Ms. Cowboy's Fried Chicken

Well, here it is.  The long awaited (didn't know you were missing out, did you?) how-to of Ms. Cowboy's Fried Chicken.  Why should you care?  Well, this is, after all THE dish that won the heart of Cowboy Cody.  Sealed the deal.

And now I'm going to tell you the secret.  But it's really not that much of a secret.  I know several other people who fry chicken like this.  But we'll pretend, anyway.

The recipe I used is adapted from my most favorite and worn-out copy of Texas Home Cooking.  I'm not much on actually measuring things out, so keep that in mind depending on how big your bird is.  I usually fry up a 4-4.5 pound bird.

The first thing you need is buttermilk.  When I have it, of course I use the buttermilk left over from making butter from my raw Jersey milk.  Mmm.  Butter.

Of course, if you don't have real buttermilk, you can cheat a little by adding a bit of lemon juice to the milk to sour it.

Ok, here's the secret to the best fried chicken.

Yep.  Tabasco.  Shake a good amount of tabasco in the buttermilk.  This adds a good scald and helps the chicken turn out nice and crispy.

After you've cut up your chicken, you want the pieces to sit in the buttermilk mixture for at least 2.5 hours prior to cooking.  It can set up to 12 hours if need be.  Just place the pieces in the buttermilk, cover and refrigerate until about 20 minutes or so before you plan to fry 'em up.  Once in a while, I only fry up the white meat pieces and save the rest of the chicken for Rainy Day Chicken & Dumplin's.


While the chicken pieces are coming to room temperature, mix up your flour mixture.  This will be around 1-2 cups of flour, a generous amount of seasoned salt, an even more generous amount of fresh ground black pepper and a spoonful of baking powder.

You can mix the ingredients in a pie pan, as I've done here, or the real Texas way to do it is to mix these ingredients in a brown paper bag.  Then you get to shake the stuffin's out of that chicken!

Here's another important thing for me when it comes to frying chicken.  I never use anything but my deep cast iron skillet.  Nothing makes a good fried chicken better than good, used cast iron.  Another thing I just won't do without for fried chicken is my own rendered lard from our pastured pigs.  Now, I know not everyone has access to real lard, so a good thing to use, though I hate to admit it publicly, is Crisco.  Lots of folks out there will tell you that you can't fry chicken unless you use Crisco, but I disagree.  I love my lard.


You'll need enough in the skillet to fry the chicken on one side, not deep fry it.  You don't want it to drown, or it will just soak up all that excess oil.

Melt your lard/shortening over high heat until it starts to bubble on top.

A good way to check if your lard/oil is hot enough is to sprinkle a bit of flour into the skillet.  If it bubbles up like it's frying, it's ready to use.  At this point, lower your heat just slightly.

Now for the fun part.
If you're using the whole chicken, start with your dark pieces.  Take them one at a time out of the buttermilk marinade and place in your flour mixture.  Shake the bag, if using, or dredge them covering all sides well.

Once coated thoroughly, gently place in the hot oil in your skillet.  Repeat until all pieces are snug in your skillet, continuing with the dark pieces and ending with the light meat pieces.

If you choose to use the pie pan method, you end up with a ginormous amount of batter on your fingers.  Lovely, isn't it?

Reduce your heat to medium, cover the skillet and fry the chicken exactly 17 minutes.

Reduce the heat slightly again, remove the lid, and carefully turn the pieces over gently using tongs.  Fry uncovered for another 17 minutes.

Remove the pieces with tongs and drain on another brown paper sack, paper towels or a kitchen towel.  The chicken should be a beautiful deep, rich brown.  Serve with smashed 'taters and gravy.

Now, go get your cowboy.