Top Ten Tools for Keeping Southern - 4. Texas Pete

Thus continues a somewhat regular series in ten parts highlighting some of the basic accoutrements of keeping Southern.

There’s hot sauce, and then there’s Texas Pete.

Hot sauce should be about more than heat. It should be about flavor, and Chicago-land is finally learning that when it comes to flavor, Texas Pete is king. Like Texas itself, the goodness comes from further east* – Texas Pete has been made by the Garner family in Winston-Salem, North Carolina for generations. I am delighted that I no longer need my folks to bring a quart of it when they visit. You can now find it at Ultra Foods, Wal-mart Superstores, and the previously lauded Fresh Market. I even got a cute little sample bottle from a Texas Pete booth at the Taste of Chicago on the Fourth!

Like so much that's good about the South, Texas Pete is about keeping it simple, taking your time, and getting it just right. The ingredients are simple: peppers, vinegar, and salt. But the pepper mash is aged for up to three years, and the result is a delicious balance of flavor and heat that enhances rather than overpowering food. The Garner family still makes Texas Pete on the old homestead on Indiana Avenue (originally named for Garner kin in Indiana). We lived on Marvin Boulevard, just off Indiana Avenue when I was born, and we passed the factory most every day.

It's no surprise I discovered Texas Pete as a baby - there's a bottle on every restaurant table in North Carolina. As Mama tells it, I saw a bottle on the table at a restaurant and wouldn’t stop begging for it. So she finally put a couple of drops on a spoon and gave it to me. (Trust me, that wasn’t cruel – I was just that stubborn.) I promptly grabbed daddy’s glass of iced tea (which I hated until well into adulthood) and downed half of it. I came back up for air panting “More! More!” and have been enjoying Texas Pete ever since.

*Update - Mama corrected my version this weekend and informed me that it was actually Daddy who got tired of my begging and gave me a spoon with "more than a few drops" on it. Bless him! :)

Texas Pete is just plain good. Good in eggs, good in cheese grits, good on about anything. It makes the ultimate buffalo wings (they have a buffalo wing sauce, but for really great wings, go with the original Texas Pete). And I’ve recently learned that the best fried-chicken should be dipped in Texas Pete before being dredged in flour and fried. 

I’ve long thought that there’s not much of anything you can’t manage to eat if you put enough Texas Pete on it. Which means you might just want to take a bottle with you when you go...well, pretty much anywhere. Texas Pete is keeping Southern all over.

* Texas was founded by Tennessee. Sam Houston, Davy Crockett…they call Tennessee “the Volunteer State” because we volunteered to go found Texas, among other things.

A Little Bit of South Coming Up North

“Chick-fil-A in Chicago? For real?”

What a beautiful headline in the paper last week! Especially since the answer is a pretty secure “Yes!”

For the past five years, when people ask me if I like Chicago (yes) and if there is anything I miss about the South, my answer has most often been that I miss mountains, real barbeque, abundant platters of inexpensive fresh (and fried) seafood, and Chick-fil-a.

You’ll note that three out of the four are food related.

So yes, I’m happy. It was nearly two years ago that I was teased by a friend in Wheaton who knew a real estate agent shopping Chick-fil-a around to find a location there, only to have that prospect delayed, presumably by the economic nosedive. So now to have real locations (in Aurora and Orland Park in 2010 with Wheaton soon to follow) announced in an as official forum as the Chicago Tribune is a bubble of happiness I only hope won’t be punctured again.

But back to the questions of Chicagoans…

The mention of Chick-fil-a tends to elicit moans of deprivation from fellow-devotees of the chicken sandwich that is practically-perfect-in-every-way. From others, it brings the question, “What’s the big deal with Chick-fil-a? It’s just chicken sandwiches, right?”

That’s like saying Wrigley Field is “just” a baseball stadium.

