Fried chicken two ways

I promise you I don't deep-fry every week, but in the last month or so we have had two very different but delicious meals featuring fried chicken.

There was a big chunk of Stilton leftover from Christmas, and I had Mark Hix's Stilton croquette recipe but it wasn't quite enough for dinner for two people (don't look at the number he says they make, just take my word for it please!). Staring into the depths of the fridge I spied a couple of chicken breast fillets, so I decided to fry them too. I halved the amount of potato in the Stilton croquettes, which I think was the right thing - the Stilton flavour was still fairly subtle. I also added some chopped apple to the celery and walnut mayonnaise to make a classic Waldorf salad. For the chicken, I cut it into chunks, dunked it into seasoned egg white and dredged it in cornflour before frying it (which has set up a craving for old-school lemon chicken that I still haven't satisfied).

Stilton croquettes, fried chicken breast and Waldorf salad

The next fried chicken was a very different proposition. I had a whole chicken but I didn't want to roast it. I watched Paul Merrett do it a couple of times, took a deep breath and dived in. It worked very well, although I got the giggles at one point when it all got a bit gynaecological.

I soaked the chicken pieces in garlicky buttermilk for a couple of hours, then dredged it in paprika-spiked flour and cooked it according to Laurie Colwin's method. Then in the all-important resting phase for the chicken, I made some light, fluffy corn fritters and a little tomato salad.

Corn fritters

2 egg whites (divided use)
1 cup corn kernels (I used thawed frozen ones)
1/4 cup polenta
1 spring onion, finely sliced
salt & pepper

Mix the corn, polenta, spring onion and seasoning with one of the eggwhites to a thick, lumpy paste. Whisk the other eggwhite until soft peaks form and fold into the corn mixture in two batches. Fry in hot oil on both sides until puffed up and golden.
 

Fried chicken, corn fritters and tomato salad