DID Pinoys get their taste for chicken from the Americans? I won’t attempt an answer but I do know that this country is hot on chicken more than pork and beef, and hotter even on chicken as fried, more than any other way of cooking the fowl.

At the start of The Aristocrat Restaurant on Roxas Boulevard, a fried chicken dish, known as “Chicken in a Basket,” brought in lots of customers who enjoyed the dish. It was served with three bits of fried saba banana. The chicken was fried “maked,” meaning, it was not the Southern Fried Chicken-style that had a flour-egg batter coating. The Chicken in a Basket made a killing because it was just the right size (spring chicken, which is about 800 grams or less in size) and was tasty from skin down to the bones...you could eat some of the crunchy bone parts. With a glass of Coke (there were no soda cans then) and two dinner rolls...one could eat The American Meal! (Allow me to digress with the origin of the name Aristocrat: when the restaurant was built and it needed a name, the family decided to name it after Admiral Dewey, as a sort of honor to the man and because it was along what was known then as Dewey Boulevard. Upon learning of this, the US Embassy sent a polite notice not to use the name of the admiral for the restaurant, so the family had to think quickly for a backup name. The eldest son, Andy, picked through his pockets and out came a matchbox with the name Aristocrat. Out with Dewey, in with Aristocrat, but the family remained staunch foodies for American food!)

Fried, finger-lickin goodness

It’s also—perhaps mainly so—because of the US chicken quality that makes fried chicken sooo darn good to eat all the time! The skin is fatty and when fried, the fat melts under it and makes it crispy. The flesh is meaty and tender, so it stays juicy even when deep-fried. And the cuts are big and filling!

Locally, every home has a certain way with fried chicken. Different strokes for different chicken-eaters. My aunt Marina Imperial cooked the chicken parts adobo-style and then fried it—that was great, I can’t forget the flavors! Another friend cuts up the chicken, rubs it with salt and lets it “sweat out” in the ref. Then, she gathers flour, pepper, garlic salt and puts them in a brown paper bag. Then she drops each piece and shakes the bag so that the chicken piece tumbles all around and gets coated thoroughly.

One good method is to wet the chicken parts in ice water first, then plunge it into a thick batter (like pancake flour and spices and salt) and back to ice water and then into the deep fryer.

Battered chicken

AS for our household, we double-dip the chicken in batter if we want the pieces to be big and creamy yet crunchy in some parts. Using the same paper-bag technique of coating the chicken, start by dusting the pieces with flour to coat it so that the wet batter will cling well.

Prepare a very very cold batter from 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ tbsp rock salt, 1 tsp ground pepper, 1 tbsp paprika, ½ tsp baking powder and ½ tsp baking soda. Blend in 1 egg beaten in 1/3 cup very very cold water.

With one hand dip the flour-dusted chicken piece, then shake off the excess. Yes, believe me, you have to shake off the excess. More batter does not ensure a heavier coating. It might just slip off the chicken during frying.

Place the battered chicken pieces on a tray and let it cool in the ref. This will make it easier to fry.

Heat up the oil and check if hot enough by plunging a tong or long fork. If there are tiny bubbles that will gather around the tong or fork, then the oil is hot enough. Dip the chicken pieces carefully, not too many pieces at once, so that the frying temperature will not get affected.

When the chicken pieces are fried, place them on paper towels to drain excess oils. Serve as soon as possible...and to put the Southern Fried Chicken-style in effect by not using utensils. Southern Fried Chicken can be prepared in hundreds of ways; there’s no set recipe. What makes it “Southern” is that it’s eaten with the hands! Finger-lickin’ sarap to the bones!

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DID Pinoys get their taste for chicken from the Americans? I won’t attempt an answer but I do know that this country is hot on chicken more than pork and beef, and hotter even on chicken as fried, more than any other way of cooking the fowl.

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