Hattie's Southern Fried Chicken

By Addie

Recipe courtesy Hattie's Restaurant, Executive Chef Jasper Alexander
Show: Throwdown With Bobby Flay
Episode: Fried Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 (3 1/2 pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces, rinsed and patted dry
• 1/2 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup vegetable oil, for frying

Preparation

Step 1

Put the chicken in a large baking dish and sprinkle on the pepper and salt. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Put the flour in a large, sturdy plastic bag. Add the chicken, a few pieces at a time, and shake to coat; shake off any excess flour.

In a large cast iron skillet, heat the oil until simmering. Add the chicken pieces and fry over moderate heat, turning until golden and cooked through, about 30 minutes, Lower the heat if the chicken gets too dark.
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REVIEWS:

I am from the south with a long line of southern relatives that fry chicken this way. They didn't use buttermilk as most did not have a lot of it on hand. We also didn't use the egg batter and the chicken is just as delicious.

I have made this recipe and the chicken came out great. I find the best fried chicken has to do with the way it is cooked, I do not care for brined or chicken soaked in buttermilk. Also the show that I watched showed a guy and the restaurant was named Hattie's not the person. I think some people may be mixing up the shows.

Hattie's Southern Fried Chicken recipe is closer to how Southern cooks actually prepared fried chicken--cut into at least 8 pieces with the skin on, salt, pepper, plain flour, cast iron skillet, and oil for frying, not deep frying. The "soaking" or marinating in buttermilk so popular now is a throwback to the time when the chicken was killed after having been "put up" for at least a week and fed grain to clear the "craw" (gizzard of what had been eaten as the chicken walked about the yard. After the chicken had been killed, cleared of feathers, and entrails, it was soaked in buttermilk to take away the "gamey" taste. Today, this step is not necessary. I add a cover to my cast iron chicken fryer and cook all the way with the cover in place to produce crispy, moist, delicious chicken. I have always gotten rave reviews.

Very, very,good. Everyone enjoyed it and asked for more. Skin was nice and crispy. Used Paula Deans house seasoning instead of plain salt and pepper on half and salt and pepper on the other half. Everybody said it was equally good, but I did like the Paula Deans seasoning a little more. Make sure the cooking oil is nice and hot when you put the chicken in the pan. As anyone that grew up in the western part of the South i.e. Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma knows true Southern fried chicken is fried skin-OFF salt and pepper as only spices. This recipe is close but does leave the skin on..... a big nono in that part of the South.

This is the "Food Network" recipe, but not the "Throwdown Recipe" which was a buttermilk recipe (soaked 24 hours, butter in the corn oil, finished in the oven afterward for 10 minutes. It does not even have the garlic gently crushed with the knife. I wish they would have given us the recipe for "Hattie's Southern Buttermilk Fried Chicken" that was shown in the show (which tastes much better than THIS HORRIBLE RECIPE. The chicken at Hattie's Restaurant is the one she showed how to make on the show... not this garbage.

The fired chicken at Hattie's is the best I've ever eaten. Just had it this week in Saratoga Springs. Will try to make using not the published recipe but the ones added by other reviewers!

This is NOT the Hatties recipe. This is bad/boring fried chicken.

This is the worst fried chicken recipe ever! My Grandma would call it "white folks fried chicken" - no disrespect intended. What she meant was: no seasoning, no flavor. The recipe noted in the comments section is way closer to what could be called "Southern Fried Chicken". I would seque to that recipe-found under Bobby Flay-rather than bother with this one.

The correct recipe is on here. It's listed as "Fried Chicken" by Gillian Clark. If you look up fried chicken and then search under shows: Throwdown with Bobby Flay you'll find it.

SHAME ON HATTIE'S AND THE FOOD NETWORK. I wasted my time watching this show which was nothing more than a very long free commercial for Hattie. Hey Hattie and Bobby, If you are going to do TV commercials let us know so we can pull out a cookbook and get rid of you. This WAS NOT the recipe that was shown on air. The show consisted of a long promo for Hattie's restaurant and Bobby acting like a nerd with the people props screaming and clapping in the background. If she wasn't going to give out the correct recipe you should have stated that rather than putting this stupid version on the internet. This was almost as bad as Rachel Ray.

THIS IS NOT HATTIE'S RECIPE! This is the recipe for Bobby's Chicken, NOT Hattie's. I have the show recorded. Here's what Hattie did, she didn't give out the measurements, so this is approx. from what was shown - Put the chicken in Bowl with Buttermilk approx qt, Hot sauce 1/3 cup and Peeled Smashed Garlic cloves around 6 to 8, (there was NO salt yet and soak in fridge over night. Again Hattie did not give out the measurements, this is just from what I saw. Mix Flour about 3 cups, Salt 4 tbls and Fresh Ground Black Pepper - 4 tbls. In the pan she put Corn Oil and when was getting hot added Butter about 1/2 stick, Coat the Chicken with the flour mix and place in hot pan (SKIN Side Down. When golden brown, turn over only ONE time. When it's all golden brown remove Chicken from oil and put on a sheet pan. Bake in Hot Oven for 10 minutes (she never said what temp, 400 would be a good guess. That's it, Good Luck!

You all are correct! This is not the recipe. I am attempting this recipe now. From what I remember: I have the chicken in a buttermilk bath, with salt and whole garlic cloves. It has to marinate for 24 hours. (I also added some sugar, for the brining effect. The brining came from Bobby though. I forget to add, pat the chicken dry when it's removed from the buttermilk. Then, season the flour with spices, and coat chicken. Fry chicken in corn oil and add a stick of butter to the grease. After is is cooked, put it in the oven for 10 minutes for that extra crispness. I hoped this helped you all.

