Last Supper

I fear I may have eaten my last meal. I know this because after this meal, I am sure to perish. I think it would be hard not to after consuming a meal that starts with a pound of bacon. And the part of the bacon that is used is not the meat, but the fat that is rendered from it. They say that everything is better with bacon, and my friends: this includes fried chicken.

Let me back up for a minute. This meal begins 24 hours before cook time as the chicken is soaked in a briny bath of buttermilk, an onion and salt. The breading is a simple mix of flour, old bay seasoning, poultry seasoning, black pepper, Nature's Seasons, one or two teaspoons of sugar to help the coating stick to the chicken, and of course the experienced and loving hands of a mom who has spent years perfecting the recipe (thank you Carolyn Poppe!)






Now onto the part about the bacon—the part we would rather not think about. Once brined and breaded, the perfectly moist chicken is fried in a sinful combination of 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, a stick of butter and the bacon fat. But now you are presented with a problem: an entire plate of bacon, crisped to perfection. A plate of bacon that has served its purpose but now has no place in the meal. It is a problem with a simple solution, which is to consume the bacon as a pre—fried chicken snack, naturally. Judge all you want, but we ate it not because we wanted to but because there are starving children in Africa or China or some crap like that and it is just not responsible to waste. So yes, I ate the bacon (for the kids.)



When the chicken is nice and golden brown on both sides, place the pieces on a paper bag on a cookie sheet and place the oven to cook the chicken through.



By the way, you will notice I did not include a picture of what the paper bag looked like after the chicken was finished off in the oven because, well, what you don't know can't hurt you. Well, in this case it can in the form of clogging your arteries but that is neither here nor there. Anyway, here is what it looks like when you are done. Please resist licking your monitor:



And to go along with this this amazing dish, we made mac and cheese, homemade biscuits, pan gravy and cole slaw. Because, you know what? I say go big or go home. As I said, this was clearly my last meal. So my friends, I bid you farewell. Dear Lord, it was worth it, though.