Air Fryer Fried Chicken and House Autry Seasoned Coating Mix

I always loved fried chicken. But we never have it for obvious reasons. Making French fries got our attention and we finally got an air fryer a couple of weeks ago. We have been very pleased with the whole thing - shrimp, pizza, French fries, making prepackaged frozen items. It’s just so much easier than using the oven. I was going to use some breadcrumbs and a few spices to make some “fried chicken” until we came upon House Autry Air Fry spicy chicken seasoned coating mix at the grocery store. It had a heat level of 4 out of 5 peppers! The two skinless thin cut chicken breasts were first coated in an egg/water mix, then coated with the seasoned coating mix. They were then placed in the air fryer and cooked about 18 minutes on 350 degrees, and turned halfway through. We really like having a window on the fryer to watch the cooking process. Our air fryer is only four quarts, and if we continue to like this method of cooking we may opt for a larger fryer to accommodate larger pizza crusts as well as maybe cooking more than one item at a time. Even if it’s not the skin on old fashioned fried chicken, this option is good enough for us and would also be excellent as a sandwich. I rarely get excited about cooking anything but this makes it so much easier. And rather than having leftovers we make enough for a meal so everything is served fresh. Tonight we will be doing shrimp again - just enough for one dinner. Rather than get a frozen one pound bag to make a casserole we got a quarter pound of fresh shrimp. What could be better? 

Bait Shop, Fried Chicken, and Sweet Potato Pie

Every so often we take a four hour ride to a town in Virginia for the weekend. You know you are not in DC anymore as soon as you turn off highway 66 to route 29. The scenery changes dramatically and it is so much less congested. Once there, we are entertained by smaller town routines. We would be heading out to some property along the James River, so along with that comes fishing and a camp fire. These aren't the kinds of activities we ever participated in so it's an education in every regard. Neither my husband nor I are outdoorsy people, except for walking in the concrete jungle every morning. So stopping by the bait shop was an interesting thing to do - especially when the fried chicken is sold in the same place. If you are more interested in oysters, or in need of gold fish or propane, it's also the place to go. Next stop was at the pie place - an establishment that is well known in the area and busy with usual customers. All the apple pies were already sold out, so we had to do with a sweet potato concoction. It wasn't bad, but the apple pie must be luscious. The whole experience is quite southern and charming - something DC is not. It reminds me more of the Midwestern way of life. People are just kinder, and nicer, and less jaded. It's always a nice visit when we go there, and makes me wonder about the important things in life.