Munchie Monday: Cast Iron Fried Chicken and Gravy

Hey y'all! I'm terribly sorry for missing the past few Mondays and also for today's article being so late. However, once you try this recipe you won't be able to help forgiving me! By the way, this is definitely better than engagement chicken.

Backstory:
J made me promise not to talk about wedding stuff for the entire month of September (woo hoo! it is October now!) because he needed some time to adjust. I was not very good at following his rule, but I think I did better than he expected. Anyway, after he ate my cast iron fried chicken and gravy he was so blown away that he said I could talk about wedding stuff for two hours. Now the effects don't seem to be too long lasting, he only lasted for about an hour and fifteen minutes of wedding talk before offering to give me another hour the next night as a trade for changing the topic.

Ingredients

• Skinless, boneless chicken - I used thighs
• Some flour
• Black pepper, salt, cayenne pepper
• Cream - I only had heavy cream, so I watered it down a bit, you can also use milk
• Water
• Butter - a few tablespoons
• Olive oil

Chicken Instructions

1. Melt some butter with olive oil (prevents burning) in your large cast iron on the stove while preheating the oven to 375
2. Mix flour, black pepper, salt and cayenne pepper - you want enough to coat all the chicken
3. Dip a piece of chicken in the cream, let the excess drip off and then roll the chicken around in the flour mixture until coated 
4. Repeat step 3 for all chicken bits
5. Make sure your butter is hot and then place the chicken flat into the cast iron
6. Flip chicken bits over when the bottom is a bit darker than golden
7. When chicken is a uniform color all around, place cast iron into the oven
8. Cook until done - this varies with how long you cooked on the stove top

Gravy Instructions

1. When chicken is fully cooked, remove it from oven and let sit for a few minutes
2. Transfer chicken onto a serving dish 
3. Put the cast iron back on the stove top and add some more butter
4. Now add the same mixture of flour, black pepper, salt and cayenne pepper to the hot fat in the cast iron
5. Add enough to dry up all the fat
6. Cook the flour-fat mixture until it no longer tastes like raw flour
7. Combine cream and water and add slowly to the cast iron and cook until it looks like the right consistency for gravy

My mother's ratio for gravy is about 2 tablespoons of fat to 2 tablespoons of flour to 1 cup of liquid. I never remember it and always end up calling her each time I want to make gravy. And yes, I had to call her for this article as well.