Corn Fritters

I attended a potluck last weekend and decided to try a new recipe to take as my contribution.  My friend was making jambalaya, so I opted to try my hand at corn fritters.  I found a recipe, which I immediately strayed from, and this is what I came up with.

Ingredients: 1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix, 1 egg, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/3 cup milk, 3/4 cup corn kernels
Fried in Vegetable oil

So the recipe I found called for stone ground corn meal, but I've been a user of Jiffy corn muffin mix my whole life, and I couldn't find stone ground corn meal at the grocery store.  To the box of corn muffin mix I added the egg, milk, and sour cream and mixed well. 

I then added the corn kernels, thawed from the freezer bag they were in, and let sit in the mix for at least 15 minutes before frying. 

At this point I filled a skilled with vegetable oil, about 1/2 to 3/4 inch deep.  I heated the oil on medium heat, and by the time my batter sat for about fifteen minutes, the oil was hot enough to sizzle when I added a dollop of batter.  Now frying is tricky because oil that is too hot will burn your fritters, but oil that is too cold won't cook them through and they'll fall apart when they hit the oil. So heat the oil on medium and adjust when you start adding the fritters, hotter or cooler depending on how fast they are browning. 

Using an ice cream scoop, melon baller, cookie dropper, or spoon, drop balls of the cornmeal mix into the hot oil.  Let fry about a minute and a half on one side, then turn over and go for a minute and a half on the other.

You'll notice the golden brown indicates it is cooked on the outside, but to ensure a fully cooked interior, you can cook for another 1 to 3 minutes turning over every so often.  But really the best way to test how long you need to fry them is to to cut one open and try it for yourself.

Once properly fried, place on a wire rack over a cookie sheet to drain the oil and later on paper towels to sop up any extra oil.  You can eat these on their own, or serve with a salsa or sauce of your choosing. 

Fried Chicken Tenders

I was craving fried chicken last night after I saw a KFC ad on tv, but was too lazy to leave the house.  (Because making fried chicken from scratch is clearly less involved than getting in a car and grabbing a bucket of chicken from the window.)

So there are two ways of going about pre-flavoring meat.  Wet marinades or dry rubs.  Wet marinades typically need to sit/soak for awhile, often overnight.  Dry rubs are good to go.  But I wanted a wet marinade.  So thanks to the internet I found a recipe for a 25 minute wet marinade before frying.  (I was mostly wary of this since even when I have marinated chicken overnight, the flavor rarely shines through the fried exterior.)  And it didn't really work, but I'm ok with that because my chicken was incredibly juicy and tender.

The recipe called for soy sauce, lime juice, sugar, and dark rum.  I opted for soy sauce, lime juice, sugar, sesame oil, and a splash of light rum.

While the chicken soaked I prepared the flour.  On a plate I mixed flour with paprika, chili powder, onion/garlic powder, salt, and pepper.  So with breading/frying, there are a couple approaches.  You can dip in flour, put in an egg wash, then dredge in bread crumbs.  I went for a simpler approach of dredging directly in the flour from the marinade.

From here, I put the tenders directly into a pot of oil on medium heat on my stove.  The goal is to get that sizzle when you first add your chicken, but not have the oil so hot that it immediately burns the flour.  You need enough time for the chicken to cook through without burning the exterior.  I recommend a practice chicken tender that you cut in half when it's cooked to the color you want, and then adjusting the oil temperature/cook time accordingly.

When done frying, put on a paper towel to drain, and serve.  I found that right out of the oil it was incredibly crispy and the inside was super moist.  But when I ate one that had been sitting for awhile, the juice from the inside started to take away the crunch from the exterior.  I'd recommend serving immediately, or being more careful to remove excess liquid before dredging in flour and frying if you want the crunch to last longest.