Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Cracklin Chicken Recipe- Grain Free, Simple, Fried Chicken

 photo cracklin chicken_zpsnmgzmgvm.jpg

My youngest, Rose, has always been a huge fan of chicken. My second oldest, Ike, also loves chicken and always has. My oldest, Lee, and third child, Anneliese- they'll eat chicken, but aren't the hugest fans, and sometimes I'd have to do a little bargaining with them to get them to eat their chicken.
Or well, I have to say that's how it was.
But now I found a new chicken recipe that my kids, all 4 of them, are in love with. And want seconds and thirds of it. And my husband and I love it as well. It is super, duper simple, but tastes absolutely amazing.

I didn't make up the recipe myself. I saw the idea originally on Nom Nom Paleo, but as it was written there I couldn't/wouldn't do that. No chicken fried in ghee in this house (ghee is out for me, because it makes me nauseous, for some reason), and I didn't like the fact that in Nom Nom Paleo's recipe you debone the thighs. Ugh. I don't mind deboning whole chickens, but deboning thighs is just too much for me to want to do.

So I decided to make this with coconut oil and bone-in chicken thighs. And drumsticks. And wings. Basically all dark meat chicken.

You've gotta try it.

Oh- and why is it called cracklin chicken?
Well, if you ever followed my recipe for rendering chicken fat, from chicken skins, etc... you'd know that when you render the fat from the chicken skins, the skins become crispy and crunchy and are called cracklins. Well, so the skin of this chicken gets to be like that. It's amazing.

So here's how you do it.

Cracklin Chicken Recipe- Grain Free, Simple, Fried Chicken

Ingredients:
Dark meat chicken pieces- bone in. Thighs, drumsticks, wings- all is good.
Coconut oil
Salt
Spice mix (any is fine)

Instructions
1. Fill a skillet with about an inch deep of coconut oil, and set the fire to a medium high heat. (I know it's a lot of oil. That's ok. The food doesn't get oil logged, and you can reuse the oil, since coconut oil doesn't get ruined at high heats.)

2. Put your chicken pieces in the frying pan, skin side down. (If you're using wings/drumsticks, with skin all over, it doesn't matter which side goes down.)

3. Sprinkle your chicken with salt and the spice mix of your choice. Thus far I've only used Herbamare, and it tastes so good that I haven't bothered branching out and trying other spice mixes. But feel free to play around.

4. Fry the chicken, not moving it, for 5-7 minutes, or until the skin is browning lightly, then flip over.

5. Cook on the other side for about 5-7 minutes as well, then flip back to the first side, and cook another 5-7 minutes.

I'll be honest- I never really timed how long it took. It's more that I was looking for markers. I cook it on the first side until browning. And I usually see some blood starting to come out of the chicken. On the second side I cook it until it looks fully cooked. And the third side I cook it until the skin is crunchy.

Remove from frying pan, and enjoy!

My kids ask me specifically to make cracklin chicken, since they love it that much.

What is your favorite type of chicken to prepare? Are your kids fans of chicken? What is their favorite recipe? Does this seem like a recipe your family would enjoy?

2 comments:

  1. So do you season the chicken at all before you put it in the oil, or do you just season the one side?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just season the one side, after I put it in the oil. And it is flavorful enough that way.

      Delete

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