Bow Down. The Soul Food King has arrived.

Pan Fried Chicken   The Undisputed King of Soul Food.

Worthiness. Easily one of the finest qualities and even character attributes or accomplishments we can ever assign to anything.  Worthiness is a pinnacle.  It is an ultimate validation. 

What gives a person or a thing this particular quality?  What are "Worthy Making Properties?" My guess is that, it depends.  It depends on what we are considering worthiness...of.  To truly unpack and discuss worthiness we must (in my humble opinion) consider any thing, person or entity's worthiness as it corresponds to the antecedent of the proposition  "Because he, she, it, they are............"  followed by "therefore he, she, it or they are worthy of..........?  Here's an example or two.

Because God is absolutely, morally and ontologically perfect in his boundless love, justice and character, therefore he is worthy to be worshiped and served by all of the things he has created.

Here's another one. 

Because The Sweet Ohio State Buckeye Football team is an incredible, winning and championship program far surpassing the U of Xichigan, therefore they are worthy of fandom.

Don't fight it UM fans, it's science.

Worthiness is a quality or state of being that comes as a result of meeting some standard that is usually quite lofty.

I therefore propose to you, my dear readers, that Pan Fried Chicken has done just that, and so is worthy to be considered The King Of All Soul Foods.  Long may he reign.

Good fried chicken starts with fresh chicken, seasoned and dry brined for at least 30 mins and  dredged in seasoned flour. Of note, I do not use seasoned salt on my chicken, instead opting for a down south tradition of regular table salt.  But I do use seasoned salt in the flour.   Along with my other savory blend I add a good smoked paprika and a good chili powder on the chicken being careful to add them one at a time and hand mix the salt and each of the spices onto the washed chicken.

*Seasoning TIP... Always salt first and separately from the other seasonings.  On my chicken I rub the salt in by hand, working it through the wings.  When salting this way you can and should use more than the normal amount of salt without fear of over salting.

And It's Not Even Close

For the last few years I've been asking a lot of questions.  Seems to me that doing so is a great way to get information, so I'm the guy in the room that raises his hand.  I had to stop doing it at the end of Bible Study because I got the feeling that the people that were ready to go home didn't appreciate me and my questions adding another half hour to the class.  One of the questions that I've really enjoyed asking people of all walks of life is a rather simple one.  It occurred to me that in cooking there are a number of ingredients that come in three's and are considered to be the "Trinity" for that particular kind of  or region of cooking.  

To be clear, this is not an analogy to the question of a religious Trinity...but I'd be happy to have that discussion with you offline. This is, however an attempt to identify foods within what people commonly and without leading consider to be the three most necessary, irreplaceable and sacrosanct foods in all of soul food.  So, I asked grandmothers (of as many ethnicities that I could find) I asked teenagers, friends, co-workers, millennials, chefs, cooks, writers, artists, filmmakers, church folk and atheists one question.  "What are the three foods in the Soul Food Trinity?"

Many of the answers I got were for some reason, predictable.  But, others were downright bizarre.  My co-worker Helena, a dyed in the wool millennial actually included pizza in her soul food Trinity.  Pizza.  Of course others cited more standard fare like Collard Greens.  Fried Okra.  Catfish. Baked yams. Gumbo. Chitterlings (chittlins). Fried Cabbage. Rice. Gravy. Potato salad.  Someone even picked Koolaid, which I would have called a bit racist had that person not been Black.

The answer I got far and away more than any other food item and usually the first one out of their mouth was Fried Chicken.  This perception alone of its popularity and sense of necessity to be included in any soul food discussion makes it worthy not only to be in the Soul Food Trinity, but to be its head, seeing that most people believe that the quintessential soul food meal must include fried chicken.  You may bow now.

Let the dregded wings sit a few minutes before frying them in a pan of hot oil of your choice.  I chose wings because cooking time is much shorter than most if not all of the other pieces.

The history of fried chicken as we now eat it, battered or coated with a crunchy crust that comes by being fried or deep fried in oil, seems to have its origins in Europe (Scotland)  and West Africa.  Both have their own tradition of frying the bird in oil, but the Scottish version had no spices (is anyone shocked by that?) or coating whereas the African version was heavily spiced.  These two came together like so much American soul food  did in the atrocity of the slave south where slaves cooked for their masters and added spices to the fried and coated chicken.  A delicacy at the time, few slaves actually got to sample their own wares.  But, that didn't keep the popularity of the dish from exploding world wide.

Some version of fried chicken can be found in cultures and destinations all over the world.  Many of whom are influenced by the version we love. This is yet another example of the humble beginnings of food greatly influenced by the traditions of disenfranchised persons still rising in spite of and in an unquenchable fashion as described by the late poet supreme,  Dr. Maya Angelou.

I'm not gonna lie to you, as I write this I'm well aware of the ugly stereotypes that for decades have pervaded the American perception of  some mystical connection between black people and fried chicken and other beloved southern and soul foods.  I'm "woke" as my beautiful daughter, Ty might say.  Heck, I've been "woke" for darn near 40 years now and one thing has not changed.  I love me some fried chicken.  Say what you want, me and that yard bird got special affections for one and other, and I anticipate that this is a "till death do us part" kind of situation.  Is it my all time favorite food?  No, it's certainly not that.  But when it comes to soul food, it's irreplaceable.

So, this is my first fried chicken post.  As much as I love fried chicken you can rest assured, it won't be my last.

Kev