Take that, Chick-Fil-A!

Ever since i was smitten by Chick-Fil-A's nuggets, I've been irked by their pious business hours (no Sundays!) and when the Tea Baggers started their misguided outrage tours our local franchise offered some kind of discount for supporting it. Then, there were connections with bigoted and anti-gay religious groups and finally supporting the ridiculous straight marriage amendment drives. Hey, I remember sipping Zimas at Stonewall talking about how evil Dominos pizza and Wendy's were because they "supported Pat Robertson" but boycotting them was easy because i didn't like their food. But with Chick-Fil-A, i could eat the nuggets every blessed day and their fries, my god. That and the overly-polite squeaky friendly staff in an industry of "take your shit and go" made it hard to go with my self-righteous conscience. 

Then someone whispered about the pickle juice. 

I bought 3 large "organic, grass fed" chicken breasts of birds who had committed suicide at the Perdue Plant (sad how often that happens) and it came to $5.00 i think. That, with the juice, the flour, spices, would all come to maybe $10 generously, which is equal or less than the cost of 3 orders from the restaurant. Last evening I cubed the meat and put it in an 8x8 glass baking dish covered in Vlasic little gerkin pickle juice (it is strong on garlic, so beware). Covered and let sit 24 hours.

Now the fun! You'll need: A large mixing bowl, a high-side skillet, corn oil (can try peanut), 1tb salted butter, 1-2c Kentucky Kernel (or a seasoned flour mix), pinches of garlic powder, onion powder, Lowrey's Seasoning Salt, paprika, and Old Bay, extra flour on hand. 

Strain chicken and let drain well (i let it sit in strainer while prepping the rest). Mix all the dry ingredients together and eyeball to see if there is enough to cover the nuggets. add flour as needed. Mix very well! 

Turn in chicken and cover with dry mix until it is all absorbed and dry chunks. it's okay to have an excess of mix.

 Let sit while you put oil and butter in skillet and heat to high. Just cover the bottom thickly- this is not a deep fryer, ya know. Test oil with a speck of mixture and when it pops, lower heat to medium high and put chicken in slowly. Baste chicken in the skillet.with the oil and let it turn tan with the oil mixture. 

When covered in oil, reduce heat to medium and cover for 10-15 minutes, stirring every few minutes to make sure all sides brown. After that time, take lid off and turn heat up slightly so it can further brown and dry. Test one nugget to see if there is any pink. Fry to desired color and consistency. 

Let cool and serve with Ranch because it's West Virginia. If child likes it, you win. 

And hey, big girls with stolen forks like it too! huzzah!

Bone-a-petite!