Yes, Chick-fil-a is more than a chicken sandwich. It’s actually more than one sandwich, including a grilled option. (I have a friend who absolutely loves their chicken salad sandwich.) And that’s not to mention Chick-n-strips and nuggets. It’s also yummy waffle fries, some of the best milkshakes out there, and the best fresh lemonade ever.

But it really is all about the chicken sandwich.

A simple bun, two dill pickle slices, and the best fried chicken breast ever. That’s it. You can add mayo, but it doesn’t need it. It’s perfect the way it is, and it’s actually healthy! (The original chicken sandwich comes in at 430 calories and 17 grams of fat.) Chick-fil-a knows what they’re doing. The keep it simple and do it best. They’re friendly and generous, and they have a great sense of humor. They’re keeping Southern, if ever a fast food chain has!

As far as fast food is concerned, Chick-fil-a is in a league of its own. The cows know it. So will Chicago soon.

Chicken Fried Chicken

The name really does make sense. Really! It does!

It’s Chicken Fried Steak made with chicken breast instead of steak, and while the steak is sometimes called Country Fried Steak, Country Fried Chicken is a common name for regular fried chicken. Thus we get to revel in the delightful redundancy of Chicken Fried Chicken.

I am new to deep frying. But back South, I had all the access to deep fried deliciousness I could want without doing the work myself. It’s different up here. I mean, they fry things, but not necessarily the same things and not necessarily the same way. I grew up watching Grandma fry chicken on a regular basis. (A favorite family story involves the first time Grandpa brought home a turkey. Grandma had never cooked one and decided to treat it pretty much like a big old rooster. She boiled it, floured the pieces, and fried it. For the rest of her life, she never cared much for turkey unless it was fried.) Fried Chicken was a not uncommon treat, but I always loved chicken even more when I didn’t have to mess with the bones (boneless wings are brilliant!).

So when my friend, Chris, decided to move to Orlando, and some of us were considering what might be a good meal to send him off with, I thought there couldn’t be a better time to try making the Chicken Fried Chicken which happens to be his favorite. I did some research and concluded that three thing (maybe four) are critical: double dipping the coating, buttermilk, lard or peanut oil, and lots of salt and pepper. So here’s the recipe:

Chicken Fried Chicken for 8

• 8 (6-ounce) skinned boned chicken breasts, flattened to ¼ inch thickness
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus
• 2 sleeves of saltine crackers, crushed
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (half if you want to lower the kick)
• 2  large eggs
• 2  teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2  cups buttermilk
• Lard (or Peanut oil, if you must)

-Sprinkle the chicken pieces liberally with salt and pepper.

-Combine the cracker crumbs, flour, measured salt and pepper, and cayenne.

-Beat the eggs, adding the baking powder and baking soda before blending in the buttermilk. (It will be foamy.)

-Put the flour mixture in one shallow dish, and the buttermilk mixture in a wide bowl.

-Heat the lard or oil in a cast iron dutch oven or deep skillet to 375 degrees. (This is important! When the grease is hot enough, the moisture in the cooking chicken expands and keeps it from soaking up the grease. And lard just tastes better. Shortening is awful stuff, and the lard is not going to hurt you once in a while if you generally eat healthy.)

-Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture, then the buttermilk, then the flour again, and fry it, 7-10 minutes on one side. Turn it and fry it for 4-5 minutes more. I fried 2 to 3 pieces at a time, depending on their size. It should be golden brown. It's helpful to have a cooling wrack on a cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven to keep it warm.

Then you make the gravy, which I never use a recipe for. Say, 3 to 4 tbsp of the frying grease or butter, 5-6 tablespoons of flour. Brown well, then stir in 4 cups of whole milk a cup or two at a time until it all thickens up. 1 ½ tsp of salt or so and a bunch of black pepper (to taste – Chris said enough pepper so that when you eat the first bite of gravy it makes you cough, I think it was).

And you can’t have Chicken Fried Chicken without the gravy. And mashed potatoes. Corn and green beens are pretty important, too.  

It turned out marvelously well, if I do say so. And it was a fitting send off for a friend who likes his meat fried and boneless!