Crispy Chicken Fried Chicken (with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and garlic bread!)

Place 4 thin chicken breasts into 2 cups buttermilk.


(If you don't have buttermilk on hand, put 2 tablespoons of vinegar in a bowl (not a metal one!) and add enough milk to make 2 cups.)


To the buttermilk, add 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, and 2 tablespoons freshly minced garlic.


Let the chicken soak in the buttermilk for a few hours. Overnight is best.


Next, we'll prepare the breading. For a quick and easy breading ingredient, with tons of flavor, instead of buying bread crumbs, I use Mussos Garlic and Cheese Toast, because I use them for other meals throughout the week, not just for breading.


So, the breading is:


8 - 12 pieces of toast, finely crushed (I use my food processor for this.)
3 - 5 big handfuls of Lays Cheddar and Sour Cream Potato Chips, finely crushed, enough for 1 1/2 cups
1 1/2 to 2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1/2 to 1 teaspoon onion powder (depends on your preference)
Just a smidge more than 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground, of course!
1 teaspoon garlic salt


You can put only the bread and the chips in the food processor, and blend until fine, or you can put everything in together, ensuring that the spices and flour are evenly distributed throughout the breading mixture.


*
Now it's time to take the chicken out of the buttermilk, one by one, and dredge in the breading, and carefully lay it in a pan with about 1/4 inch of super hot butter, crisco, coconut oil, or peanut oil, whichever you have handy/prefer/like to eat. :)


Let it fry for just a minute or two before flipping over. Place them in the oven, either in the pan you fried them in {oven safe, of course!} or place them in a glass casserole dish to bake for about 20 minutes @ 350 degrees.


Now, you can add to the pan you fried them in to make gravy. Whisk in butter and flour to make a roux and stir in some chicken stock, garlic, onion, parsley, black pepper, and some salt to taste, and there's your gravy! The mashed potatoes are of course easy as pie, so I am not going to tell you how to make them. :)


Fresh green beans and a homemade loaf of garlic bread, a french baguette, or just some bread make this a complete, and oh-so-delicious meal and it's really pretty simple. Enjoy!