A good deal on a whole chicken at my local Food Lion + reading famed Charleston, SC gardener Emily Whaley’s “Mrs. Whaley Entertains” = delicious fried chicken for Sunday supper.

Seriously, the hardest part about making fresh fried chicken from scratch was figuring out how to cut up the fryer (and I found a YouTube video to help).

Once the chicken is cut up, you rub it with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder, then mix up two eggs and a cup of milk.  Dredge the chicken in the milk/egg mixture, then add to a paper bag containing one cup of flour and whatever spices you want (I used my homemade Cajun spice blend).  Shake up the chicken and you’re ready to fry!

The most important part of frying chicken is to make sure your oil is at the right temperature.  If your oil is at the point where it’s snapping and popping, you’re good to go.  Drop the chicken pieces into a cast-iron skillet or deep pot filled with a quart of cooking oil.  Cook about 8 minutes per side, turning once halfway through.  Remove with tongs and let the cooked pieces drain on paper towels while you cook the other chicken pieces.

There’s nothing like a juicy piece of fresh fried chicken on a hot Southern summer day!

ETA:  Totally didn’t even realize it was officially “Fried Chicken Day!”