Fried Chicken

On Mother's Day our plans to go to The Beast and the Hare for fried chicken were foiled. In a pinch, I offered to pick up a chicken and fry it up at my parents' house instead, and it ended up being a wonderful brunch. Having just taken a class at 4505 Meats last week, I am now an expert on breaking down poultry, so I portioned out the chicken, seasoned it, and let it marinate in buttermilk for about a half hour. While that was going on, I threw together some biscuit dough, using this recipe but substituting buttermilk for creme fraiche and omitting the sugar. After I'd cut the biscuits and put them in the freezer to chill, I started dredging the chicken in a mixture of flour, rosemary, cayenne, salt and pepper, and frying it in batches in a cast iron skillet. This always takes longer than I remember, since each piece needs about 10 minutes on each side, and in this case one small chicken required 3 batches of cooking totalling about an hour. Just before the last batch was ready, I stuck the biscuits in the oven and served them hot with butter. Hooray for spontaneous fried chicken!