By Bernice's Table reached forty people on Tuesday. Forty. I wrote it down: July twenty-third, 2019, forty people fed at Bernice's Table. I have been working toward this number since April and here it is, four months after opening, and there are forty people who came through the fellowship hall doors because they were hungry and there was food and the food was good and nobody asked them any questions. Forty. Bernice, if you are anywhere near this story, you should know: forty people sat down to your food this week. Forty people went home with full bellies on a Tuesday evening in July. That is your legacy operating in real time. That is your name on the door being honored.
I told Mama at the nursing home Saturday. She was having a middle day—not fully present, not fully absent, that uncertain middle-ground where she knows faces but not always names, where she follows the conversation with her eyes even when the words slip past her. I told her we had forty people at Bernice's Table and her eyes focused the way they sometimes do when something lands in a deeper place than the memory loss reaches. She said, "Good table." Not "good, baby" or "that's nice, Loretta"—just "good table." Two words. The full evaluation. I drove home in the July heat and felt something that was not grief and not quite joy but something in between—something that goes by the name gratitude if you're going to give it a name, gratitude for the mother who taught me everything and for the forty people who came to eat it and for the Tuesday evening in Birmingham that smelled like fried chicken and kept fifty years of a woman's work alive in the serving line.
That Tuesday evening in July smelled like fried chicken from the moment you turned onto the block, and I think that smell is a big part of why forty people walked through those doors—because fried chicken doesn’t ask anything of you, it just welcomes you. This spicy fried chicken is the closest I can come to what was in that serving line: a thick, seasoned crust, heat that builds slow, and the kind of tenderness underneath that tells you somebody cared about getting it right. When Mama said “good table,” this is the food I believe she was blessing.
Spicy Fried Chicken
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 3 lbs bone-in chicken pieces (thighs, drumsticks, and breasts)
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons hot sauce
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- Vegetable oil, for frying (about 4 cups)
Instructions
- Marinate. Whisk together the buttermilk and hot sauce in a large bowl. Add the chicken pieces, turning to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight for best results.
- Season the dredge. In a wide, shallow dish, whisk together the flour, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, black pepper, and salt until evenly combined.
- Dredge the chicken. Remove each piece of chicken from the buttermilk, letting the excess drip off. Dredge thoroughly in the seasoned flour, pressing firmly so the coating adheres. Set on a wire rack and let rest 10 minutes—this helps the crust set.
- Heat the oil. Pour vegetable oil into a large, heavy skillet or Dutch oven to a depth of about 1 1/2 inches. Heat over medium-high heat to 350°F. Use a thermometer for accuracy.
- Fry in batches. Working in batches to avoid crowding, carefully lower the chicken into the hot oil. Fry, turning once, until the crust is deep golden-brown and the internal temperature reaches 165°F—about 12–14 minutes for smaller pieces, 16–18 minutes for breasts. Maintain oil temperature between batches.
- Drain and rest. Transfer fried chicken to a clean wire rack set over a baking sheet. Do not stack pieces. Let rest 5 minutes before serving so the juices settle and the crust stays crisp.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 480 | Protein: 36g | Fat: 26g | Carbs: 22g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 620mg