From Soul Food · 1997 · Reconstructed
Big Mama's Fried Chicken
Serve when
Serve it at Sunday dinner, center of the table — the forty-year tradition the whole movie fights to keep alive.
In the movie
Theatrical
- 00:12:26 Big Mama Joe's Sunday dinners: golden fried chicken anchors the spread that has gathered the family every week for forty years — the table the film opens on and the tradition Ahmad narrates from.
Sunday dinner is the family's constitution, and the fried chicken is its first article. When Big Mama's health fails, the question of who keeps cooking becomes the question of whether the family survives — the film's entire drama is staged around this platter.
Ingredients
Method
- Soak the chicken in the seasoned buttermilk at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
- Whisk the flour with all the seasonings.
- Dredge each piece hard — press the flour on, let it sit 10 minutes so the crust sets.
- Fry in 325°F oil, dark meat first, turning, 12–15 minutes to deep mahogany and 165°F inside. Don't crowd the pan; Sunday dinner is patient.
- Drain on a rack, never paper. Serve with everything else on this page.