Cooking In, Quick PostKerry Alaric Cheeseborobaked, casserole, cayenne, cheese, chicken, cider vinegar, collard greens, collards, cracklin, cracklins, crispy, deep-fried, flakes, flourless, fried, fried chicken, garlic, heavy cream, honey, juicy, mac and cheese, macaroni, naked, onion, pancetta, paprika, powder, red pepper, rosemary, scallion, scallions, skin, spicy, swiss, vinegarComment

Going "Commando"

Cooking In, Quick PostKerry Alaric Cheeseborobaked, casserole, cayenne, cheese, chicken, cider vinegar, collard greens, collards, cracklin, cracklins, crispy, deep-fried, flakes, flourless, fried, fried chicken, garlic, heavy cream, honey, juicy, mac and cheese, macaroni, naked, onion, pancetta, paprika, powder, red pepper, rosemary, scallion, scallions, skin, spicy, swiss, vinegarComment

"NAKED" FRIED CHICKEN DINNER | Flourless, Crispy-Skin Skillet-Fried Chicken Thighs | Collard Greens cooked with Honey and Hot Sauce | Penne and Swiss Casserole with Pancetta and Scallion

WE, FOR GENERATIONS, HAVE BEEN dredging our chicken parts in flour before frying. Often dredging twice, before and after an egg wash.

Why? Because we love that crispy skin exterior. Who doesn't?

Yet I've had a long-held suspicion that we've been prepping our chicken to fry in this manner to emulate the taste and feel of a good crispy-fried chicken skin. I don't know when or why we started this "cheat", but I don't think it's absolutely necessary. Don't we also love our "cracklins'" (nicely seasoned skins of not just chicken but pork—and even duck)? We don't dredge our pork skins in flour when we fry them, why do we always do it for chicken?

So I, for years, have made a habit of frying my chicken sometimes without flour at all. This dish's thighs—the best part of the chicken for any type of cooking—I brined in just salted water with dried rosemary, red pepper flakes, and some vinegar that would help the chicken's fat break down just a little more easily. I then drained them, patted them dry with paper towels, and dry-rubbed them with salt, black pepper, onion powder, smoked paprika, and a pinch of cayenne.

Once properly fried in a cast iron skillet until the skin was a crispy, sexy, golden brown, I drained on paper towels to sit for a couple of minutes. After cooling off just enough to hold with my finger tips, the chicken thighs first gave of great aroma, purely of the chicken and not of fried flour. As I take my first bite I can hear the crunch of my first bite through that crispy skin as it resonated through my whole mouth with every chew.

And with less "stuff" between the hot oil and the actual protein, the meat was able to cook through more, while remaining plenty moist as its clear, tasty juices seeped and squirted out at parts, drooling out the corners of my mouth and down my chin.

I served these with some "hot honey" collard greens (slow-cooked in water with honey, cider vinegar, minced garlic, and hot sauce—no pork) and "mac & cheese" (using penne rigate and swiss cheese casserole with scallions and pancetta (there's the pork!).

I know it is not in the pedestrian cook comfort zone to "go rogue" with such a long traditionally regarded and revered recipe. But I encourage all who cook to, every once in a while, strip even the most common dishes down to their bare essentials.

I promise you'll—more often than not—find it quite titillating.

"Naked" Fried Chicken Dinner

"Naked" Fried Chicken Dinner

"Macaroni" & Cheese

Bun Apple Tea!

KACNYC

"NAKED" FRIED CHICKEN DINNER | Flourless, Crispy-Skin Skillet-Fried Chicken Thighs | Collard Greens cooked with Honey and Hot Sauce | Penne and Swiss Casserole with Pancetta and Scallion