Soul Food

As a young man, my dad worked with the State of Georgia Extension Service, where he learned to barbecue chickens by the hundreds. Over the years, he cooked thousands of chickens that were sold on the town square, at football games, or horse shows. He and his friends would build a huge pit with cement blocks and top them with specially made racks that could hold about 50 chicken halves each. To turn the chickens, another rack was placed on top, and two men, one on each end of the racks, would flip the entire rack at once! My mom has adapted Dad’s recipe to serve a family, not the whole town.

My biggest complaint about fried chicken is that all of the flavor ends up on the outside, and the meat is usually bland. Not my mama’s! The secret is in the prep. When you soak the chicken overnight in salt brine, the salt infuses into the meat and makes it so tasty! When I asked my mom how long to fry the chicken, she said, “Just cook it ’til it sounds right.” I have since fried enough chicken to completely understand this sentence, but at the time—you can imagine! As chicken begins to fry, it’s loud because of all the water cooking out into the fat. It gets quieter as it gets done. Who knew? Now you do!

I respect people who won’t share old family recipes, but when I find something good, I want everybody to be able to make it for themselves, and that’s how I feel about my daddy’s barbecue sauce. I truly believe Daddy could have bottled and sold this sauce, it was so popular! It’s a personal preference, but I like a thin, vinegar-based barbecue sauce instead of the thick, ketchup-based sauces.

Since moving to Oklahoma, I have noticed that a lot of the barbecue there is made with beef. I started making these Georgia pork ribs a couple of years ago for the Fourth of July, and they quickly became tradition around here. Cut the racks into two-rib portions and serve them with Easy Baked Beans (page 133) and Fourth of July Coleslaw (page 54) for an awesome holiday feast!

My daddy was a great cook, and many of the recipes in this cookbook are his. If there was a fund-raiser in Monticello, people would always ask, “Is Jack making the Brunswick Stew?” or “Is Jack cooking the chickens?” before they bought their tickets. The food was usually prepared outside in very large quantities with the help of members of the sponsoring organization. Brunswick Stew is one of those classic southern dishes that varies from region to region, but I’ve never had Brunswick Stew that tasted like my dad’s. In his version, everything is ground through a food grinder, so it’s more like a wonderfully rich soup than a stew. His version also fed 160 people, so we’ve reduced our recipe to serve a cozy 16!

A pimiento cheese sandwich made on very fresh white bread is a true southern staple. Nothing goes better with Gwen’s Fried Chicken (page 93). Mama slices the crusts off the sandwiches and cuts them in half for family reunions—very southern belle!

My Grandmother Paul always said to season chicken and return it to the refrigerator and let it sit as long as time permits, at least 2 to 3 hours. At the restaurant, we season ours with House Seasoning and Lawry’s Seasoned Salt. Always use small chickens. I find that a Dutch oven works best for frying chicken.

Collard greens are a point of southern pride. Any barbecue or soul food restaurant worth its salt has a place for these mustardy-flavored greens. In the South, collard greens are typically cooked with a ham hock or smoked turkey wings to give a great smoky flavor to the greens and the broth—or pot liquor as it is referred to in local parlance. You can definitely add either to this recipe, but I like to use chipotle chiles to give not only smokiness but also a little heat to this dish. I prefer my collard greens to retain some bite and cook them until tender, not to melting. The greens have a natural sweetness that is both accentuated and balanced by the finishing splash of apple cider vinegar. Sweet, smoky, and slightly vinegary, these collard greens definitely deliver a touch of soul to the table.

Hoppin’ John is the must-have dish for southerners on New Year’s Day; it’s widely believed that if you eat black-eyed peas on that day, you’ll have good luck all year. This a great dish for a crowd and can definitely be prepared ahead of time. Since the black-eyed peas need to soak overnight, start this a day in advance. Serve with my variation on Mr. Beard’s Cream Biscuits (page 54).

For some people in the South, dessert doesn’t count unless it’s one thing and one thing only: this one.

If I’m working, which is to say I’m not drinking anything strong because I’m focused on winning a competition, I don’t drink anything besides sweet tea. I love sweet tea, truly. It’s the drink of the South, the drink of my home. Here’s how we do it.

