PNG and Oven Fried Chicken

You may be asking what the two have to do with one another! Actually it's different subjects, but the recipe did come from our time there.

Yesterday morning I walked into Mr Busy's classroom and his teacher asked if it was true...what someone had told her...that I'd lived in PNG. Yes, it is. "Well", she says, "I have a bag of clothes that another parent sent in, could you have a quick look and then could you talk to the kids about them?". Life as a parent helper is never dull and, often, quite a lot more than interesting! There was a grass skirt, a garland of fake flowers, a grass bra (never saw one of those before LOL), and a bilum (a string bag). So I got one of the girls and we dressed her up and talked about the clothes the National people wore before white men came...and what they wear now. We talked about the difference between what is modest for them, compared to our idea of modesty...but also the fact that they have a different standard of modesty for white people.

And then the kids asked questions. Lots of questions. Absolutely fantastic questions and we could have gone on and on and on!!!!

Now here's your reward for tolerating my excited ramblings! A recipe that we acquired while we lived in PNG. This recipe is very very similar to KFC chicken...only much nicer, because you don't feel like all you've had is flavour and oil ;-)

Oven Fried Chicken

Chicken Pieces (on the bone ~ enough for your family)
1/2 cup plain flour
3 teaspoons dried mixed herbs
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F and place a metal baking pan with a little bit of olive oil in it, in the oven to heat.
   
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a bag.
3. Add the chicken to the bag, hold the top tightly and shake to coat the chicken pieces with the flour mixture.
4. Remove the heated pan from the oven and place the chicken, skin side up in the pan, shaking off excess flour first. Spray the top of the chicken with oil and return to the oven.
5. Bake for about an hour and serve.

There you have it, our version of KFC. My Mum did things like this recipe, McMummy's and Fish & Chips when we lived overseas...just so that we wouldn't forget some of the things from back home. Now, as parents, Dh & I choose not to take our children to KFC, believing it to be an incredible waste of money for not-so-wonderful food. We just do it better at home instead! Apparently history is repeating itself.