Remember how I was talking about all my stuff that came over from Alberta recently? Well mixed in with all those cook books and my kitchen was all my gaming systems. I have an embarrassing or in other words awesome collection of games and gaming systems. Yesterday was all about the Xbox and Xbox 360. Gamers out there will know what I'm talking about when I say revisiting old favourite games after years of not being able to play them is a special treat! DDR and Spongebob anyone?
This game is best played with another 'real' person as it is played in teams and well we should probably interact with a flesh and blood person every now and then.
Anyway, onto the good good food. So when I'm feeling uninspired and lazy I have a few old reliable meals that I know will be satisfying and hardly any work. I don't make them often but they are always successful so they are my go-to meals. In particular fried potatoes fit into this category for me. I remember my mom making these for us as kids and often we would ask for this meal. She would usually make these with ground beef fried with onions and I do too when I have ground beef. Add a side of canned corn and I'm in heaven. I have called this a ketchup meal because ketchup goes good on everything on the plate. Honestly, if you haven't done ketchup on canned corn you are missing out! I have since grown up a little and only put ketchup on my potatoes (usually). Let get started.
Peel some spuds. The last bag of potatoes we bought wasn't that great. Lots of spots and such to get rid of and my poor potatoes ended up looking funny but they cooked up just fine.
This is also a great time to break out my mandolin. It is really under used but I appreciate it every time I get to use it. Thinly slice all those funny look spuds.
Heat up some oil in a nice heavy bottom pan. You will use more than you think but you can add more as you go. Just get a healthy (haha) dose in the pan to get you started.
I seasoned these sliced potatoes heavily with seasoning salt and pepper and let them get to work. They will be crispy on the bottom, soft in the middle and slightly salty all over. Let these sit and develop the crust then turn them over to expose that golden base. Mix them around to develop as much crust as possible. Keep an eye on them, they burn easily, especially if you run out of oil in the pan. Add more oil as you need to keep developing that lovely crust. If you are in a rush you can cover the pan to help the potatoes steam and cook faster. Be sure to take the lid off halfway through to prevent having soggy potatoes. Keep an eye on that crust development though, seriously, it is the best part!
Now that our spuds are underway it is time to think about the chicken. I have recently discovered oven fried chicken. I make a seasoned flour usually using the spices here from my ribs rub but I will throw in something extra, substitute, and mix it up. I have also done just lots of seasoned salt, pepper, and paprika into about a cup of flour which is really nice too. This is where you can get creative. Everything goes pretty much.
Here we have two lovely chicken thighs. The chicken thigh is my favourite cut. It's juicy, flavourful, the skin is always evenly crunchy. Just good stuff.
Here is my coating. I like the way the flour and spices crisp up but if you really want to get crunchy put the spices into some panko instead of flour or a mixture of the two. You won't be sorry.
Evenly coat the chicken. I find that I don't need a liquid to get this coating to stick. If you do, go ahead and dip into some milk, shake off the excess then dip into the coating. Bake in a hot (400F) oven for about 30 minutes or just let them keep going until the potatoes are done. I start them skin side down and turn them over when the skin is golden and crunchy. I usually start these by heating the pan up in the oven with about 6 tbsp of butter (hence the oven fried bit). I then place the coated chicken into the hot fat and bake them that way. Extra deliciousness ensues but also extra fat. If you want to go lighter just omit the butter step. The chicken will bring it's own fat to the cooking process.
I didn't have corn but I couldn't skip the "healthy" part of this meal so I tossed some peas on and just let them come to the boil then turned them off. No mushy peas for me, thanks.
The end product is a piece of my childhood. The ketchup is a requirement, it just isn't the same without it. This dish is so "Canadian" to me. When I think of Canadian food I always think poutine, Alberta steak, maple syrup, you know, those things. But this is what I should think.
So simple, so good!
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