Healthy Fried Chicken
We love fats from healthfully raised animal, organically raised ingredients, and absolutely no cane sugar recipes. Learn more about this healthy eating from the WAPF website.
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Let’s get right to it - read more about our favorite fried chicken and things below the good stuff (below the directions)
Ingredients, nutrient-dense:
Local, pasture & organically raised, soy-free Chicken breast
Redmond’s Salt, mined in the USA
Freshly ground and organic pepper
Local and organically grown spelt or Einkorn flour
Freshly ground, organically and locally raised herbs and spices (optional)
Organic arrowroot (optional)
Local, pasture & organically raised, soy & grain free, raw milk
Local, pasture & organically raised, soy-freeEgg (optional)
Local, pasture & organically raised, soy-free animal fat of choice
Ingredients, simplified:
Chicken breast; Parted from whole chicken and cut into small pieces
Salt
Pepper
Flour of choice
Herbs and spices (optional)
Arrowroot (optional)
Milk
Egg (optional)
Animal Fat of choice
Fried Chicken Directions:
1. Part the whole chicken:
Find the chest of the chicken and the sternum which separates each side of the breast
Carefully insert knife against one side of the sternum. Allow the rib cage to gently guide the cut
Repeat on other side
Continue to scrape of meat from each side until all is gathered
2. Cut the chicken breasts
Small pieces for “chicken nuggets”
Thin long strips for “chicken fingers”
3. Mix milk and egg (optional) together until its’ creamed
4. Set chicken breast in a bowl with + milk + egg (optional)
5. In a separate bowl, mix the flour + salt + pepper + herbs and spices (optional) + arrowroot (optional)
6. Heat skillet to medium and add animal fat of choice
The more fats, the more crispy the fried chicken becomes
Butter crisps best but reheats soft
Lard fries soft but reheats crispy
7. Dredge chicken through flour mix and place in skillet
8. Allow to cook for 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness or until browned
9. Flip over and allow to finish cook for 3-5 minutes or until fully cooked
10. Check with thermometer
Don’t undercook – don’t make yourself sick
Don’t overcook – chicken will be dried out
11. Allow to cool slightly and serve
Dip with Ketchup or homemade Ketchup
Dip with homemade Maple or honey Mustard
I love fried chicken. So when we switched to a back to basics lifestyle which included a healthy and nutrient-dense way of eating, I was disappointed. My fast food runs were finished. But luckily I found the Nourishing Traditions Cookbook one day while searching how to heal ourselves naturally. It also sparked the regenerative agriculture spark which led to a 180 in my families life - we now run a regenerative agriculture farm - working towards providing my family with 100% of its’ dietary needs.
Sally Fallon, the author of the book, recommends food to be fried in my favorite things, butter and lard! Thank God for her because it made the transition from fast foods to healthy home cooked meals possible and relatively easy (except that I still needed to learn to cook - her book taught me that too, thankfully).
Every ingredient chosen to make fried chicken should be as nutrient dense as possible - like freshly ground pepper to reduce oxidization effects and pasture raised, locally sourced chickens. However, we only can do what we can do and sometimes having each ingredient perfect isn’t always possible. And that’s okay! That’s why I wanted to start farming -
Anyways, if you choose to use butter, like the grass-fed, organic or organically raised, and raw butter, awesome - but if you can only get your hands on KerryGold from the grocery store, well that’ll work until you find something else! Finding lard in the grocer is another story - it might be impossible to locate it and locate healthful lard.
Something I want to share is that frying in butter tastes amazing but it doesn’t reheat as crispy as lard does. Lard is the exact opposite! If I know it’s going to be a meal that is reheated more than eaten fresh, I’ll use lard.
The mix of herbs is always fun - I think it’s best to start simple; throw in a dash of cayenne and some oregeno. Everytime you try the recipe again - try another mix.
Garlic powder and onion powder are great additions but are NOT LOWFODMAP friendly. I repeat, not Low FODMAP friendly - we’ve tried and learned the lesson.
We’ve also learned that sage and thyme can be triggers for SIBO and in tasty quantities that you’d use in fried chicken, they can become not LowFODMAP friendly too.
Enjoy your nutirent-dense fried chicken!
(This is not medical advice - please seek medical professionals for diet recommendations)