Southern Fried Chicken

Several chicken breasts, cut into pieces
Salt to taste, plus 2 tsp
Fresh ground pepper to taste, plus 1 tsp
2 cups buttermilk
1-2 Tbsp Tabasco sauce
6 cups canola oil
1 ½ cup flour
½ tsp paprika

Rinse chicken & pat dry. Season with salt & pepper. Place in a large dish, cover & refrigerate for 1-4 hours. In a large bowl, combine buttermilk and Tabasco sauce, pour over chicken, coating thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate over night.

Remove chicken from fridge 30 minutes prior to cooking. Place in a colander to drain excess buttermilk from chicken. Heat oil. Combine flour, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper & paprika. Coat chicken in flour mixture, shaking off excess. Fry in oil until cooked through.

For crispier chicken, dip in buttermilk, then flour mixture a second time before frying.
Delicious served with corn on the cob and biscuits.

** Just as a side note- I tend to change recipes to suit my needs... in this case, the original recipe called for using a whole chicken cut into pieces. I have a hard time with meat anyway- for the most part if I deal with it raw, I have a hard time eating it, so the thought up cutting up a whole chicken was too much for me! Instead I use chicken breasts and because I really like the breading, I cut them into small pieces so the "chicken to breading ratio" is higher! Also, I am not a fried chicken fan but my husband could and would live on KFC if allowed! I found this recipe in my Williams Sonoma catalog and decided to try it, and I absolutely love it! We've finally found fried chicken that we can both enjoy!