Better Fried Chicken

Fried chicken dinners with the family in 1979.

I am one of seven children in my family. My mom will be cooking all day today. There will be pan fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, corn on the cob or green beans depending on what is in season and of course oatmeal cookies or raisin spice cake. You see it is 1979 and my youngest brother is coming home on leave from the Navy and we will be going to Mom and Dad's house for dinner and cards tonight. One table for pinochle, one for continental rummy, and one for poker (penny ante, nickel limit.) Texas hold'em hasn't been recognized as an in home game yet.

We have been through this before when the oldest brother was in the Navy ten years prior.

Mom's whole existence is about feeding all of us. The five of us girls and the two sister-in-laws still use many of her recipes, especially the one's for holiday goodies. When we were all still at home she would fry chicken in the traditional cast iron skillet with lots of lard or Crisco. As recipes and tastes and times changed she decided to oven fry her chicken. Of course by 1979 the family was getting larger too. Each of us got married an started families of our own. The problem was she only used one recipe. It was Parmesan oven fried chicken at every get together. With my super sized family that was about 35 times in a year if not more if there was a new baby to fawn over.

By the time the seventh child is out of the house in 1979, we decided Mom would need to let go of some of the work and make these occasions potluck. Mom decided we could only bring the side dishes each of us were good at making. Okay, here it goes. Sandra brings the rolls, Sherri brings the fruit salad, Suesan, brings a green salad, Gail brings a carrot cake, Vickie brings apple pie and we let Shelly bring a vegetable tray or chips (We don't allow her to cook, it could get ugly). Still... Mom will make her usual oven fried chicken, potato salad ( she puts zucchini relish in it, yum!), baked beans, a vegetable and Greg and Sonny's favorite raisin spice cake. She just couldn't give it up. What if one of us forgot to bring something?

Can you imagine what Thanksgiving is like? It's four days of the same thing, but of course the menu is the only thing that changes.

Here is my mom's oven fried chicken recipe:

Oven Fried Parmesan Chicken

One c. flour
2 t. salt
2 t. paprika
¼ t. pepper
2 eggs
3 T. milk
1/3 c. dry bread crumbs
6 to 8 pieces of chicken

In a shallow bowl, combine flour, salt, paprika and pepper. In another shallow bowl, beat eggs and milk. In a third bowl, combine cheese and bread crumbs. Coat chicken pieces with flour mixture, dip in egg mixture, then roll in crumb mixture.

Place in well greased baking pan and bake for 50 min at 350 degrees.

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