Pioneer Woman's Fried Chicken {CRAZY COOKING CHALLENGE}

CRAZY COOKING CHALLENGE

Fried Chicken

WOW, WOW, and WOW again. I can not believe I have sucessfully made Fried Chicken. I have attempted a few times before, but this time, let me tell you. The BEST Fried Chicken EVER!!! And so easy and user/cook friendly, really anyone can do this. Believe me, my husband's favorite meal ever is Fried Chicken and I have always just bought a bucket from KFC, he is gonna be so happy now that I can make it fresh, like his mama does. :-)

One year for Valentine's Day, I made a huge delicious meal complete with mashed potatoes, gravy, corn on the cob, homemade coleslaw and YEP Fried Chicken (I purchased this from Kentucky Fried Chicken), no lie. I really went up to the fast food place and bought the chicken because I could not figure out how to make  GOOD Fried Chicken! Well, problem solved this is KFC good.

This month we are making FRIED CHICKEN. I started this CRAZY COOKING CHALLENGE almost a year ago and it's so exciting for a bunch of us bloggers to get together once a month and all make the SAME recipe. Just click on the tab CRAZY COOKING CHALLENGE to see all the details and find out how you can join in for next month. Our theme for August will be Cheesecake.

The CRAZY COOKING CHALLENGE is alot of fun. It's nice to see all the variations and exciting to watch how many other bloggers out there make a similar or almost identical items.

I knew this month was gonna be so easy for me. I have been dieing to make Pioneer Woman's Fried Chicken. When I first started blogging I didn't even know who Pioneer Woman was and a dear sweet blogger named Leigh Anne of Your Homebased Mom had actually made PW Fried Chicken and blogged about it, this is where I first saw the recipe. Perfect! I got to make Pioneer Women's Fried Chicken and I still get to highlight an AWESOME blog Your Homebased Mom.

Leigh Ann is the talent behind this wonderful blog, Your Homebased Mom. And she is also a Facebook friend of mine (I love how we have FB friends, and you feel so close to them, even though you may of never even met)! I just LOVE LOVE watching all she does and what is coming up next in her kitchen. The next time I am in Portland visiting family, I have got to meet her in person. You see I found Leigh Anne by mutual friends, through our Creative Memories contacts. I knew who she was, but did not know her personally and well we have never actually met, YET (a few emails and postings on facebook every now and then)! Then, she hosted an awesome scrapbooking event in Portland and I have a niece in Portland, I hooked them up and well they got to scrapbook together. Lucky for them... but one day I will visit Portland again and I too hopefully will have the privilege of meeting Leigh Anne.

Leigh Anne is a stay at home mom and mother of four grown kids. I watched her all this past year as her youngest went away to college, and now this fall I will be sending my twins off the college. It's nice to see how other moms have done this and survived.

I have made a few other recipes shared by Your Homebased Mom. Here they are: EggNog Cranberry White Choclate Muffins, Shaved Parmesan Chicken & Lemon Creme, Fluffy French Toast, White Chocolate Mousse, Brown Sugar Brie, Buttercream Frosting and our all time favorite cupcake that we've probably made at least 100 times (no exaggeration) Snickerdoodle Cupcakes. So check her blog out, check out my other postings of these fabulous recipes and enjoy!

Again, thank you to Leigh Anne for introducing me to the world of blogging, it it wasn't for Your Homebased Mom and seeing, reading and loving every bit of it. I may not of ever have become a blogger myself! THANK YOU! 

Pioneer Women Fried Chicken
recipe found on Your Homebased Mom and adapted by me with a few small changes, but originally is from The Pioneer Woman Cookbook: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl by Ree Drummond

2 cut-up fryer chickens (my family loves just legs, so I bought the big pack of just legs)
1 quart plus 1/4 cup buttermilk
5 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp Lawry's seasoned salt
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp dried thyme (we leave out the thyme & add in basil instead)
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup milk
canola or vegetable oil for frying

Rinse your chicken and in a large bowl add the chicken with 1 quart buttermilk. Refrigerate overnight. When ready to fry, remove chicken from bowl and let sit on counter for 30 minutes to take chill off. (I actually added the buttermilk to the chicken and then froze it until later when I was ready to make it, didn't hurt it a bit. Then I just let it defrost in the refrigerator overnight)

Preheat oven to 350F. Stir together the flour, seasoned salt, pepper, thyme, paprika and cayenne in a very large bowl. In a small bowl combine the 1/4 cup buttermilk and the milk. Pour the milk mixture into the flour and use a fork to mix until still slightly lumpy. The lumps help the breading stick to the chicken.

Heat 1 1/2 inches of oil in a deep skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat to 365F. Use a thermometer to monitor your heat. Working in batches, thoroughly coat each buttermilk-soaked chicken piece with the breading, pressing to adhere the breading. Add the chicken to the oil 3-4 pieces at a time. Cover pan and fry 5-7 minutes, checking to make sure chicken isn’t getting too brown. Turn, cover and cook additional 3-5 minutes more. Monitor temperature of oil to make sure chicken doesn’t burn. Keep in mind chicken will finish cooking in oven. (I love this, then I don't have to worry about pink in the middle)

Place chicken on baking sheet and continue frying rest of chicken. When done, bake the chicken for 10-15 minutes, until chicken cooked through. You can cut into one of the thicker parts of one of the pieces to make sure it is thoroughly cooked.

Stars & Stripes Dessert {TWC Link Party #88 - RED, WHITE & BLUE FOOD DAY}

THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS Linky Party #88

(Red, White & Blue Food Day)

Show us what you've got. We are looking for FUN and CREATIVE food with Red, White and Blue colors. I will be making some of mine this week to share with all of you and I can't wait to see what you've already made.

