Fried Chicken

Folks,

One of my favorite comfort foods is fried chicken. Here is my version of slamming fried chicken.

First, you have the option of retaining the skin or taking it off. I personally remove the skin. However, please note that if you wish to keep the skin then you have to make sure you clean it well by burning off any left over feathers and squeezing out any black heads and removing excess fat under the skin. Otherwise, just take off the skin and the excess fat. I personally opt for removing the skin and excess fat altogether. It's actually easier to clean this way and there is no compromise in flavor.

Anyway, this recipe is actually pretty easy. Here's what you'll need:

• About 1 cup of vegetable oil
• About 6 chicken parts (ideally any combination of legs, thighs, and breasts)
• Lawry's seasoned salt
• Black pepper
• Paprika
• 1 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 packet of Sazón with azafran

• Put vegetable oil in frying pan under medium heat. Make sure the frying pan is large enough to fit your 6 pieces of chicken comfortably, but not too large.
• Season chicken with seasoned salt, black pepper and paprika. In a separate bowl mix flour with Sazón.
• Coat chicken with flour and Sazón mixture. You can do this by placing the chicken into the mixture, covering the top of the bowl with a plate and shaking it until it is evenly coated.
• Once chicken is coated, sprinkle a tidbit of flour into vegetable oil. If it fizzles, then the oil is hot, which means you can start frying your chicken
• Allow chicken to fry well on one side before turning it. The chicken should be well fried on all sides and be a deep golden brown when it's done.

You can even apply this recipe to chicken wings. In fact, this recipe will definitely render SLAMMING wings.

Crab Cakes

Friends,

Here is a simple crab cake recipe I think you'll enjoy.

Here's what you'll need:

• About 1 pound of lump crab meat
• 1 diced medium onion
• About 1/3 cup of diced red pepper
• Black pepper to taste
• Celery seed to taste
• Cayenne pepper to taste
• Paprika to taste
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard
• 1 cup of mayonnaise
• The juice of 1 lime
• 5-6 slices of white bread with the edges trimmed

Combine your crab meat, diced onion, diced red pepper, black pepper, celery seed, cayenne pepper, paprika, sugar, mustard, mayonnaise and lime juice in a bowl. Next take your white bread and tear it up into small pieces forming crumbs. This can also be done by putting the bread in a food processor or blender. Add your bread crumbs to the remainder of the ingredients in your bowl and mix well. Finally you can begin forming your crab cakes.

One way to go about shaping your crab cakes is to take a 1\3 sized measuring cup and pack the crab cake mixture inside of it then release the mixture so that it takes the shape of the cup. You can also spray the bottom of the cup with cooking spray to prevent the mixture from sticking.

You can fry your crab cakes in vegetable or canola oil. Allow your crab cakes to fry well on one side before flipping it over.

When you're done frying the crab cakes, place them on a paper towel and allow any excess grease to drain off.