A misplaced phone number and Sweet Tea Fried Chicken

Many of you probably noticed that in my column today, I failed to put a contact number for Troy Heard.

Troy is doing the "24 Hour Plays" and needs writers, actors, directors and technical people to pull this off.

The phone number is 702-423-6366.

If you're interested, please call him.

I bet you're wondering about the Sweet Tea Fried Chicken.

Austin Scott, whom I met years ago when he was the executive chef at the old Olive Branch and then later at the Cannon Brewpub, is now in charge of the culinary arts for the Muscogee County School District.

His kitchen is at Jordan High School and it's bigger and better lit than many of the professional kitchens I've been in around town.

We started something called Chef's Corner a couple of months ago, and so far, Austin and John Chapiewski, the executive chef at the Hilton Garden Inn have been the featured chefs.

I wanted to do some segments with Austin's students, but my timing was bad. They're out for spring break this week.

So I asked Austin to show people who to cut a whole chicken into pieces to save a little money.

Then he made his Sweet Tea Fried Chicken.

You've got to try this recipe. It's absolutely yummy.

You take a gallon of brewed tea, and add a cup-and-a-half of sugar and a couple tablespoons of salt. Mix it well, and then drop your chicken in the tea. Let the chicken marinate for about two hours. You can leave the whole thing in your refrigerator overnight, but Austin said the tea will "dye" the chicken brown and when you're frying it, it will seem to brown too much.

So I'd stick to the two hours marinating time.

Heat vegetable oil to 350 degrees.

Take 3 cups of all-purpose flour and about 2-and-a-half tablespoons of your favorite seasoning. He uses Cajun seasoning, but you can use anything you want.

Mix the flour and seasoning together well.

Then dredge the chicken in the flour mixture, making sure to coat all the surfaces.

Drop the bigger pieces of chicken — breasts — into the fryer first. They need to fry for about 13-15 minutes.

Then drop the thighs, drumsticks and the wings for about 8 minutes.

Check the internal temperature of the chicken before taking it out of the oil. Chicken should be 165 degrees to be fully cooked.

If you find that it's browning too much. Take it out and finish it in the microwave for a couple of minutes.

Anyway, it's pretty simple and it's delicious.

if you make it, let me know what you think.