Good morning and welcome back to Sunday Gravy!

Nice to see so many hungover faces out there. In other words your typical Sunday morning at DFO.

I for one deserved a solid drinking session after the stupid fucking work week I just survived. I won’t get into details but I hope to not repeat a week like that. I knew this type of shit was inevitable too. When I established a retirement game plan and my full on exit strategy I told myself that I wasn’t done with the work bullshit. Just because I only have a handful of years left to work doesn’t mean I was done with the bullshit.

Oh fucking hell no I wasn’t done. My mantra is “Stay focused and keep the eyes on the prize.” It worked to some extent this past week. But shit yes I deserved them cocktails. Sure I’ll have a handful today as well.

What’s also been nice is seeing some sun for a change. The harbor walk has been fucking epic lately.

Find the bright spots and focus on them motherfuckers. Sometimes it helps get you through.

Anyway.

Let’s get after this shit!

This is part two of our special breakfast sandwich challenge. 

You remember last week when I showed off my “Brand new bad ass muffin making methodsⒸ.”

Again.

Still fucking badass.

I went old school as fuck with my food prep today and the best part is there were no recipes required. This shit goes back about 40 fucking years so it’s all memory.

We are going to pay some homage to our dear brother Hippo’s hood and we are going to make a goddamn chicken cheddar biscuit.

Damn skippy!

I learned all about the chicken cheddar biscuit watching the Travel Channel. Whenever any one of the hosts paid a visit to Chapel Hill North Carolina they visited a spot called the Time-Out and had a chicken cheddar biscuit, which is exactly what its name implies. A homemade biscuit, a slice of cheddar and a piece of fried chicken breast.

Sounded goddamn awesome and I do indeed possess some mad fucking biscuit and fried chicken skills to boot.

Seemed like a no brainer and it would also provide a rock fucking solid challenge to our breakfast sandwich from last week, the sausage, egg and cheese muffin.

Who wins the completely made-up challenge?

We’re going to find right the fuck out!

Let’s give this bastard a test drive.

As always, for a bassline on the fried chicken, you marinate the chicken overnight in some buttermilk and maybe a shot or two of hot sauce.

If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make it yourself!

Truth!

Take a cup of whole milk, add in 1 tablespoon of distilled vinegar and a few shots of hot sauce. Check it out, I used the last of the piri piri sauce from our previous episode where we made Frango assado com piri piri. That spice is banging too.

Let the milk stand for about 10 minutes to get a slight curdle and give it a stir.

Then add the chicken and the buttermilk to a zip top bag and refrigerate overnight.

Next day and it’s chicken and biscuits time.

Does this next image give anyone else fond flashback memories to childhood?

A cast iron skillet with some Crisco in it? You just KNOW shit’s about to go down up in this motherfucker.

Let’s get started on the biscuits first.

We’ve made biscuits many times on Sunday Gravy. Many times. Here’s a fun one from the very first week of the pandemic when the grocery store pillaging was in full force. Fucking assholes!

Let’s give out the recipe one more time just for the fuck of it.

Homemade biscuits!

2 cups of all purpose flour

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

6 tablespoons of very cold butter cut into small bits

3/4 cup of whole milk

Get a big ass bowl out and mix the dry ingredients together.

Remember the key to a flaky layered biscuit? That’s right you’ve got to chill the butter. Cut it into cubes and put in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.

Add the chilled butter to the dry ingredients.

This is the part where you use your pastry cutter and cut in the butter until it reaches the always mentioned but never achieved “Small pea size.”

Then you add in the milk and get your hands messy. Combine all of the ingredients until it forms a somewhat sticky dough.

Place the dough on a floured work surface and shape into a square/rectangle shape. Now the fun shit. Fold it in half, rotate the dough and fold in half again. I did this about 6 times. This is what gives the biscuits layers.

Preheat your oven to 425.

Use a biscuit cutter and press the cutter straight down into the dough. Remove the biscuit to a baking sheet that’s lined with parchment paper.

Keep doing this until you’ve used up the majority of the dough. After cutting out the biscuits, you can gather the leftover dough, re-roll and make another biscuit or two.

