Vinegar Hill Farm's Barham Fried Chicken and Creamy Milk Gravy

September 27, 2021 • 0 comments

Recipe courtesy of Chef Cynthia Hetrick of Vinegar Hill Farm, Cameron, Missouri Chef Cynthia joined the Air Force in the late ‘80s and became an chef, learning the fundamentals of commercial cooking. She retired and continues in the Air Force Reserves while her husband flew C-130s for the Air National Guard. While both were still working, they bought a farm in Northwest Missouri with a history known as Vinegar Hill near Wallace State Park. Plans are now underway to open a country store catering to state park campers, visitors and locals offering Barham Family Farm meats and products to their patrons.

Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Servings: 4

Ingredients

Whole Chicken, Cut-up

Directions

1 (3- to 3.5-pound) Barham Family Farm cut-up chicken

Marinade:

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon salt

May add a few dashes of hot sauce for extra spicy

Breading:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper or paprika or both for spicy (optional)

Vegetable or peanut oil

Gravy:

2 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 quart whole or 2% milk, more to thin out as needed (may use half-and -half for extra rich and creamy gravy

Salt and black pepper, to taste

1. Rinse and pat chicken pieces dry with paper towel.

2. In a bowl, combine buttermilk, salt and hot sauce, if desired. Pour over chicken pieces. Let chicken soak in buttermilk mixture for 1 hour in the refrigerator. (Already tender young chicken doesn’t need to marinate long.)

3. Combine flour, salt, black pepper and 1/4 each cayenne and/or paprika, if desired. Dredge chicken pieces throughly and shake off excess. Let pieces rest for 20 minutes before frying.

4. Add the oil to the halfway mark on an electric frying pan or a cast iron skillet and heat over medium heat. When the temperature reaches 375 degrees F. on a meat thermometer, add the chicken pieces skin side down. Fry 15 or 20 minutes, until golden brown. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F., turn the chicken over with tongs, put lid on the skillet to steam and fry another 10-12 minutes. Remove lid and let chicken crisp up another 10 minutes, rotating chicken as needed with tongs. Insert thermometer to bone of chicken and make sure chicken registers an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. to be fully cooked.

5. Drain fried chicken on a sheet pan with rack or on paper towels.

6. Drain oil from pan leaving around 3-4 tablespoons oil and the crispy drippings.

7. To the drippings, add flour. Whisk in flour into the drippings scraping up all the tasty little bits that stick to the bottom while on medium heat to make a roux. Cook and continue to whisk roux until a light brown color, about 2-3 minutes. Don’t burn. Add 3-4 cups of milk, and whisk completely on medium heat until bubbly. Season to taste. Serve immediately.

by Jill Wendholt Silva