Fried chicken is a Southern staple, and to be a good Southern cook you better know how to make it. I do. I like to use small fresh chickens for frying because the flavor of the meat is better. And speaking of flavor, I like to fry my chicken in pure pork lard, which gives it a richness and down-home essence that vegetable oil just can’t replicate. You can buy good high-quality lard—and I’m not talking about the soapy-looking white blocks sold in some supermarkets—from any reputable butcher. What makes my fried chicken special is the mixture of spices I use—note that both chili powder and sugar are involved—and the tangy richness that buttermilk lends.

I don’t know any chef who travels with his own grits except Scott Peacock. And you can understand why. Once you have tasted those Southern stone-ground grits, it is hard to settle for less. But I hope he will forgive me for offering here a recipe for ordinary supermarket grits. They cook in 20 minutes, and I have borrowed Scott’s method of cooking them partially in milk, which makes them so much creamier. This way, at least you may get so hooked on grits that you’ll send away for the grittier stone- ground variety and give over part of a Sunday afternoon to stirring them as they cook slowly for a long time, the longer the better. Either way, grits are good with so many things—shrimp, chicken, game, pork, ham. I always make extra so that I can have some fried grits for breakfast the next day. Avoid instant grits and look for the old-fashioned ones.

Grits get a bad rap, man. Most of the time grits are watery and served with greasy eggs in a diner. Grits can be so much more! By using good-quality coarsely ground grits and cooking them right, you can easily elevate this Southern staple. Serve with Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder with Pickled Onions (page 162).

Pat: When I was growing up in the South, there were “soul food” restaurants on every corner. I mean every corner. And there was one entrée served in all those restaurants, and that, of course, was fried chicken. Gina: To this day, in spite of our occasional diets, fried chicken is one menu item that is hard to resist. It has been and always will be one of our weaknesses. But it’s one we can live with. When you’ve had a bad day at work, there’s something about coming home to a good piece of fried chicken. It’s a Southern tonic: a feel-good, make-it-all-better food. Pat: We coat the chicken in dry spices first. This allows an incredible flavor to penetrate and permeate the meat. Then the chicken is double-dipped in buttermilk and seasoned flour to create a crispy, flavorful crunch. I promise you lip-smackin’ good fried chicken with this Neely favorite. It’s one of those dishes that partygoers love and are still talking about the next day.

Gina: Who would think that a hard green tomato would yield such tender, irresistible results? Coated with cornmeal and bread crumbs, fried to crispy perfection, and served warm with an awesome basil mayo, fried green tomatoes are delicious atop field greens or butter lettuce, or on toasted sandwiches with a few fried strips of bacon.

Ma'Dear, my maternal grandmother, would sun-brew gallon jars full of Sweet Goodness on sweltering hot summer days. Recollections of those containers full of cinnamon-colored tea sitting on her back porch bring back sweet memories of simpler days. This version will satisfy the snootiest of Sweet Tea connoisseurs (read: my mom) and won't give drinkers an insulin spike since it is sweetened with agave nectar.

Soundtrack: "Sankofa" by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and Tony Allen from Allen Chop Up and "Sankofa" by Cassandra Wilson from Blue Light 'Til Dawn This recipe was the seed of Vegan Soul Kitchen... a brand new classic, if you will, dedicated to my home city in the mid-South—Memphis, Tennessee.

While bean fritters are thought to have their origin in Nigeria, one can find them throughout West Africa. Inspired by the Black-Eyed Pea Fritters served at the Gambian-Cameroonian restaurant Bennachin in New Orleans, I whipped up this dish.

Soundtrack: "Hot Lava" by Kudu from Death of the Party This is my attempt to replicate the oh-so-slammin' hot sauce at the Senegalese restaurant Joloff, my favorite eatery in New York City. This version is only slightly hot, but if you really want that fire add one more habanero chile.

This recipe, from my old sous chef Mitch SuDock, makes the best fried chicken ever. We used to make brined pork at JUdson Grill, and he started using the brine to make fried chicken for our nightly staff meal. The benefit of brine is that the batter keeps the seasoning from penetrating the meat, but the brine works its way in. Keep a close eye on the thermometer when frying; try to maintain a temperature of 300°F, which will cook the chicken through without burning the exterior.