They have the wrong recipe and place for this episode. The name of the restaurant was The General Store and Post Office Tavern in Silver Springs, Md. I did a google search under fried chicken restaurant's in maryland on foodnetwork and found the correct recipe.

The recipe you are looking for is the 8:30(7:30cshow of fried chicken, this is a differnt chef..same day.

I think the recipe on the show was amazing , unlike the recipie posted here , also does anyone remember brine , it is not even mentioned here. Wow guys I really wanted to make this chicken , did anyone record episode , if so please post.

Haven't tried it, but this isn't her recipe. On the show, she says she uses Corn oil and butter for frying.

I watched the episode and there is NO WAY this is the recipe. Salt and pepper in flour? Gee, whodathunkit? Give me a break! Both Hattie and Bobby introduced their chicken as Buttermilk Chicken. The recipe given here looks like a beginners recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook I started out with in the 70s.

Over 40 years ago I came to the Capital District to attend College. I was taken to Hattie's way back then and met Hattie. I have been going to Hattie's ever since, and still love the chicken. I want to share a conversation I had with Hattie about her fabulous fried chicken. She said then, and Jasper appears to reconfirm, that the secret is salt -- plain and simple. There may be an extra, secret ingredient [the suggestions of onion and garlic powder make sense to me -- the idea of cilantro, not so much]. But the key, as Hattie said, and I continue to believe, is the salt. Another source that I stand by as terrific fried chicken was DoubleCrisp, which used to be in Bennington, Vermont -- first sold out of a roadside stand , and then they opened their own store. Unfortunately, they are no more. Their key was to cook the chicken twice in the oil, and I also believe they used a pressure cooker. BTW, I missed the show which aired the Throwdown with Hatties, but do hope to see it in a reairing. I learned about the show from my cousin, who visited with us this past year and we took them to Hatties. She caught the show and knew I'd want to see it. To the person from Kentucky, I've traveled extensively in the South and have purposely sought out some good, Southern fried chicken. So far, Hattie's beats them all.

Dear Fellow Food and Flay Lovers,
This is definately not Hattie's Fried Chicken recipe. The best fried chicken we mortals can make at home is Alton's recipe. I went to Hattie's while on vacation this fall. I never thought chicken could be an out of body experience, BUT IT WAS! Shame on Food Network for not being honest. If I had a recipe as special as Hattie's Chicken I wouldn't share it either. In situations like this only Bobby's should be listed. GO TO HATTIES it is worth the trip! Leave it to Bobby to find "THE BEST" and be brave enough to go against them.

If you want to make really good fried chicken make Alton Browns. This recipe is a joke! I want my chicken to be juicy and have a lot of flavor. This chicken will have neither.

I'm surprised that they put this fried chicken recipe on the site, but I'm NOT surprised by the rating it's received thus far. I wouldn't doubt it's good, but the chef CLEARLY STATED on the show that he couldn't share the entire recipe because it's a secret family recipe & all he said was that there was salt & pepper in it.
Poor choice on F.N's part to include it here; they gave an undoubtedly good food a bad rap by including it thereby allowing people to review it when they haven't watched the particular episode & get the whole story.

I agree that this is not Hattie's recipe. First, the chef at Hatties said there were ingreidients that included salt and pepper, but that there was a secret ingredient as well. When you look at the recipe and then at the chicken, it is clear that the pepper is not fresh ground black pepper, since there is no black anywhere in that fried chicken. I am thinking it is white pepper instead. Also, there is something green, we are guessing fresh Cilantro. We are trying the recipe tonight and we are adding Bisquick to the flour 1/3 to 1 cup of flour and adding fresh minced cilantro to the chicken with white pepper and salt. We will let you know how it turns out.

BTW, Bobby Flay's recipe looked good, but if it was true Southern Fried Chicken, why add the honey/pepper glaze? Honey does belong with this dish, but on the biscuits, not on the chicken. My opinion.

I think the recipes shown on this site are Bobby's recipe's that HE used on the throwdown NOT the recipe of the person he challenged. When I looked up Red Velvet cake I noticed that it only called for one teaspoon of red food coloring. Bobby stated that he only used a little whereas The Cake Raven used a 1 oz bottle.

I grew up in the South and went to college in Saratoga Springs, and Hattie's fried chicken is some of the absolute best I've ever had, but I have a hard time believing that this is really the recipe they use.

There is no way THIS recipe beat Bobby's. I just saw the Throwdown episode and there were several differences that Jasper made that is not included in the recipe. I don't have to waste the time and money on this recipe to know it would come out bland and burnt.

He didn't even give the whole recipe. This chicken looks very bland and boring and not truly southern. I hate ordering fried chicken in a restaurant because they all flash fry it in a deep fryer. I liked Bobby's recipe better, it's closer to mine (I'm from Kentucky. Though I don't like mine double dipped like Bobby did, too bready. Why did he go to NY for fried chicken??? What a joke!!!

This recipe reminds me of the good 'ole southern fried chicken my aunt used to make. Now that was fried chicken!!!!!

In the 'Throw Down' program, Jasper stated his recipe has salt and pepper but he won't reveal ALL of his recipe, it's a secret. Well I still think he left out an ingredient or two in the recipe found here. I find this recipe to be bland at best. Crispy chicken, but lacking in flavor. You can add flavor without adding seasoning that makes it spicey. Like cayenne. My family loves it with onion powder and garlic powder also. Gives it some taste and some ZING!
Best of luck with your's!

I added garlic powder and I was eight years old again. Crisco works well. I'm 58 and there's is nothing like getting back to what you know.