Everybody’s Got A Price

Well, it’s been over 8 years since I’ve added anything to this blog and a lot has changed since then. I have a ‘new’ kitchen, there was a global pandemic, I’m down to one kiddo at home, there are meal subscription kits, Instagram (even my dog has one of those, @TheFrankieSinatra), and TikTok…I could go on and on. My husband made a snarky comment about my food blog 8 years ago and being the stubborn mule that I am, I said, “Fine. No more blog.” and walked away from it.  Mind you, I pay to the keep the site and still cook A LOT of the things from it and love revisiting the very true stories that each recipe had to offer.

Over the years, my husband has made many offers to try to make up for ‘the comment’ and to get me back in the kitchen with my magazines and recipes, to no avail. He finally made an offer I couldn’t refuse. Granted we were having adult beverages, and he can’t remember everything he promised (this could actually work in my favor-does anyone know case law involving hungry husbands, slightly under the influence, making promises of cash and prizes?) I don’t even know if people still blog…I am certainly not putting this train wreck on video (those folks are next level and out of my league). For now, I’ll just stick with this and see where it takes me.

Without further ado, Here’s Cook’s Country’s Pickle-Brined Fried Chicken Sandwiches (This blog was originally titled Vampires Beware).

I guess you’d have to be living under a rock to have missed the big fried chicken sandwich wars happening everywhere the past couple of years. (My personal faves are Popeye’s and Chick-Fil-A). So, when I received my latest Cook’s Country magazine (yes, I still get the actual paper magazines), and there was a giant chicken sandwich on the cover, I thought this seemed like as good of a place as any to start back up with the blog. 

My son was 5 or 6 when I last did a blog, so he seemed pretty excited to give me feedback (he really has no filter when it comes to how he feels about food). He is also a self-proclaimed chicken sandwich connoisseur. He even has an instagram for the chicken sandwiches he’s tried (@MHS_Chicken_Sandwiches). So this was going to be a trail by fire.

I have to say, I was worried. There was a lot of garlic being used. Don’t get me wrong, I like garlic, but geez. The smell permeated the house. My son offered to help me (I don’t know what the motive was for the help, but I’ll take it). I gave him the job of smashing garlic for the marinade. (We actually had to google how to do that properly). The marinade was simple enough, but it was a 6-12 hour soak…In which, my son said “so is this where you tell Dad that you’ve been ‘cooking’ for 7 hours, but really stuff was just sitting in the fridge that whole time and you are watching Real Housewives argue?” Luckily, he had finished doing the dirty work of smashing garlic when he said this, because he was invited out of my kitchen. First rule of Fight Club and all…

After the brining, You have to do the breading and then put the chicken back into the fridge for 30 minutes so your crust doesn’t fall off in the frying process. The recipe didn’t say to cover the chicken with plastic wrap and I didn’t want my crust to fall off so I just slid the cookie sheet in the fridge uncovered. Yikes. I am pretty sure my fridge still smells like garlic. My son wandered into the kitchen and asked what that smell was…because the whole place smelled like garlic. We couldn’t get away from it. It was, for that reason, why I omitted the minced garlic from the Dill Pickle Topping. (I also omitted the red onion for no other reason than I’m not a fan of raw onion).

Everything else went off without a hitch. The breading did stay on the chicken, although, I think I’ll cover the chicken with plastic wrap next time. Mr. Chicken Sandwiches gave this sandwich a 9 out of 10, while proclaiming, “Wow. This is actually really good!” I don’t know how I feel about that. 

I was really worried it was going to be super garlicky tasting, but it wasn’t. I think this would also reheat nicely in an air fryer. You wouldn’t want to ruin the super crunchy goodness. I’m going to agree with my son and give this a 9, even though I was slaving away in the kitchen for 7 hours…..