Love these ole' memories of my kids making fun Fourth of July Desserts. My twins on the top with their best friends (who are twins)! And bottom right is a photo of long ago, of my girls with a dessert mommy made of course.

Stars and Stripes Dessert

Use any kind of base (pound cake, jello, bake a cake mix or make a pan of brownies)

1 tub Cool Whip Topping

1 cup Blueberries

2 cups sliced strawberries

Let cake or brownies cool, then frost with cool whip. Arrange strawberries in lines and arrange blueberries in one corner of pan to look like a flag. Simple & Easy Flag Cake.

This week's theme is: RED, WHITE & BLUE FOOD

Please only link recipes with our theme!

If you are a regular to THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS Linky party, then link-up we're excited to see what you made this week. If you are new, please just follow our simple rules, so that everyone can enjoy the linky party! If you forget to follow the theme, your post will be deleted. Please don't feel hurt, just come back and link up a recipe that follows the theme. Thanks a million, we look forward to blogging with you!

Please Grab Our Button!!!

<a href=" http://momscrazycooking.blogspot.com/search/label/THIS%20WEEKS%20CRAVINGS" target="_blank "><img src="http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k498/Hudgens6/Buttons/ThisWeeksCravingsButton.jpg" /></a>

This Week's Cravings Upcoming Linky "THEMES"

Here is a complete list of the past and what's coming up next on THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS!

July 9 - Fried Foods

July 16 - Seafood Recipes

July 23 - ICE CREAM Goodies & Treats

July 30 - Summer Fruits & Summer Salads 

Your hostess for this party are: Tina from MOMS CRAZY COOKING, Nicole from The Daily Dish and Kristi from Veggie Converter. We host this theme linky party every Monday (and the party stays open all week long)! We hope to inspire you to make something with our theme or get an old post notice by linking it up to the linky party below. 

The LINKY PARTY is opened ALL Week!

PLEASE do not link more then 3 recipes per week.

This week's theme is: RED, WHITE & BLUE FOOD
Please only link recipes with our them!

A Pizza Dinner {Foodie Pen Pal}

Thanks for the Pizza & Goodies, Pen Pal! I joined in this month to receive a box from a Foodie Pen Pal. I thought, this sounds like fun, let's give it a try. I also sent a box to a lucky foodie penpal, Mary. My pen pal, Mary and her box of goodies that I sent can be found at A Small Loss, you can check that out too. But let's get onto my box of yummy'ness.....

I received my Foodie Pen Pal from Crystal at Counting by 4,

my box was filled with lots of pre-made packages to make and a few snacks.

My kids made up both packages of pancakes one morning (when I was at work, bummer). Then for dinner we enjoyed the pizza crust. I made up the homemade pizza and used some left-over spaghetti sauce, what a great easy way to get some hamburger meat mixed into my son's plain Cheese Pizza. It worked like a charm, I will be using that trick more often. Next up I will be making the Corn Muffins and freezing them for our 16-day road trip to Missouri next month. All this delicious food in one tiny box.

The pizza was delicious and it was a great quick meal. Thanks Pen Pal.

This great event was created by The Lean Green Bean. Here are all the details if you'd like to join the Foodie Penpals. If you’re interested in participating for July, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions. You must submit your information by July 4th as pairings will be emailed on July 5th!

Juice Smoothie 50/50

I thought this was so interesting, a split of 50/50 Vegetables and Fruit for smoothies! WOW, what a concept, we have such a hard time getting in vegetables, fruits are easy.

I made this smoothie and was quite surprised, I will for sure be sneaking in more veggies now to our smoothies.

Juice Smoothie 50/50
idea found at Vegan Yack Attack

3 Carrots
3-4 Small Tangerines, Peeled
1 Small Fuji Apple, Cored
1-1/2 Cup Green Grapes
3-4 Stalks of Celery

Place all ingredients through your juicer (Magic Bullet), stir juice together and if you’d like it colder, serve over ice or mix up some ice in your blender.

Dirty Dancing Movie & Skinny Cow Ice Cream Party

It's Summer Time and what better way to celebrate then with lazy days watching movie classics like Dirty Dancing and enjoying Ice Cream! In our summer plans this year we decided to get a bunch of friends together once a week at our home to relax, have all-night sleepovers, and enjoy the summer sun playing in the pool. My kids are loving it so far, lots of friends and family around to hang out with, what's not to love?

When I was invited by Foodbuzz to host a Skinny Cow Ice Cream Party and a movie screening of Dirty Dancing I knew this would fit in perfectly with our Summer Slumber Parties. With my girls (twins), and their best friends (a set of twins and a set of triplets), that's an EASY party of 7, plus throw in a few younger brothers and we've got a house full. And with 4 of the 7 teenagers loving DANCE, the movie Dirty Dancing is right up their alley. The two sets of twins have been dancing for over 10 years together.

We invited everyone over for the slumber party and the festivities began. Of course, number one on the list was munchies. A party at our house is never complete with out chips and homemade pan fried onion dip, then they moved right into the movie and ice cream, followed by a fun day at the pool.

We enjoyed the Skinny Cow Slimited Editions Oh Fudge Nuts Cones (this was our favorite, my son even ate two), next the older girls and my girlfriend tried the Mmmocha Truffle Bars (and for any coffee lovers out there... DE-LI-CIOUS) and lastly we all enjoyed the classic Best of Both Swirleds Sandwiches. The Skinny Cow ice cream was amazing, no one could believe that is was Skinny Cow, they all said they would toally have this ice cream AGAIN. I knew that was the case when all the ice cream that was purchased was completely gone. Plenty of Ice cream was enjoyed by all.

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a stipend, DVD,
and coupons for free Skinny Cow® product.