I soak chicken pieces in buttermilk, Frank's hot sauce, salt and pepper overnight. Sometimes I will grate in some garlic. I usually do about 6 chicken legs so I'll use 1 1/2 cups buttermilk and 1/3 - 1/2 cup Franks hot sauce but Jon and I like it with a kick.
I like to take them out of the fridge about half an hour before I fry it and pop it into a strainer so it will warm up a bit and drain off the extra buttermilk. I lay the chicken out on a sheet pan and season both sides with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Then I drop the chicken pieces into a bag with all purpose flour and shake well. I have vegetable or canola oil hot and ready in my favorite iron skillet. I like to fry the pieces at a high temp to get a good crust on the outside then I turn the heat back to about medium to cook through. Drain on paper towels before serving.

My Mom never liked the way I made fried chicken. She liked to put a lid on hers so that it was never crispy. I hated it that way cause the chicken absorbed tons of grease and she fried hers in lard. Dad and the rest of the family always liked the way I made the chicken better. Everyone really likes my fried chicken and trust me this crew would say so if they felt otherwise.

I have a pressure cooker but I have only used it once. The one time I did Jon teased me the whole time about it blowing up and I havent used it since.

I swear I gotta try your method someday, janie. I LOVE fried chicken and I've always heard buttermilk makes a very noticeable difference!

Janie i will try the hot sauce in my buttermilk when i marinade mine. Thanks for the tip!

The buttermilk makes the chicken really tender and adds great flavor. Nothing better with a chunk of cornbread or biscuit. I wonder if the buttermilk neutralizes the heat from the hot sauce cause I use alot of the hot sauce in the marinade and the chicken is never hot to either of us. You can get a little bit of the flavor of the hot sauce but hardly any heat. I always ask Jon because my allergies bug me alot and I have had acid reflux for years. Sometimes my sense of taste is not as keen as Id like.

I know at some of the work camps up north, as well as employee dining rooms of restaurants and hotels I've worked at, we often used frozen pre-cooked fried chicken products. There were many brands that were good tasting, but there was one in particular called "Brakebush" that was a buttermilk chicken and to my taste, it was head and shoulders above the rest and had a unique flavor. It almost HAD to be the buttermilk. Since then I have always swore I would try the buttermilk method at home, but still never have! GOTTA DO IT!