There’s something so lovely about cold fried chicken straight out of the refrigerator. Especially when it’s eaten in the middle of the night, alone, with no witnesses.
Even the Safeway fried chicken–which is WAY too salty and fried in some vaguely disgusting oil–can be gobbled down late at night.
Cold fried chicken meat gets solid, which gives it a nice feeling to bite into. I like to peel most of the skin off, eating the tastiest bits and discarding the rest. I don’t like the texture of the non-crispy skin, just as I don’t like the taste and the texture of fat in chicken or beef or any other meat.
I like solid and dry, not drippy and gooey as fat tends to be.
Cold fried chicken is delicious. I also like cold roast beef. To the point that sometimes I consider making a whole roast just to slice it, wrap it up, and put it in the refrigerator to get cold so it can be eaten a slice at a time while standing in the kitchen at night, the only light the open fridge door as I ignore the cold air blasting out as I gobble down bite after bite.
I also like cold pizza straight from the fridge. Where the cheese has solidified and there’s no fear of the cheese stretching or the crust bending or splitting apart.
There’s a magic to refrigeration. The way it can both preserve food and change the flavor of hot things become cold.
Hot milk, cold milk. Hot coffee, cold coffee. Melted ice cream, frozen ice cream. Temperature is almost a flavor of its own.
I like to put partially melted ice cream in the freezer, and eat it with the crunchy ice crystals in it.
And yeah, pigging out on cold fried chicken and cold pizza is awesome.
I like beef roasts and pork roasts (back when I could eat them) fresh out of the oven, when all the thick, fatty broth is circulating around in the muscle fibers and before refrigeration tightens it up and makes it all grainy.