cook: pickle brined fried chicken

I had requested from my husband that once he was done with the dill pickles in our refrigerator, that he not throw out the jar and its pickle juice, for I wanted to attempt to cook pickle fried chicken again, which turned out way too salty in my first iteration. Yesterday was a busy day. I had a doctor’s appointment, chair yoga class, and a ukulele lesson on my calendar. After my medical visit, I thought oh I’ve got an hour to stop by the clay classroom and unmold my slip cast.                                

The mold separated easily enough, but Oi! The drip marks, rough bottom, and separation line on my tea bowl were unsightly. I had about 40 minutes before yoga to get to work with sandpaper and green scouring pad to refine the pot. I wish I had remembered to use the rasp first, and I distorted the bowl a little bit. But I’m hoping it’ll dry without cracking.   

I looked at all the wares I’d made since the beginning of summer, which gladdened my ceramist ❤️. Once these vessels are bisque fired, I’ll pencil mark the Bmix 10 pots (like the mugs, bowls, and vases)for glazing and firing in the gas kiln.                           

My favorite yoga studio, Grace Yoga closed a month or so ago😞, but just reopened at the Mercy Center, a silent and meditation retreat center at a convent🙂. My chair yoga class was great. Dana, delivered a lot of anatomy lessons while guiding us through sun salutations, triangle, warrior, tree, downward dog, turtle, rabbit poses followed, of course, by a savasana and a lovely chorus of ohm and shanti, shanti, shanti chants. I didn’t use the assistance of the chair or blocks or straps, but it’s reassuring to know that even into my 90s I can avail myself of these props for my yoga practice. And then onward to the grocery store to buy sandwich fixings, lunch at home, and then my ukulele lesson. I may be skipping ceramics, yoga, and the gym for the next couple days while Patrick is out of town and I take over dog duty. Other than walking and gardening, Sadie will have to just lay down and listen to me strum chords on my ukulele or to the hum of my sewing machine as I finish a baby quilt. 

After music lesson and gardening, I started to prepare dinner. I didn't follow the recipe I found to a tee because TABLESPOONS of salt?!? Even for bone-in and skin-on chicken, that's too much. Also there's salt in the pickle brine and in the hot sauce, and so I omitted the salt in the marinade. I also used the jar itself to brine the 3 chicken thighs I had.                      

 

Also the recipe called for brining the chicken for 8 hours (up to 12), but I only brined it for 90 minutes.

And instead of the tablespoon of salt called for in the flour mixture, I instead sprinkled salt (probably a teaspoon)and pepper in addition to the other seasonings. I've become a fan lately too of onion powder and granulated garlic. I had only canola oil instead of peanut, and the lower smoking point worked just fine.

Since my blood draw this morning already happened, I decided to make a tropical colada with the Koloa rum I had brought back from Kauai.

 

Uggh, way too sweet. I'll use less fruit next time and more rum for tonight's repeat cocktail. Instead of making a fried chicken sandwich, I made it a meal with sides of mashed potatoes and leftover grilled summer squash.

I could definitely taste the dill from the pickle brine in the fried chicken despite only marinating for an hour and a half, and my palate thought it was just okay. Really I'll just stick to a more delicious  Southern fried chicken  like the 7 herbs and spices of a Colonel Sanders' Kentucky Fried chicken of my youth.