Last Friday night we had friends over for dinner. About 4 AM I woke up and decided to change the menu for that evening. As Randy and I were discussing about 8 AM about me waking up at 4 and deciding to change what I had planned for dinner, he suggested that I make fried chicken. That sounded good, but I didn’t want to be frying as they arrived and I don’t like cold fried chicken so I came up with this idea. AND I have to tell you that it really turned out great and we all ate until it was gone. Well, not me, you know me, I had one little piece to keep me in my fighting weight of under 200. But as the dinner was coming to a close for us to move from the table to the couch and visit over Key Lime Pie, I began to think of really how simple the dinner was to make and decided that it needed to be shared via Chocolate Castles. So here it is folks. A simply but oh so yummy comfort dinner for those evenings when you don’t want to serve another pot roast or meatloaf to company.
Serves 4
3 large chicken breasts, cut up into large chunks
1 cup of buttermilk
Pepper and Garlic powder to taste
One envelop of Pioneer Country Gravy Mix
1 (10 1/2 oz) can Cream of Mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk or cream
1 1/2 cups of either all purpose flour or self-rising flour
1 egg, beaten
Oil to fry in skillet
(If you have ever purchased Paula Deen Fried Chicken Coating Mix, I used this in the flour mixture) but if not, just use a little (about 1/2 cup) bread crumbs with the flour for dipping the chicken in )
Soak your cut up chicken breasts chunks in the buttermilk for at least 1 hour. Combine the flour and either the bread crumbs or Paula Deens Fried Chicken Coating in a bowl. Dip each piece of chicken in the flour mixture and set on a plate or paper towel while you heat the oil in a skillet. (I actually use a zip lock bag to coat the chicken with the flour mixture. Makes clean up a lot easier and you can then just throw the bag away after you have coated all the chicken in it.
Turn heat onto medium and heat the oil, when oil is starting to sizzle, place chicken chunks in hot oil and fry each piece until both sides are brown. Try not to turn the chicken pieces over but once to brown, allowing them to cook until done. When done, place the chicken pieces into a pyrex baking dish that has been sprayed with Pam. After you have finished cooking all the chicken and they have been placed in the baking dish, set them aside. At this point, you can always set them in fridge (covered) until about an hour before you wish to serve them. But if you are going to be serving them in the next hour after frying them, just leave out of the fridge. Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, combine 1 and 1/2 cups of water and bring this to a boil. Mix the contents of the gravy mix with 1/2 cup of cold water and stir until dissolved. Stir this gravy mixture into the 1 1/2 cups of water in the saucepan. Then stir in the can of mushroom soup and the 1/2 cup milk/cream. Heat this thoroughly and add some pepper to the gravy. Pour about 2 cups (use your discretion as to how much chicken is in the baking dish. You want to cover the chicken but not drown it)
Place gravy covered chicken in a preheated 350 oven and bake for about 20-30 minutes or until gravy is bubbling. Sprinkle some parsley flakes over it and serve the chicken with either mashed potatoes or rice pilaf. We had rice pilaf and baked asparagus to complete the meal. And Of course, you can’t forget to serve Sister Schubert rolls along with this to complete this southern comfort meal. It really turned out delicious and it is not one of our new favorite dinners to serve.
Chocolate Castles as wel 