Plan B

One night last week my plan for dinner was a dish in my old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook called Chicken Supreme.  It's a baked chicken dish that has great flavor but takes time to bake.  After working at the church all afternoon, I got home at 5:00 and decided that I didn't want to wait until about 6:30 to eat.  Now the question was, what to fix with the bone-in chicken breasts I had thawed out.  There across the page from the Chicken Supreme recipe was a beautiful picture of fried chicken.  These days I try to stay away from fried foods, but I decided it would be a nice treat for a cold winter evening.  Okay--so fried chicken--Plan B! 

What goes best with fried chicken?  Mashed potatoes, milk gravy, peas and golden cornbread.  I turned my oven on "broil" (or so I thought!) and inserted my cast iron cornbread muffin tins and began to assemble the rest of the meal.  I cut the breasts in half, started heating my oil for frying, double coated the chicken (first in seasoned flour, then in for a swim in milk and egg, then for a second coating of the flour), and got it into the hot grease.  I made my cornbread batter, peeled and diced potatoes and got them on the stove.  I put my peas in a dish and seasoned them with dried onion flakes and got them ready for the microwave.  After turning the chicken to allow the second side to brown, I decided it was time to put the cornbread in.  I donned my oven mitt to take out my sizzling hot tins...only I realized when I opened the oven door that it was not sizzling--in fact, it wasn't even warm.  Instead of hitting "broil" then "on" I hit "broil" and "off" which I have done several times recently!

Plan B:  Make fried corn bread!  Now, if you aren't from the South, you may not be familiar with fried corn bread.  As Paul Deen says, "In the South, we fry everything."  I had never had this version of cornbread until I got married.  My mother-in-law, whom I have referred to before, was a wonderful cook, as was her mother.  Katherine made fried cornbread for particular meals--fried cube steak and chipped beef and gravy.  I became a fan.

So Plan B seemed like a good fit for tonight's meal.  The best part of fried corn bread is that it is quick.  Using the same batter for corn muffins or sticks, you heat a skillet or griddle and make pancake-like rounds and cook them until they are golden brown.  Keep them warm in the oven (hit "bake" then "on!") while you make a stack.

You can eat these cakes with butter like you would a normal piece of cornbread or you can layer your mashed potatoes and gravy on top, my particular favorite.  Either way, they are a tasty, quick cornbread addition to any meal.

In summary, it's always good to have a Plan B!  I hope you'll give mine a try.

Click here for a printable version of the recipe.