Fried Chicken, Your Way?

By Caroline Clough in Food on Feb 28, 2007 4:52PM

We've had many successes in the Chicagoist kitchen throughout the years — and definitely a few failures. But last week, when we hosted a birthday party for a friend, we started pondering the true meaning of success, at least as it relates to cooking. Per the birthday girl's request, the menu for the night featured fried chicken and waffles. Since we were serving about ten people, we planned three additional sides, as well as cake and soufflé.

The guests brought booze and good company, we provided food and relatively comfortable chairs. It was a nice night and even the vegetarian seemed satiated. The main problem was that not a single thing we put on the table looked anything like we hoped it would. Our souffle fell, the broccoli was overcooked, the waffles could have been darker and the chicken should have looked crispier. The question becomes who is right and who is wrong in the final wrap up of a dinner party? If the honored guest is satisfied, shouldn't the host (or hostess) be similarly satisfied? It reminds us of our undergraduate photo days when our English-majoring friends would look at any photograph and declare it awesome!, whereas we would stare at its slight awkwardness of composition and complete lack of focus and pronounce it trash! Our true point in writing about the experience is not, actually, to share any recipe with you. Instead, we're interested in your own short cuts and tricks to crispy fried chicken (and we don't want to hear about a deep fryer, because we don't have a deep fryer, and we're not going to be getting a deep fryer, enough about it already). We also wonder whether it's possible to feel satisfied with a dinner party if you're the host, or if we're all destined to nit pick any goodness out of existence. Thoughts? Anybody?