When we’re ready to cook these off they will cook in the pre-heated 425 degree oven for 13-15 minutes until golden brown and shit.

Fuck yes! Look at the layers! and they’re perfectly golden with a nice crispy bottom of the biscuit from the butter. Some of the best damn biscuits EVER! Shit, man you could just make some of these and win any damn breakfast sandwich challenge because you gave yourself a head start to awesome-ness.

Well sir, guess it’s time. Let’s make some fried chicken.

We start by removing the chicken from the fridge and let it get close to room temperature.

Time to build our chicken dredge stations.

Here’s our seasoning first. Essence as per usual.

Add some flour to the seasoning. Then using another pan crack in a “Couple two tree” eggs and a splash of milk. Stir both to combine.

Since we’re going for a biscuit sized sandwich go ahead and cut up the chicken. Yes I am indeed using boneless skinless chicken breast today. Think of it as a challenge to see if we can make kick-ass fried chicken using only boneless skinless chicken breasts.

Next we dredge the chicken. This won’t be a quick dip in the egg then into the flour mixture type dredge. We’re going all the fucking way in with the double dredge. That’s right! Egg wash then flour then egg wash again followed by a final dredge in the flour.

We will be frying the chicken in a pre-heated skillet at 325 degrees. Don’t just get the skillet hot then start cooking. Let that skillet sit at a medium high heat for a good 10-15 minutes. Even heat and all of that good shit.

After 7-8 minutes turn them over.

DAMNNN!!!!!!!!!

You know your ass has some Southern influence just by looking at that picture. If it gave you a tingly sensation in your nether regions right now? You just may have some South in your genes.

To me? That’s an “Erection that will last for over 4 hours” type of photo.

Cook for 7-8 more minutes then remove the chicken to a plate that’s been covered with a paper towel to lightly drain.

Fuck it, want some tots? Tots sound good.

Cook the tots according to the package instructions while the chicken is cooking. You got heat coming from every damn which way now!

Ready to do this shit?

Break one of the biscuits in half. No knife required here.

It’s just so goddamn fluffy!

Slap some cheese on that thang!

Then a piece of that beautiful looking fried chicken.

Make a plate dammit. I’m getting hungry over here.

When watching the Travel Channel shows about the Time-Out place in NC they actually nuke the biscuit half with the cheese on it for about 30 seconds for proper meltage. So I did.

We sample. 

That chicken is sensational. It’s perfectly cooked and you do indeed get some tang from the “Butter” milk and a kick from the hot sauce that was in the brine. The breading is moist and has all that Creole type shit going on from the essence. 

That biscuit?

That goddamn biscuit!

Perfect. Absolutely fucking textbook. Flakey, layered buttery deliciousness.

How do you think this tastes? It’s awesome!

If we’re being honest here? You don’t need that cheese on there. Not really. Sure it gives you some melty cheese action and a little more salted dairy type thing but for my second biscuit, I omitted the cheese and put a couple of drops of honey on the biscuit instead.

THAT! That was the bite. Damn near brought me to food nirvana. Epic, epic stuff.

This one wins.

That’s all. I loved the sausage muffin of course and those English muffins will now reside in my kitchen forever but compared to a fresh biscuit with homemade fried chicken?

That shit’s just not fair. That comparison just doesn’t even get started.

Finally when you’re finished with dinner, you’ve got to take proper care of your kitchen tools.

Look at those biscuits!

That cast iron skillet performed like a fucking champ because I treat that thing like a champ. Keep it clean and oiled and rust free and you have a cast iron friend for life. Hell you can will this thing to your kids.

Well, what are you lying around for? Get your ass up and make some fried chicken and biscuits!

This has been a fun couple of weeks of randomness that I just came up with off the top of my head.

Definitely got to show off my baking skills which is always fun.

Without giving anything away, you’ve got a special surprise in store for next week. A new guest host will be giving you some Sunday Gravy. I think they’ll give you a really damn good one too.

Enjoy.

Well, we’re done here. Everyone have a good Sunday and I’ll see you back here in a couple of weeks.

Have fun.

PEACE!