All my life I’ve wanted to make fried chicken, and I have been accumulating recipes and tools for it for years. Finally I ran into a recipe that made me want to take the plunge. It is from Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking, a book very much in the style of John Thorne’s discursive essays on unpretentious food. She absolutely lays down the law, which I like. I realize that there are many other ways to make great fried chicken, but this one works.

Colwin’s rules are:

- Use a chicken fryer, a cast-iron pot with steep sides and a domed lid

- Chicken must be at room temperature before you start cooking

- Dredge with seasoned flour only – no shaking in bag, no breadcrumbs, no crushed cornflakes

- Pan-fry, do not deep-fry (though see below) in a COVERED chicken fryer

- Serve WARM, not hot (or cold): “It should never be eaten straight from the fryer – it needs time to cool down and set”

OK, so far so good. Totally into the hardcore rules. Rather than the version above, though I got the 3-quart chicken fryer from Lodge, which may have led to some complications.

Colwin recommends using vegetable oil (or more specifically Wesson oil with a little light sesame), but this is a hardcore unhealthy household, so we used Crisco topped up with some safflower oil. There was a debate about whether to use leftover Mexican lard (manteca), but it was felt that might add an unwelcome porkiness to the chicken.

The recipe – really a method, not a recipe, is straightforward. Mix flour with seasoning of your choice. I used salt, pepper and paprika. Dip chicken pieces in buttermilk, then roll them in flour, really packing them in there “as if you were a child making sand pies.” There should be thick layers of flour between the pieces.

Fill your fryer to halfway with oil. Heat until a piece of bread fries instantly when it hits the oil. I attached a deep frying thermometer and found this to be about 375 degrees – HOT.

Gently slip into the hot oil as many pieces will fit. “The rule is to crowd a little.” Turn the heat down at once and cover. (Italics are Colwin’s.) You then cook until just done – “juicy and crisp” – about 5-6 minutes a side. Then remove cover, turn heat back up, and quickly fry to the “color of Colonial pine stain – a dark honey color.” Remove the pieces and let them sit in a barely warm oven – be warned that this will be difficult for you and your guests to do. When the pieces are warm, no longer hot, dig in.

So here’s the complication I experienced – the oil was maybe slightly over halfway, and what Colwin doesn’t mention is that when you slip in those pieces into 375-degree oil, it goes crazy. Insane angry sizzling and spattering. And then I put the top on and turned the heat down. Result was the Towering Inferno. It sounded like Battle of the Marne was taking place under the lid. Then the oil actually managed to lift up the heavy cast-iron cover and spatter down onto the burner resulting in foot-high flames.

Much putting out of fire and fussing with the temperature resulted, and I think the lesson is that you absolutely must not go more than halfway on the oil, especially with the little 3-quart chicken fryer. I was essentially deep-frying rather than pan-frying – I think the distinction becomes academic when you have chicken pieces in more than 2 inches of oil. The second batch resulted in no fire. I will say… that first batch was tastier, though I’m not sure I want to go through that experience again.

Apologies for the crappy photo. The chicken was amazing – juicy and flavorful within, crispy and nutty on the outside.

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