Ilene, I made fried chicken on Thursday night for my family using a firehouse recipe in the latest edition of Paula Deen's cooking magazine, and it was good, but still not as good as my mom's or grandmother's fried chicken that I remember eating in my younger days. It was very, very crispy and crunchy but the crust was not quite flavorful enough. I told my family then that I think it is probably the vegetable oil that I use, and that I wish I had enough bacon grease/lard to fry the chicken the way my mom did. Gravy! Yum! Every time I read this post, I want to eat some fried chicken, so I have been wanting fried chicken every day. lol Plaid, Here's the recipe I have for skinless fried chicken. It is good and has a crispy crust. It is from Fannie Flagg's Original Whistlestop Cafe Cookbook, which came out shortly after the movie version of her book FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLESTOP CAFE came out. It is one of my favorite collections of southern recipes, so if you need a good recipe for any old southern favorites (like Roast Possum or Tomato Aspic or Cone Pone or Cracklin' Corn Bread, etc.), let me know. I have lots of old southern recipes that no one makes much any more! Dawn SKINLESS FRIED CHICKEN 8 chicken breast halves salt ice water 2 cups buttermilk 2 to 3 cups SELF-RISING (not all-purpose) flour vegetable oil (or, if you have it, and you are not concerned about choleterol or fat, use a combination of lard and bacon grease!) Remove the skin from the chicken breasts halves. Place them in a large container with a cover. Pour salted ice water (using about 2 teaspoons of salt per quart of water). Cover and refrigerate overnight. Up to two hours before cooking, drain the chicken and pat it dry. Place in a large bowl. Pour buttermilk over the chicken and refrigerate until time to fry. Drain the chicken. Dredge the breasts in the flour, packing flour in to the crevices and coating it well. Deep-fry in hot oil for 10 minutes OR until well-cooked. Drain in a single layer in a large, shallow baking pans. Yield: 8 servings. (If you want a more flavorful crust, add some of your favorite seasonings like salt, pepper, seasoned salt, etc. to the flour.)

Same thing and recipes will vary. There's going to be purists on anything who say it ain't _____ if it ain't _____... but what's called a garage sale is no different than a tag sale and a sub or a grinder and the endless arguments over chili. But then, some people take coleslaw dressing and call it BBQ sauce, or call chicken stew "white chili" or call hamburger a "steak"! And for that matter, many people/places make it with hamburger. Things change and evolve. Shepherd's pie being made with turkey? Or better yet, with vegetable granules called meat? Years ago I tried chicken/country fried steak with beef gravy and really liked it. Many places have a far tastier beef gravy than they do the white/milk/cream/country, etc gravy and when my cousin tried to straighten me out on it, I pointed out it's CALLED chicken fried steak WITH white/milk/cream/country, etc gravy so get off'n yer high horse! He conceded and even tried it and most often after, ordered it with beef gravy.

I make this when I want a quick, good, easy meat and potatoes dinner. Usually with cubed pork cutlets and served with the milk gravey, corn, mashed taters, and always with homemade applesauce. Salad if there's makins'... one of my favorite comfort dinners of all time. Nancy

Sounds delicious! Might be on my agenda this weekend, as I'm preparing birthday lunch for my now 11 year old GS!