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In the Library with Toni Tipton-Martin: Edna Lewis’s Famous Fried Chicken

Watch Toni Tipton-Martin explain how Edna Lewis combined multiple Southern culinary practices for an ultrasavory fried chicken. 

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Headshot of Morgan Bolling
By Morgan Bolling

Published on March 3, 2023

The practice of frying chicken in savory pork fat has been popular in Southern cooking for centuries. Edna Lewis, an iconic Southern chef, teacher, and author, used two pork products to infuse her renowned fried chicken with savory flavor in her 2003 book The Gift of Southern Cooking.  

Cook’s Country Editor in Chief Toni Tipton-Martin pays homage to one of her culinary mentors, Edna Lewis, and explains this fried chicken technique in the video below. 

To try this savory combination of hog fat and sizzling-hot fried chicken in your own kitchen, make our Lard-Fried Chicken. It is seasoned simply with salt and pepper, so it gets most of its flavor from the pork fat in which it is fried.

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