Chicken was invariably a featured dish for picnics, church outings or reunions. Courtesy of Hunter Library, Western Carolina University.
Chapter 5
PREACHER BIRD
While chicken is today among the less expensive meats found in your local grocery store—though none of them is cheap—there was a time when yard bird appeared on the family table only for special occasions. Chicken was normally served only for holidays, a birthday, Sunday dinner with the preacher in attendance (hence the title of this chapter) or a visit from a family member who had not been seen for some time. The lyrics that state, “We’ll kill the old red rooster when she comes,” and “We’ll all have chicken and dumplings when she comes,” are suggestive in that regard, as is the wording of the thankful remembrance written by legendary singer/songwriter/storyteller Tom T. Hall and sung by Bobby Bare and numerous other country musicians, “Chicken every Sunday, Lord, chicken every Sunday.”
Chicken was invariably a featured dish for picnics, church outings or reunions. Courtesy of Hunter Library, Western Carolina University.
Anna Lou’s Fried Chicken
Every dedicated and skilled kitchen wizard has a few recipes that stand out as being truly special. My mother, Anna Lou Casada, was gifted with a wide array of culinary skills, but when it came to frying chicken, she invariably outdid herself. It was the standard Sunday meat on the family table.
1 (or more) chickens cut into frying portions (legs, thighs, wings and halved breast), skin intact
1 or 2 eggs, whisked
Flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Lard or cooking oil (cast-iron skillets should have between ⅛ and ¼ inch, and I can’t imagine using any other utensil to fry chicken)
Drench each piece of chicken in the egg wash and then coat thoroughly with flour (mix salt and pepper in with the flour) before placing in piping hot oil in a large cast-iron pan. It is important that the oil be so hot the chicken sizzles immediately on contact; otherwise, it will soak up too much oil. Reduce heat once pieces begin to brown and continue to cook slowly until thoroughly brown and done.
All of this seems simple and straightforward enough, but it was Mom’s final step that made all the difference. Once she had all the chicken fried and placed atop paper towels to drain a bit, she would drain and clean the cast-iron skillet and then put the fried chicken back in it. She next turned the oven on at low heat (200 degrees or maybe a bit less) and put the chicken in it. She normally did this just before heading off to church. When we returned home after church, and once she had readied the rest of the meal, Mom would pop the skillet out of the oven and serve the chicken immediately. Being in the oven seemed to do two things—cook away some of the surplus grease and make the chicken so tender it almost fell from the bones and melted in your mouth.
TIPS:
—Jim Casada
Baked Fried Chicken
8 chicken pieces
Buttermilk, enough to marinate chicken
2 tablespoons half-and-half
1 egg
1 cup bread crumbs
1 teaspoon garlic salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
Olive oil
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Marinate chicken in buttermilk for several hours. Drain chicken and discard buttermilk. Mix half-and-half with egg and whisk. Mix dry ingredients together and whisk. Dip chicken in the wet mixture and then in the dry one. Place chicken on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and melted butter. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes and then reduce heat to 400 degrees and continue baking for 35 minutes or until done.
—Tipper Pressley
Baked fried chicken. Tipper Pressley.
Baked Whole Chicken
1 onion, quartered or chopped roughly
4 carrots, chopped
2 potatoes, quartered or chopped roughly
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 whole chicken
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ lemon
1 or 2 rosemary sprigs
Place vegetables on the bottom of a roasting pan or Dutch oven in a single layer. Stir seasonings together. Pat chicken dry and then rub with olive oil. Spread seasonings over the chicken. Place lemon and rosemary in the chicken’s body cavity. Cover and cook chicken in a 450-degree oven for 15 minutes and then reduce heat for the remaining cooking time to 350 degrees. After the first 15 minutes, you will need to cook 20 minutes for each pound of chicken. Since this recipe involves a fair amount of prep and cooking time, you will probably want to choose a large baking hen for use. Cover can be removed during the last 20 minutes of cooking to crisp up the skin.
TIP: Leftovers can be used in a variety of ways. The next recipe in this chapter is one example.
—Tipper Pressley
Chicken Stew
Chicken soup is associated with being a bit under the weather for good reason. It’s nutritious, tasty, filling and somehow seems just the thing for when, as my Grandpa Joe would have put it, “a body is ailing a bit.”
