04 Apr 2026 The best meal I ever made

By Kat Robinson

It was the summer of 2020, about three and a half months into the pandemic. Before it began, I had been on the road constantly for more than two years straight, chronicling restaurants and writing books about eateries all over Arkansas. 

When restaurants closed and pandemic restrictions began, I went from driving 

3,000 miles a month to spending hours in my mom’s kitchen making food. 

Every morning, I would get my daughter, Hunter, up for online school, make breakfast for us and dive into cookbooks. We’d have a light lunch around noon, and I’d begin making whatever creation I had decided on for that night. At six each evening, my partner, Grav, would come over from working in his woodshop, and we would sit down with my mom and Hunter and eat dinner together.

At first, dinners were created from recipes in old cookbooks that I wanted to try. It segued into family recipes I wanted to record, then became attempts to create better versions of those dishes.

Fried chicken wasn’t something I often made as an adult. I grew up in the age of “it’s Shake N’ Bake, and I helped!” I watched my grandmother fry chicken, utilizing the grease kept in the back of the oven in a cast-iron skillet, a choice that added other flavors I’ll never be able to duplicate. But I liked fried chicken. I had taken courses on how to make it and had picked the brains of numerous chefs on how to make it better. I experimented when I had the chance, learned my preferences for flavor and which parts I liked best (I’m a thigh girl), and took notes on how each batch came out.

And one night in July 2020, I got it just right. Here I was with all the time in the world, isolating with my family and playing around in a tiny kitchen. I had ordered chicken thighs from the grocery pickup and finally got them. I had plain yogurt and dill pickles, and I was ready to go. Through a combination of marinating, dipping, frying and baking, I created that night what was, and still is, the best plate of fried chicken I have ever had in my life. I served it with chicken-fried green tomatoes, chow chow, black-eyed pea salad, Esau sweet corn, and homemade mashed potatoes with chicken gravy I’d made from the grease. I shared it with my family, and that night I ruined myself for most fried chicken. 

Kat Robinson’s Crispy Fried Chicken

1 pint buttermilk OR plain yogurt

1 pint dill pickle juice

2 Tbsp. pepper sauce, divided 

(I prefer Crystal pepper sauce with the blue label)

4-5 pounds skin-on chicken thighs

 (you may take the skin off, but leave the bone in)

2 cups of large breadcrumbs 

(made from freshly toasted bread)

4 cups flour, divided

2 Tbsp. paprika, divided

2 Tbsp. dried parsley, divided

2 Tbsp. garlic powder, divided

2 tsp. salt, divided

2 tsp. black pepper, divided

6 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

Zip-top gallon-size bags

Cast-iron skillet

2 sets of tongs

Metal rack 

(for draining chicken after frying)

Roasting pan with rack

A meat thermometer

The day before you fry, blend the buttermilk, or yogurt, with the pickle juice and a tablespoon of hot pepper sauce. Put chicken in gallon-sized zip-top bags (you may need two) and pour in the mix. Smush out the air and massage the marinade into the chicken. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, place a colander in a bowl. Empty the zip-top bags into the colander and let the chicken drain and lightly air-dry while you set up your frying station. Shake one teaspoon each of salt and pepper together and dust the chicken. 

Divide the paprika, parsley and garlic powder evenly between two gallon-sized zip-top bags. In one, add three cups of flour. In the other, add the other cup of flour, the breadcrumbs, and the remaining salt and pepper. Beat the eggs together with the remaining pepper sauce. 

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat a cast-iron skillet with about an inch and a half of vegetable oil to between 375 and 400 degrees F. 

For each piece of chicken, do the following in order:Drop into the flour bag, seal and shake. Remove with tongs and dip both sides into the egg wash. Drop into the breadcrumb bag, seal and shake. Immediately use a second set of tongs to place the chicken in the hot oil. Repeat until the pan is full. Brown each side until it’s almost the golden color that you want. Remove from oil to metal rack to drain.

When all of the chicken thighs are fried, place on a rack inside a roasting pan and place in the oven. Allow to cook for 35-45 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 155 degrees. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 minutes before serving. The resting time allows the chicken to reach an internal temperature of around 165 degrees before eating.