Stormy Last Monday Of January Butchering Chicken With Kentucky Fried Chicken's Original Recipe's Secret 11 Herbs & Spices

This is the final Magic Monday of the 1st month of 2013. Magic Monday is my favorite day of the week, my fun day, my I don't go anywhere and run day.

I may go somewhere and hike though, if the stormy looking clouds don't burst.

As you can see, via the view from my pool overlook patio, the stormy looking clouds look like they should already be dropping water.

We are breaking temperature records, heat-wise, in North Texas. I have my windows open again. 67 degrees, currently.

Changing the subject from my favorite one to butchering chickens.

When I was last in Tacoma, summer of 2008, I was instructed to instruct my sister-in-law as to how to cut up a whole chicken. We'd come into possession of two large free range organic chickens that needed to be sliced up.

As I recollect, the instruction session went well, with me cutting up the first chicken and then my student cutting up the second one under my close guidance.

So, this morning I cut up a chicken. I had not done this in awhile. But that is no explanation for how badly I butchered the bird. Some how I got a big chunk of breast on the back. One of the thighs also did not fare well.

I stood there looking at this badly mangled chicken wondering why the butchering had gone so badly, as opposed to the nicely chopped Tacoma chickens.

And then I realized the problem. My sister-in-law had really good knives. Very sharp. I am a bit of a hazard with knives. So, I like my knives to be a bit dull. I think when cutting up a chicken a dull knife turns the process into more of a risky hazard than having a really sharp knife.

Lately I've been having myself a craving for Kentucky Fried Chicken. I Googled to see if I could find the Colonel's 11 Secret Herbs and Spices.

Well, some guy reverse engineered the "Secret Recipe". His version shows up on multiple websites. However, just looking at it it seemed wrong to me, as in each ingredient was 1 teaspoon, with the guy not saying how much flour was to be used.

Then I found a forum where all these knowledgeable foodies were debating this serious issue.

Turns out the guy reverse engineered what went into making a piece of Extra Crispy taste like it does, not the Original Recipe.

Then someone who seemed to be quite knowledgeable detailed the history of the Colonel's Original Recipe and listed what this particular foodie believed to be the Original Recipe's 11 Herbs & Spices....

1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp sage
3/8 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp coriander seed
1/4 tsp summer savory
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp bay leaf
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp green cardamom
1/8 tsp cloves

2 teaspoons of salt is also added to the 1 cup of flour one rolls the chicken pieces in. I guess salt is not considered an herb or spice.

Of the Secret Recipe ingredients I only had black pepper, salt, ginger and cayenne pepper.

I am oven frying my chicken, not deep frying. I suspect my chicken will not be even remotely as tasty as KFC's.

KFC KGC For Free

I do not know what I did that causes me to get an email once a week from The Colonel. I don't remember the last time I had Kentucky Fried Chicken.

In Cedar Hills, that's a town on the southern border of Dallas, there is a Kentucky Fried Chicken Buffet. That is likely the last place I had Kentucky Fried Chicken.

There is a town in the middle of Wyoming, named Rawlins, that has a KFC Buffet. I'd stopped there several times. It was very well run. Til the last time, that being in July of 2001.

I was driving myself up to Washington for my mom and dad's 50th Anniversary party. The first night I stayed in Pueblo, Colorado. That morning, as I got back on the road, I thought I should be in the Rawlins, Wyoming KFC Buffet zone by 1 or 2. As I got to the Rawlins exit I saw the KFC Buffet freeway exit sign. As I neared the KFC I could see it was real busy, so was McDonald's, there was a line out the door of the Subway. All the fast food places were packed. This may have been the first time I'd been in Rawlins at the height of tourist season.

And during the height of tourist season the Rawlins KFC Buffet is shut down. I can't tell you how disappointed I was, well, actually, I can. I was very disappointed. And hungry. I ended up going in a grocery store to find something to tide me over til I got to Little America, this oasis in the middle of nowhere when you cross Wyoming on Interstate 80.

I just remembered, I've also come across 2 other KFC buffets, have been to one in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma at least twice and once to one in Hays, Kansas. The Hays, Kansas one was nice and big, as in 2 stories with a stairway to the upper eating area.

So, back to the email I got today from The Colonel. It informed me that this coming Monday, that being April 27, KFC is giving out free samples of its new Kentucky Grilled Chicken. I've already read reviews of the new grilled version which were quite positive. I'd walk a mile for a free piece of chicken in these troubled economic times. Fortunately, for me, I have a Kentucky Fried/Grilled Chicken right across the street from me.

United States #1 Status in Danger

Unless Americans start eating more the United States is in danger of losing its status of being the Fattest Nation on the planet. Mexico is rapidly gaining on us and is currently the #2 Fattest Nation. At its current rate of growth Mexico is on track to surpass the U.S. as the World's Fattest Nation within 10 years, according to Mexican Health Officials.

