Fried Chicken with Charlene's Mashed Potatoes with Garlic

I was watching Paula Deen's Home Cooking Show and she was featuring dishes her Grandmother Paul made. One of the dishes happened to be Fried Chicken, something I've been craving lately. I think I've finely perfected the art of frying chicken. Here's my version of this southern classic dish.

1 cut-up, whole chicken

2 cups flour

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

crisco shortening for frying

Combine the flour, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Soak the chicken pieces in water. Place the chicken in a big ziploc bag and shake in the flour mixture, coating each piece evenly. Put the chicken in the refrigerator for 60 to 90 minutes. This will help the breading to stick to the chicken when fried. You might need to re-dredge in flour before frying if the flour gets too absorbed into the chicken. Heat shortening in a frying on the stove to 375 degrees. Carefully add chicken to hot shortening, fry in batches if necessary, place lid on top of skillet, and fry until brown and crisp, rotating once. Remember that dark meat requires a longer cooking time (about 13 to 14 minutes, compared to 8 to 10 minutes for white meat). After frying chicken, add a couple tablespoons of flour to the shortening to make a pan gravy to serve over your chicken and mashed potatoes.

Charlene's Mashed Potatoes with Garlic

8 cloves of garlic

3 T olive oil

9 medium white or red potatoes (3 lbs)

8 oz light sour cream

8 oz cream cheese

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 to 1/4 c whole milk

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (optional)

1/4 cup butter

1. Place garlic in a baking dish. Drizzle with oil. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes until very soft. Peel and discard skin and leave some or all of the mashed garlic in the oil. Reserve oil.

2. Peel and cut up potatoes. Boil 20 to 25 min. Drain and transfer to a mixing bowl. Beat until creamy adding sour cream, reserved oil and cream cheese, parmesan. Add as much milk as you want to make potatoes smooth and fluffy.

3. Spoon into a baking dish. You can refrigerate, covered, up to 24 hours. Then, bake at 325 for 40 minutes. Drizzle with melted butter and warm 10 to 20 more minutes or until heated through.