An American Feast with Tom Kerridge’s Crispy Chicken

So a pair of pumpkins inspired this American feast. They inspired me to cook, so once I’d decided on the pumpkin pie, an American feast seemed like the logical conclusion. I invited over friends and started looking through my cook books and magazines for recipe inspiration. First stop was Tom Kerridge’s  new book Proper Food…

Tom Kerridge’s Proper Pub Food

His series is on BBC2 at the moment (Monday nights, 8.30pm) and I’ve loved all the episodes so far – especially the look of his chicken in a basket. Element one of American feast confirmed – Tom Kerridge’s Crispy Fried Chicken. The chicken pieces are supposed to be brined a day in advance but I didn’t have a day, so skipped that step. Straight into the buttermilk they went. And after as long as possible (about 4 hours) out they came…

Buttermilked Chicken

Then in they went into a not so secret blend of herbs and spices…

Coating the Chicken

The recipe called for shallow frying, but my deep fryer doesn’t get a lot of action, so I crisped them up in there; in batches for 5/6 minutes a time.

Frying the Chicken

The crisped up chicken laid in wait, ready to be finished off in the oven ready for when my guests arrived.

Fried Chicken!

Gorgeous golden crispy chicken, piled high, American stylee!

Pile of Fried Chicken

I wanted something reasonably cheap to go with the chicken, so picked up some boneless pork shoulder in two joints. I used a mixture of these  pulled pork rub recipes ; the resulting sugar and spice mix was rubbed onto the pork then left to wait for a few hours. It then cooked long and slow in a casserole dish, lid on in the oven, for 3.5 hours until it was literally pulling apart.

I made some of BBC Good Food’s BBQ sauce , which is supposed to go on ribs, but is so easy to make and delicious it’s become my go to BBQ sauce recipe – and a clear winner with my boyfriend! I poured some sauce over the pulled pork, and the rest in a little jug. I served this with a selection of soft rolls and home-made coleslaw, and put some classic American tunes on too.

American Feast!

Digging in!

What would your ultimate American Feast include?