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To Saute Chicken
Cut in pieces ready for serving, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and dredge with flour. Put one tablespoon fat in spider and let it get smoking hot. Lay chicken in carefully and cook a golden brown. When done remove chicken. Put a tablespoon flour into the spider, stir, add one cup cream or rich milk. When it thickens season and serve in gravy bowl or over chicken. Care must be used not to burn.
A plain pan-fried chicken with a cream gravy built in the same pan. The only real difficulty is that browning and cooking through are treated here as one step.
- SpiderA spider was a heavy cast-iron frying pan, originally footed for hearth use. Any 10- to 12-inch cast-iron or heavy stainless skillet does the job; the weight matters for even browning and for the gravy afterward.
- "When done"Browning alone will not cook bone-in pieces through. Brown on both sides over medium-high, then lower the heat, cover, and let the pieces finish for 20 to 30 minutes depending on size, until the thickest part of the thigh reads 165F.
- One tablespoon of fatThat is enough only in well-seasoned cast iron with skin-on pieces that will render their own fat. With skinless or boneless meat, use two or three tablespoons or the flour dredge will scorch before it colors.
- The gravy ratioOne tablespoon flour to one cup cream gives a thin pouring gravy. For something that coats, use two tablespoons, and let the flour cook in the fat half a minute before the liquid goes in.
- "Rich milk"At the time this was written, that meant unhomogenized whole milk with the cream still on it. Half-and-half is the closest modern stand-in; skim milk will taste thin and watery here.
- Not to burnThe warning is unspecific, but it most plausibly covers the flour and the drippings in the pan. If the drippings have gone past deep brown, wipe the pan and start the gravy with fresh fat, or the whole sauce will taste scorched.
- YieldThe recipe specifies neither bird size nor servings. A cut-up chicken of the usual 3 1/2 to 4 lb would serve about four, and the one cup of cream gives roughly a cup of gravy.