Curiously, I don’t remember his wife, Grandma Minnie, ever making chicken soup or indeed soup of any kind, although her stews, laced with meat and vegetables swimming in gravy, were in essence just thickened soups. This recipe is similar to the manner in which she prepared chicken stew. She usually did so when there were a couple of leftover carcasses from baked hens served at holidays (we almost always had hens the family had grown as opposed to store-bought turkey) or when an old hen had been sufficiently derelict in her egg-laying duties to invite consumption. The stew made a great wintertime dish, especially when a heaping platter of cathead biscuits was served as a side.
1 or 2 whole baked hens or a turkey carcass with ample leftover meat scraps
1 large onion, peeled and quartered
4 ribs celery with leaves, chopped
1 large carrot, scrubbed and cut into chunks
2 whole cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
Water to cover
Remove skin from the carcass. Place carcass in a stockpot and surround with onion, celery, carrot, garlic and bay leaf. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for two hours. Refrigerate stock until it congeals and remove fat that accumulates on the top. Remove all meat from bones and save.
8 cups stock (add canned chicken broth if needed)
2 cups milk
4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
3 ribs celery, diced
1 cup frozen or canned lima beans
2 ounces small-shell pasta
2 cups fresh, chopped spinach
1 cup frozen green peas
Meat from carcass
¼ cup fresh parsley
½ teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon fresh black pepper
Salt to taste
1 cup evaporated milk
2 tablespoons flour mixed with 4 tablespoons water
(optional, if you want a thicker stew)
Cook stock, milk, potatoes, carrots and celery for half an hour. Add lima beans, pasta, spinach, peas, meat, parsley, basil and pepper to the soup and cook an additional 20 minutes. Remove from heat, season with salt if necessary and stir in evaporated milk. Return to low heat, stirring often. Do not let stew boil. Thicken with a flour-and-water paste if desired. Makes 12 hearty servings.
TIP: Vegetables other than those mentioned, such as green beans or corn, can be used.
—Jim Casada
Oven Chicken with Gravy
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons garlic powder, divided
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
6 bone-in chicken thighs (other cuts may be used)
¼ cup oil
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon thyme
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups chicken stock
½ cup milk
Combine flour, 1 tablespoon garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Set aside 2 tablespoons. Dredge chicken pieces in flour mixture. Heat oil and brown both sides of chicken in an oven-safe pan; a deep cast-iron pan is ideal. Remove chicken from pan. Add onion to hot pan and stir until tender—about 3 minutes. Add thyme, 1 teaspoon garlic powder and butter, stirring to melt butter. Add reserve flour mixture and cook while stirring for 2 minutes. Add chicken stock slowly and stir well to prevent lumping. Add milk and continue stirring. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Continue cooking until the mixture begins to boil and thicken slightly. At that point, place the chicken pieces back in gravy, cover, put in oven and bake at 400 degrees for an hour.
TIP: Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.
—Tipper Pressley
Chicken and Dumplings
3 pounds of chicken pieces
Water (enough to stew chicken—about 2 quarts)
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 onion, diced
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
⅓ cup shortening or lard
Combine the first seven ingredients in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil and simmer until chicken is tender. Remove chicken from broth. After it has cooled, debone and chop or shred. Vegetables can be discarded or left in the broth. Skim fat from broth, if desired. Reserve ⅔ cup of broth for making dumplings. Return chicken to the pot.
Combine flour, baking powder and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cut shortening in with pastry cutter or fork until crumbly. Add reserved broth and stir with fork. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead lightly. Roll dough out to ⅛-inch thickness and cut into 2-inch squares to make your dumplings.
Bring broth back to a boil and drop dumplings in it one at a time. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until done.
—Tipper Pressley
Chicken and dumplings ready for a fine supper. Tipper Pressley.
Chicken Casserole
2 cups cooked shredded chicken
3 cups cooked broccoli
½ cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon paprika
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 stick butter, melted
2 cups seasoned bread crumbs or stuffing mix
Combine all ingredients except butter and bread crumbs and pour in 9" × 13" pan. Mix melted butter with bread crumbs and sprinkle on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
—Tipper Pressley