching the video was a “no mam” situation for me and I don’t even eat meat. Who seasons grease?
Why why why!!!
I’ve been frying chicken for decades and I can tell you that Paula’s chicken was a big hot mess.
My method is simple. Brine chicken for a few hours in salted water. Season flour with salt, pepper, onion powder, paprika and garlic pepper. Dredge chicken in flour mixture. Put grease in cast iron skillet and heat until it’s sizzling. Put in a few pieces of chicken at a time. Turn chicken over after 4 or 5 minutes to brown the other side. Turn heat down a bit and continue to cook until chicken is done. Turn heat up for the last couple of minutes to re-crisp the skin. Perfect every time.
I’m in a clean your chicken camp. I trim all the fats and skin and then rub a bit of flour all over it before rinsing it with water. the flour took out that slimy thingy that stick to the chicken. and anyone who comes at me about cross-contamination, dont you clean your sink, chopping board, knife and bowl after handling poultry? even if you didnt rinse it? I clean my chicken, put it in a clean bowl and then clean the area. baking soda, dishwasher, hot water. and obviously, you wash your hand too
Do people put SOAP on their chicken? We don’t even rinse poultry off because it just transfers the germs to the sink, and now you have a nasty sink and are more likely to get sick. If you cook your meat properly, the heat will clean it for you. Get a meat thermometer and learn how to use it.
Even though she was dragged… her response was sweet and reminded me so much of Tabitha.