I love to entertain at my house. There’s nothing I enjoy more than cooking for a group of my friends and loved ones. Well Friday night, I was hosting a going away party for our family friends who are being transferred to D.C. Unfortunately, this was kind of a last minute shindig, so I didn’t have an accurate count of how many people would be coming. I didn’t know if it would be 50 people or 100 people.
So having NO idea who was coming, I set off to the store to buy the makings for fried chicken. (Yep, I said fried chicken! I agreed to make this dish before my small get-together became an all out rave! Well almost!) So in order to have enough chicken for all the potential people coming, I planned on buying 50 pounds of chicken. Unfortunately, I missed counted and accidentally bought 70 pounds instead!
I ended up only preparing 40 pounds of that seemingly endless supply of poultry. I had 2 deep fryers and 1 pot of oil going at once, and about 2 and half hours later, I had successfully fried 40 pounds of chicken. I cheated a little. I used Ina Garten’s oven-fried chicken recipe, where you flash fry for about 3 minutes first and then finish in the oven. (I’m going to post the recipe, so you can try it if you like.)
My husband attempted a head count in the middle of the festivities. He gave up around 70! I have a pretty large house, but 70+ people sure made it feel small. In the end, it was a great party and a perfect sending off for our dear Kurt and Candy. And even though I was on my feet for over 13 hours that day, I would do it again in a heart beat. Because that’s what good food is about, bringing people together to celebrate every milestone in our lives.
