Donna M. Lecky is a member of the Silver Fern Board of Advisors, the CFO & Co-founder of HealthVenture Corporation, and Managing Director of HealthVenture Capital.
For Silver Fern’s What’s on My Plate Series, Donna shares her grandmother’s recipe for Buttermilk Chicken, a dish that was cooked by her family as “a healthy alternative to fried chicken after church on Sunday.” She has offered a wonderful story about the dish’s origins and includes options for recipe adjustments to increase its overall nutrition.
“As a young child, I remember going to my grandmother’s house for at least 10 years after church every Sunday for Sunday dinner, which started at 2pm! All the women on my mother’s side were responsible for the cooking so literally, there would be 5 women, including my mom, in the kitchen. Each had their role: the baker, the desert preparer, the vegetable and starch person, and of course the overseer (my grandmother). The children were required to pick the vegetables from my grandparents’ garden, which was in the backyard of a row home in Philadelphia. The men sat on the porch or in the living room chatting it up, watching sports and frankly just waiting to be told when it was time to eat.
This recipe came about to create a healthy alternative to fried chicken which during that time was a staple dish in the black community, along with mac & cheese, and greens. This meal was never served with a starch (the chicken was breaded) and any vegetable that had a meat seasoning; turkey was used as opposed to pork because high blood pressure ran high in my family, especially with the men. My dad and my four uncles and their wives –who were onlookers because only the Aggie girls could do the cooking: grandmother’s rule— really enjoyed this meal, and although my grandmother, who was originally from Virginia, cooked traditionally southern, she was open to trying new things to keep the family healthy. Buttermilk is high in protein, low in calories and fat, and it certainly improved the quality of intake because the meat was baked.”
Buttermilk Chicken, an Aggie (Aggiyada)* recipe, curtesy of Donna Lecky
- Vegetable oil for baking sheet [we substitute olive or coconut oil]
- 1 cup of buttermilk
- Salt & Pepper
- 1 tsp of dried thyme [crumble in your hand]
- 8 slices of white bread [we use wheat or gluten free]
- 1 tsp of hot pepper sauce
- ¾ cup of grated parmesan cheese
- 4 lbs of mixed chicken parts [legs, thighs, breast] patted dry
Directions:
- Preheat oven 400 degrees
- Rub baking sheet with oil
- In food processor pulse bread until it turns into coarse crumbs
- In a large bowl, stir together buttermilk, hot pepper sauce, ¾ tsp salt & ½ tsp pepper. In a separate bowl mix breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and 1/8 tsp pepper.
- Place chicken in the buttermilk, turning to coat chicken evenly. Working with 1 piece at a time remove chicken from liquid, letting excess drip back into bowl, dredge in the breadcrumb mixture-coat evenly. Place chicken on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake until chicken is golden brown about 35 minutes.
*My grandfather was from Lisbon Portugal. When he came to this country, they shortened his name to Aggie.