Virginia Fried Chicken - Grandparents.com

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Molly O'Neill is our Food Editor. She is the former food columnist for The New York Times Magazine. O'Neill is the author of three cookbooks, including the best-selling New York Cookbook (Workman Publishing, 1992), A Well Seasoned Appetite (Penguin, 1997), and The Pleasure of Your Company (Viking, 1997). She was the host of the PBS series Great Food, and edited the critically acclaimed anthology American Food Writing (Library of America, 2007). Her latest work, Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball (Scribner, 2006), recounts her childhood of growing up in a Major-League baseball family.

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by Molly O'Neill

Families across the country gather around Southern-style fried chicken. The recipe is adapted from Edna Lewis.

Preparation time: 20 minutes, plus an hour for resting

Cooking time: about 50 minutes

1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 2 1/4- to 2 1/2-pound chickens, cut into 8 pieces each
1/2 cup lard at room temperature
1/2 cup butter at room temperature

1. In a wide, flat dish, combine flours, salt and pepper and mix well. Roll chicken in the mixture and put on a tray lined with wax paper. Let rest an hour, so flour will adhere to chicken.

2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, warm lard until nearly smoking and add butter. When butter is melted, add the chicken. The cooking fat should come halfway up the sides of the chicken, so that when the pieces are turned, they brown evenly. Each side should take 10 to 12 minutes. After cooking, drain on a paper towel and serve.

Serves 6.