I hated to bump this, but it seems I never cleared this up, even with the intense discussion that ensued.
In this recipe, I say '1 whole chicken, cut up'....I seem to say it in all my recipes, but this is because my mother rarely
bought anything but a whole chicken. My dad would cut it up for her, and after he died, I would do the same, and
when she was cooking for other people, I would de-bone it as well.
You can use whatever chicken you want on this recipe. I DO suggest leaving the bones in the meat, because nothing
improves the flavor of a dish like a bone simmered for a few hours does. It is one of the main reasons my dad LOVED
Chicken Spaghetti. When I intend this to be eaten by other people, I simply fish out the bones with a cooking spoon
when I reach the consistency and done-ness I desire.
If you have thighs on sale, get that. If it is all drumsticks, that is more than fine. the chicken is the same no matter
how you buy it. BUT A WARNING, if you intend to use boneless breast meat, add it in the last half hour of cooking
and not before. It will dry out in the 2-3 hour cook time I prescribe here. Same reason I call for adding the sausage in
the last 15-20 minutes. Sausage's essence will fade away if added at the start. You want it fat and robust.
lastly, in recent cooks of this dish, I have found the pre-cooking of the okra step to be useless, since FEW of you will
be using fresh okra from the garden. If it is frozen from a bag, you can just dump it in with the onions at the start.
It will be more than delicious and perfectly cooked and mushed down. When this recipe is done properly, you won't
even know the okra is in there. You sure won't see a big ol piece floating in your bowl.
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