Pork Rind Chicken

Ok, so I rushed home tonight and made the pork rind encrusted chicken. It was actually pretty easy.

First, I poked a little hole in the bag of pork rinds. Then I used a mallet to beat the tar out of them until they were pulverized. Then, in a big bowl I mixed the rinds with some spice stuff out of the cabinet ( no salt stuff) and set it aside.
Next, I broke two eggs ( they were only large ones - might have only needed one had they been jumbo) in a bowl and added 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise. Mayonnaise makes everything better. Beat the eggs and mayo up really well until it looks like vanilla pudding.
For the sake of testing, I used boneless, skinless thighs because I didn't want to have to feed 7.00 worth of chicken breast meat to the dogs if it flopped.
Anyway, you dip the chicken in the egg mixture, then plop it in the pork rinds and roll it around, then drop into 350-360 degree oil in a deep skillet. I used a dutch oven. It gets brown pretty quickly, and in my case, I used HOT pork rinds which already had a little color.
When you think they are done, remove from oil and drain on paper towels.
Here they are after being "breaded."

For some reason the oil was way more bubbly than usual. Not sure about the chemistry of that.

It turned out looking like fried chicken, and I have to say that the taste was fair. I think there is definately room for improvement, but it was worth doing. Of course, there is no real substitute for skin on, bone in, big fat , Sunday dinner, Grandmaw fried chicken. It is one of those things that we sort of take for granted in the South because it is everywhere, but when you can't have it whenever you want anymore, it hurts your feelings really bad.

I think I'll save this idea for those times when I just HAVE to have some fried chicken and just stick with grilled or baked the rest of the time.

Hey, PW's roasted chicken legs are really good.....maybe we can have those tomorrow!