Oh, fried chicken...

Are you a chicken fryer? I'm flat not. Too much hassle, too much grease, too much clean up--all for an inferior product. Oh, yeah....I've succumbed to the lure several times thinking this time is IT. Seems like anything that starts out in a hot cast iron skillet with oil can not be bad. And it's usually not--it's just not great. And if I'm going to be de-greasing my kitchen for a solid week after wards, it's got to be GREAT. I was just reading about how to make "the best fried chicken ever", on America's Test Kitchen tips email, and after about three sentences, I'm already hanging up my apron (mentally) and reaching for my keys. Hell...let Bubba's do all that and I'll just hit the drive through, thank you very much. No wonder all our ancestor's died early. If making the fried chicken didn't kill you, eating it sure did.
The saddest day of my life was the day I learned Brother's fried chicken, near down town, had closed. Again. Seems it had done it a few times but had always re-opened. It was not a dine in type place--Lord, no, unless you were packing a gun--and a big one, at that. Nope. But the drive through?? Stairway to heaven....and their fried okra?? You don't even want to know.

I think if I ever try frying chicken again, it's going to be in my "outdoor kitchen", like Paula Deen's. Hint: I do not have one--but someday I might. And that would rock. No muss, no fuss. Just hose it all down when your finished. But the smell.....that could be a problem. You know what the smell of fried chicken does to you. Uh, oh.