ROUSES.COM
45
MARDI GRAS IN SOUTH
MISSISSIPPI
Biloxi's first Mardi Gras parade rolled
in 1908 with 17 floats, 150 flambeau
carriers, the new 12-piece Herald
Newspaper Band, a grand marshal, the
mayor and the councilmen. Today there
are parades all over South Mississippi.
The Elk’s parade in Ocean Springs is
traditionally Mississippi's first major
parade of the season, followed by more
than two-dozen parades, which hit the
streets from Diamondhead to D’Iberville
over the course of nearly three weeks.
Miss Lori’s Fried Chicken
by
Tim, Rouses Marketing Director +
photo by
Frank Aymami
I
had a few friends coming over after a
Mardi Gras parade last year, and my wife
and decided to fry chicken at home. Mardi
Gras tastes like chicken. I had the black
iron skillet, but I needed a recipe, or at least
some direction, so I called Miss Lori.
Miss Lori has been with Rouses for 15
years and teaches everyone at Rouses how
to fry. “When we cook at the store, we use a
specially seasoned flour (It’s Mr. Anthony’s
original recipe), a wet-dry-wet-dry
technique, and a special blend of seasoned
oil,” she told me. “But don’t worry about
that, Tim. I’m going to teach you how the
way to cook fried chicken at home.”
We use fresh, never frozen chicken at the
store, so that’s what I got. Mine was in
pieces already, but Miss Lori knows how
to cut up a chicken as well as any butcher
I’ve met. “I was born knowing how to cook,
but I learned how to cut up chicken from
my Uncle Leroy.” That’s Leroy Theriot,
the head butcher at our very first store. He
worked directly for Mr. Rouse.
Before we got started, Miss Lori had me
get all of the ingredients together, and a big
black iron skillet. We seasoned the flour,
battered the chicken, and heated the oil,
which I tested with a bit of flour. Not two
minutes after the chicken hit the skillet a
customer stopped and said, “My nose drew
me over here,” he said. “That’s the right way
to make chicken when you’re cooking at the
house, in a cast iron skillet that’s been cured
with grease. That’s the way my grandma
made it until she was 103.”
Six minutes in we had perfectly browned
chicken thighs and legs. A minute and a
half later the breasts were draining on paper
towels. Not five minutes later we were eating.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
1 3-pound fryer cut into 8 pieces
Rouses Creole Seasoning
Rouses salt and pepper
1
cup buttermilk
2
cups all-purpose flour
Canola or Peanut oil for frying
HOW TO PREP
Heat oil in a large black iron skillet. Season the
chicken pieces with Creole Seasonings. In a
mixing bowl, add the flour and season with Creole
Seasonings, salt and pepper. Dip the chicken in
buttermilk, then dredge in the seasoned flour,
coating each side completely. When the oil is
bubbling hot, add the chicken and fry six and half
and minutes for wings, backs and legs and eight
minutes for breasts, turning as chicken browns.
Drain chicken on paper towels.
