Frying chicken at home

I've never really been one for fried food. It's greasy, heavily breaded, and usually leaves me feeling like I've contributed to a future clogged artery.

When Steve said he wanted to make French fries at home for BaconFest 2011, I was fine with it - figuring they would turn out greasy and heavy. I figured I'd just let him eat them. So when I tried one of the golden, crispy, hot fries that he made, I was hooked.

Since then, we've made another batch of French fries and, as of last night, fried chicken.

We paired the chicken with a raspberry chipotle sauce that my mom sends me from Texas. I still haven't been able to find it in the DC area. (That sauce is like crack - we could eat it with just about anything. Seriously.)

We used Bobby Flay's recipe for the batter and it turned out amazing. I'll probably add more hot sauce to the brine and cayenne to the flour mixture next time - give it more of a kick.

Crispy on the outside, juicy and tender on the inside...I'm hooked. Steve took it one step further and made a fried chicken sandwich using a potato bun, cream cheese, chicken and the raspberry chipotle sauce. And since every meal should have some kind of vegetable, we braised Swiss chard while the chicken was frying.

We're definitely making it again.