Christmas Day Chicken -- The Cast Iron, the Binder, and the Mother's Day Tradition That Holds Everything Together

Mother's Day. The third one. The first where I'm a published (online) writer working on a book deal. Mom's gift this year: the original recipe binder. Not a copy — the ORIGINAL. Volume one of five. The binder that traveled from Norfolk to Jacksonville to Pearl Harbor to Bremerton and back to Norfolk. The binder with the handwritten cards, the magazine clippings, the coffee stains, the splattered sauces. She mailed it. MAILED the original binder to California. 'Mom, this is yours. This is YOUR binder.' 'It's for the book. You need it for the book. The handwriting, the stains, the history. It's source material, Rachel. You can't write about it without seeing it.' Source material. My mother, who never went to college, is giving me primary source material for my book. I opened the binder at the kitchen table. The pages are worn. The cards are yellowed. The handwriting is Mom's — young Mom, new-wife Mom, the handwriting of a twenty-three-year-old woman who wrote 'Chicken and Rice Casserole' at the top of a card in 1992 and had no idea that thirty years later, fifty thousand people would read about it on the internet. There are notes I've never seen. In the margins. Tiny notes in Mom's writing: 'Kevin liked this.' 'Made during 2003 deployment — too salty.' 'Megan's birthday request, age 8.' 'Rachel's first time helping — age 5.' Rachel's first time helping. Age five. A note in a recipe binder about me, standing in a kitchen, helping. I was five years old and my mother wrote about me in a recipe card and I'm twenty-two now and I'm writing about HER in a book. The circle. The full, extraordinary, unbreakable circle. I cried for twenty minutes. Then I photographed every page. Then I started writing Chapter One. Ryan gave me a card from Caleb: 'Happy Mother's Day, Mama. Thank you for the food. Thank you for the book. Thank you for being mine.' Ryan's handwriting. Caleb's words (attributed). My heart. I made Mom's fried chicken. The Mother's Day tradition. The cast iron. The seasoned flour. The golden, perfect chicken. Happy Mother's Day, Donna. Your binder is in my kitchen. Your handwriting is in my book. Your chicken is on my table. You're in everything. You've always been in everything.

I wasn’t going to look up a recipe. I never do for this one. But standing at the stove with Mom’s binder open on the counter beside me — the actual binder, with the actual card, with her actual twenty-three-year-old handwriting — I cooked it the way she always did: cast iron, seasoned flour, patience. This chicken is the through-line of every holiday, every homecoming, every hard year that ended anyway. If any recipe was going to carry the weight of this particular Mother’s Day, it was always going to be this one.

Christmas Day Chicken

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 40 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 3 to 3 1/2 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces (thighs, drumsticks, and breasts)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• Vegetable oil or lard, for frying (enough to come 1 inch up the side of a 12-inch cast iron skillet)

Instructions

1. Season the chicken. Pat chicken pieces dry with paper towels. Season generously on all sides with salt and pepper. Let rest at room temperature for 15 minutes while you prepare the coating.
2. Make the dredge. In a wide shallow bowl, whisk together the flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, and cayenne. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk.
3. Coat the chicken. Working one piece at a time, dip chicken in the egg mixture, letting the excess drip off, then dredge thoroughly in the seasoned flour. Press the flour firmly into the skin. Set coated pieces on a wire rack.
4. Heat the oil. Pour oil into a 12-inch cast iron skillet to a depth of about 1 inch. Heat over medium-high heat until the oil reaches 350°F. A pinch of flour dropped in should sizzle immediately.
5. Fry the chicken. Working in batches so as not to crowd the pan, add chicken skin-side down. Fry for 10 to 12 minutes per side, adjusting heat as needed to maintain 325—350°F, until the crust is deep golden brown and the internal temperature reaches 165°F.
6. Drain and rest. Transfer finished pieces to a clean wire rack set over a baking sheet. Do not stack. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving so the crust stays crisp.
7. Serve. Arrange on a platter and serve warm. This chicken is good for holidays, homecomings, and every ordinary Tuesday in between.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 480 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 24g | Carbs: 22g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 610mg