Less than 29 percent of Mexican women are not overweight. Approximately 34 percent of Mexican men are not overweight. In other words more than 71 percent of Mexican women and 66 percent of Mexican men are Fat.

Mexico's weight gain has been quite rapid. As recently as 1989 less than 10 percent of Mexican adults were Fat. Since 1989 Mexico has seen a big increase in the number of American fast food joints like McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken, along with modern grocery stores stocked with modern American food.

Speaking of Kentucky Fried Chicken, relating to the obesity epidemic, KFC announced yesterday that their American restaurants would soon be sporting new neon signs saying "Kentucky Grilled Chicken." I don't know if the KGC will have that special taste that KFC has. It will be lower in fat, salt and calories. KFC/KGC will also be adding some healthy side dishes to go along with the mashed spuds and gravy and macaroni and cheese.

I don't know if this Kentucky Grilled Chicken idea appeals to me. I mean, if I want healthy chicken it is real easy to just roast a chicken myself. Every few years I'm in the mood for Kentucky Fried Chicken, original recipe, and that's what I get. Then after a few bites I remember why I only have it every few years.

Here in the South we have KFC Buffets. You can really overload on Kentucky Fried Chicken at a KFC Buffet. Along with way too many biscuits. There are good reasons why Texas is the Fattest State in the Fattest Country in the world.

Random Babbling

I'm in the mood for some therapeutic venting via clacking away at my keyboard. I've no idea why I'm in need of this therapy, maybe it's because it is just sort of relaxing to type without putting a lot of thinking into it. My basic mindset for writing this blog stuff is that I'm sending an email to an imaginary friend who never talks back. I guess some talk back could occur via the 'comment' option, but so far I've been blessedly free of any comments via that venue, though I have had an email or two due to the cross pollination between this blog and my Eyes on Texas website with people using that website's feedback@ email address. I've changed the settings on the blog's comment thing to allow anyone to comment without needing to set up a Google account.

Speaking of imaginary friends, Lulu was in high form today. She called me this morning and our phones did that bloop bloop thing I complained about in an earlier blog. The calls got dropped 5 or 6 times. Then an hour ago or so I got an urgent email from Lulu saying only "d-i can't figure out how to do this." What she could not figure out I had no idea. She had attached 18 images, each only slightly different from the previous. So, I called Lulu to ask what she was trying to figure out. She couldn't remember how she added a logo image to her blog. She wanted to change it. So, I changed it for her. It's that picture you see here of Little Lulu balancing on a stick. I don't know what it means or why she is speaking French. Lulu does not speak French. She does claim to be of French ancestry as a way, I think, of explaining her excessive butter consumption. Now, Lulu has had her blog since last month and she has managed to do 2 posts. She seems to spend the majority of her blog time fussing over that one image and her blue color scheme which she claims is very trendy right now in Tacoma. Likely trendy because they have had so many days of gray that they forget what blue sky looks like. (Update: As of today, January 11, 2008, it appears Lulu has now removed the Little Lulu Logo. We do not know if this means yet one more version of the Little Lulu Logo is forthcoming or what. We can report that Lulu still has not added a new post. And it remains overcast in Tacoma.)

I got up real early today. It feels real productive to get up real early. But then I end up being real tired real early, so I don't know if it doesn't end up being counter productive in the end. While I was feeling full of energy and still firing on all cylinders I added this cool Live Traffic Feed widget thing to my Eyes on Texas website and the blogs. This thing tells you who is on the website or blog and where they came from, like right now I'm looking at the Live Traffic Feed for this very blog and I see there is someone from Los Angeles, Cleveland, Seattle, Tonasket (WA) and Bedford (TX) on the blog. The Traffic Feed for the Eyes on Texas website has a lot of action. I knew it gets a lot of visitors from looking at the webstats, but I've never had info as to where people were coming from and which page they were looking at, like right now I refreshed the Eyes on Texas home page and there are people from Nashville, Memphis, Utica, NY, Murrysville, PA, Durham, CA, Richmond, VA and several locations in Texas looking at Downtown Fort Worth, the Rattlesnake Roundup, the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal and others. What use this info is to me is currently a mystery, as is how this info is gleaned.

I cooked a chicken this morning. Before I shoved it in the oven I had the brilliant idea of Googling to see if I could find the secret 11 spices that make KFC's original recipe taste so finger licking good. I don't know how accurate the info was but I had several of the secret spices. Now the real method involved mixing the spices with flour, dipping the chicken pieces in egg then flour then deep fry it. Well, I don't know how to deep fry anything, all I do is pull off the skin and stick the bird in the oven til it is good and done. So, I sprinkled what I had of the 11 secret spices---paprika, garlic salt, oregano, sage, rosemary, salt, pepper and ginger. I did not have thyme, parsley or onion salt. What I can tell you is my chicken, when finished, bore absolutely no resemblance to anything that ever came from Kentucky Fried Chicken. It may not have been finger licking good, but it was good for you with way less fat than the colonel's chicken.