A couple of weeks ago on the Cooking for one Facebook group I administer, BP shared a post about Coles southern fried chicken pieces. In that post, BP and her family enjoyed a packet of chicken pieces. I’d seen them in the poultry display case at my local Coles and thought, at some stage I’m going to give them a go.
Dedicated to BP who I’ve known since our days at Sunday school in Brisbane. BP and her family now live as primary producers in regional Queensland.
I remember making southern fried chicken from scratch once in Darwin. It was a Nigella Lawson recipe. I even soured the milk for the overnight soaking of the chicken pieces. I remember using a lot of cooking fat. I remember the mess I made in the kitchen. I also remember how good the chicken tasted and how tasty and juicy it was. The effort and the mess though convinced me that making once was enough.
As a single bloke, I now cannot imagine making southern fried chicken from scratch again. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze. These days, I abhor the volume of cooking oil or fat needed to fry food (as much as I love eating fried food).
So in the Coles display case, there are Coles southern fried chicken pieces, burgers, and tenders. I didn’t think it was wise to buy a packet of chicken pieces, especially if I didn’t like them. I’m also not a chicken tenders bloke. I know a lot of people like chicken tenders but I prefer thigh meat and the burgers are thigh meat.
Give me nice thighs over breasts any day I say.
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Recipe
It’s important to read the recipe before cooking because the timing of processes needs to be understood.
Coles southern fried chicken with homemade coleslaw and kewpie mayonnaise
Coles southern fried chicken with homemade coleslaw and kewpie mayonnaise. A relatively quick and convenient meal.
- 1 piece Coles southern fried chicken thigh burger
- ½ Avocado
- ½ cup Red cabbage
- Red onion
- ½ cup Drumhead cabbage
- Carrot
- Parsley
- Mint
- 1 big squirt Kewpie mayonnaise
Coles southern fried chicken
- Heat an oven toaster or even a full oven to 200 °C (or 180 °C if the oven is fan-forced).
- Place a rack over a baking tray and lay a piece of the chicken thigh on the rack.
- Put the chicken in the oven for 30 minutes, turning the chicken over halfway through.
- If all goes well, the chicken will be golden in colour.
Avocado
- With a big sharp knife, bisect the avocado around its seed.
- For the cheek sans seed, insert the tip of your knife into the flesh and score the flesh of the avocado cheek deeply to create slices.
- With a spoon, scoop the slices out ready to lay on the dinner plate.
Coleslaw
- Slice the red cabbage and drumhead cabbage with the mandolin while wearing a safety glove.
- With a vegetable peeler, create thin slices of carrot.
- Slice the red onion with the mandolin while wearing a safety glove.
- Chop the parsley and mint with a sharp knife.
- Put the red and drumhead cabbage, carrot, red onion, parsley, and mint into a mixing bowl and mix through a large squirt of kewpie mayonnaise.
Plating up bit Option 1
- If you have a nice loaf of Italian bread, you could cut a couple of thick slices, lather one of each slice with lashings of butter and make a sandwich.
- Said sandwich can be made even better but smearing mayonnaise on the outer surfaces of the sandwich and grill it in a cast-iron skillet with some extra butter in the pan.
Plating up bit Option 2
- A more mundane and less carbohydrate endowed version is to just bung everything on a plate and eat it with a knife and fork.
Blogging bit
- Shoot a photograph.
- Eat the meal.
- Wash the dishes (hint, wash as you cook, it makes life easier).
- Write the recipe.
- Write the blog post.
- Hit publish and hope this blog post gets shared on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Disclaimer
I have no culinary training nor qualifications. This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner. The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste. I deliberately do not calculate the energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.
Photographs
This is a gallery of photographs. Click on one image and then scroll through the photographs. I’ve been told the gallery doesn’t always work on older versions of Windows Internet Explorer. I suggest Google Chrome or using a Mac.
Coles southern fried chicken thigh pieces 
Homemade coleslaw sans dressing 
Coles southern fried chicken on a rack on a baking tray 
Coles southern fried chicken on a rack on a baking tray 
Homemade coleslaw with a good dollop of Kewpie mayonnaise 
Homemade coleslaw with Kewpie mayonnaise mixed in 
Coles southern fried chicken with homemade coleslaw and sliced avocado 
Coles southern fried chicken with homemade coleslaw and sliced avocado 
Coles southern fried chicken with homemade coleslaw and sliced avocado 
Coles southern fried chicken with homemade coleslaw and sliced avocado
Questions and answers
How did the chicken taste? Was the muscle moist and tender? Was the skin crispy?
Good, yes, and yes!
I mean, it’s not like it tastes like KFC but the taste and mouthfeel was pretty good. I’m happy to recommend Coles southern fried chicken to anyone who likes chicken.
Why the boring mundane version?
As much as I love a grilled cheese sandwich made with thick slices of Italian bread, there is such a thing as too many carbs in one day 😉
Would you make fried chicken from scratch again?
Probably not. Unless I was making it for a few people and if that were to happen I’d need a bigger refrigerator and a proper kitchen.
What’s wrong with you? You often buy a 21-piece bucket from KFC.
Well, KFC, is a known quantity and I tend to eat those 21 pieces over a few days. I also incorporate the KFC meat into other dishes while I do things like peel the skin off and turn the skin into crispy treats in oven.
One of my better KFC meals was a KFC casserole.
Final thoughts
- Do you like southern fried chicken?
- Would you have had a southern fried chicken sandwich or the plate of chicken like I did?
- Would you try this southern fried chicken?
- Have you ever made southern fried chicken from scratch?
- Are you a fan of Nigella Lawson?
Sponsorship
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Beautifully done, Gaz. It looked an amazing meal. I love all kinds of fried chicken. I got some of the Coles southern fried chicken and looking forward to trying it this weekend. Kewpie mayonnaise is delicious but I did hear it has MSG. It’s that reason I have switched back to other kinds of mayonaise.
Thanks, Mabel. I didn’t realise that kewpie mayonnaise had MSG in it. No wonder it tastes good 😂
Oh yes, Kewpie mayonnaise tastes good. I tried the Coles southern fried chicken. Didn’t realise I picked up the tenders. It is actually really tasty.
I like the thigh pieces. I think they will form a regular part of my meal planning.
Looking forward to seeing more southern friend chicken recipes from you, Gaz.
yep i like chicken thighs too. breasts are so … dry. i hate frying food – i love eating it but i can’t stand frying so this looks interesting.
Thanks, Sherry. I was surprised that these thighs were okay for the price and the convenience. In a sandwich, with some coleslaw, it was pretty good.
My son makes it from scratch but does an oven cooked version rather than deep fried. He says the trick is to use lard.
Mmm… lard is so good. Chips in lard or beef dripping please.
I do love southern fried chicken and your dish looks like it turned out great! We don’t make fried foods too often, but they are such a treat when we do.
Yep, very much a treat food rather than an every day food.
Cooking fried chicken is a mess but it certainly is good. On the other hand, I think you have the right idea here, especially when cooking for just one of two people and your accompaniments look great.
Thank you very much, Karen 😃
Southern fried chicken is immense, but you’re right it’s such an effort and mess… And your home stinks of oil for hours afterwards. Your version looks much easier and more practical but I don’t know if our supermarkets have the equivalent of Coles southern fried chicken. I’m a fan of Nigella. I loved the Italian inspired cookbook she put out some years ago.
I ended up doing the sandwich version for lunch today while I was participating in a work teleconference https://yumlum.co/2ZGWiBt It was pretty good.
Fried chicken from scratch is a total labour of love agreed! I’ll only do it for guests and even then it’s a good 5 years in between batches.