From My Kitchen

I’m always on the hunt for fun weekend food that I can make (rather than buy the fully processed version), and recently came across an article online that claimed to contain THE recipe for KFC, the actual special blend of herbs and spices that has been kept under lock and key forever. I couldn’t actually find all the ingredients, didn’t want to get messy with a batter, and didn’t want to deep fry anything, so instead I marinated the chicken briefly in the spice mix below and flung it in the oven. The result was not too shabby at all – although I’ve reduced the salt quantity by LOTS before making it again, and that’s the recipe below. This spice mix makes enough for 2 whole chickens, so I’d advise saving half in a jar and keeping it with your spice collection. It also works well on chicken flung onto the BBQ – there’s a photo of a rather good salad at the bottom of the page.

Ingredients

1 large chicken, cut into portions

or whatever skin on chicken pieces you like

Vegetable oil to liberally rub into chicken

Spice mix:

1.5 tsp free flowing salt

1.5 tsp ground white pepper

1.5 tsp dried thyme

1.5 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

4 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tbsp celery salt

1 tbsp garlic powder

Method

1. Pop all of the spice ingredients into a bowl or jar, and mix together well.
2. Either take your skin on chicken pieces out of their packaging and fling them into roasting trays (you want plenty of space around the pieces), or remove the breasts from your chicken, take off the wings, remove the drumsticks and thighs, and again put them into roasting trays.
3. Shake your spice mix out over the chicken pieces, then use your hands to rub the spice mix all over every piece.
4. Drizzle liberally with oil and rub all over once more, then cover with a tea towel and set aside while your oven heats up (or pop into the fridge if its a warm day).
5. Heat oven to 190C fan.
6. Roast the chicken pieces in the oven for 40 minutes, by which time they should all be cooked through.
7. Serve with chips, jackets, coleslaw, salad, sweetcorn, whatever, just don’t forget napkins for your fingers!