Potluck Video Explores The Depths Of Fried Chicken With 'Fried & True' Author Lee Schrager

If you think your Fried Chicken recipe is tried and true, the author of Fried & True will give you a lesson or two.

Lee Schrager, author of Fried & True, gathered a collection of Fried Chicken recipes from around the country. Ali Rosen of Potluck Video sits down with the fried chicken connoisseur to get the skinny on the classic dish.

"Everyone has their own fried chicken recipe and, more importantly.. is everyone has their own fried chicken story." Traveling in New Orleans, L.A. alone, he sampled eight different restaurants recipes and was astonished on how different each place plated up the comfort food.

Schrager goes on to say, "There is not one chicken that tastes the same. It doesn't matter, it can be the same chicken, the same flour, the seasonings changed, the oil that people fry in change. It's really amazing that for the simplest of foods to prepare, it can taste so different and really look so different."

A real standing issue Schrager has come across: To brine or not to brine. Brining is a simple cooking technique that simply means to soak the chicken in salted water. Think of it like a marinade, but the fried chicken expert says that it's not a necessary move to make in the kitchen. Simply buy a kosher chicken.

According to Schrager, the most important factor: the oil the chicken is fried in (lard, canola oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil, bacon fat). He does not favor any kind of side of any fried chicken technique debate, as he simply thinks the techniques he chooses depends on how much time he has.

To those who want to fry but cant stand the smell and grease in the air, Schrager says putting a pot of water boiling with some vanilla, nutmeg, or a stick of cinnamon while frying the chicken will eliminate the issue completely.

Sounds like the key to a winner of a chicken dinner.