Recently at dinner my father instructed me, “tell your website readers that your dad says this is a good one.” Done, dad. This chicken was good – perfectly tender, well flavored, crunchy – just what one wants in fried chicken.

Searching around for a buttermilk fried chicken recipe, I adapted this recipe from various sources. Many recipes I found seemed to be rather dated as they called for frying the chicken in vegetable shortening. Most shortenings on the market have transfats in them, which we now know are very bad for us. We do our frying, of anything, in grape seed oil, which as the name implies, comes from the seeds of grapes. It is a high smoke-point oil, which means that you can get it pretty hot before it begins to burn, making it perfect for deep frying. It also has many known health benefits (see the Wikipedia citation). The recipes also called for frying the chicken in a cast iron frying pan. We love our cast iron pans, but they tend to be quite heavy, and retain heat so well, that if you have a problem and have to lower the heat rapidly, you won’t be able to do it. Anodized aluminum can also take the heat without warping, but will be more responsive for heating and cooling. (I’ve started a kitchen fire with peanut oil in a cast iron skillet – not fun – if it ever happens to you, remove the pan from the heat element, and cover it quickly with a lid.)

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