So this is going to sound a little bit weird,
but it's really good.
My name is Erin Rifkin.
I am a general manager
in the Developer Relations Team at Microsoft.
Today I'm gonna cook fried chicken and coleslaw.
I'm from the South so I felt like
it was important to do a Southern-style recipe.
The first thing I'm going to do is make the coleslaw.
So I'm gonna go ahead and add the carrots into the coleslaw
and the green pepper.
You can use as much green pepper as you like.
If you're not a huge green pepper fan, I would try to add
at least a half of one, but add as much as you like.
And then a tablespoon of onion.
Generally, you just want to get this nice and mixed up.
If you need to use salad tongs you can,
to make that happen, or a bigger bowl.
And the next thing you need to do is make the actual sauce.
I've gone ahead and put the mustard
and the mayonnaise into this Tupperware -
and then I'm going to mix in sugar, apple cider vinegar -
and this is a mix of white pepper,
kosher salt, and celery seed.
You can use ground celery seed or whole celery seed.
And I'm gonna mix this up.
And now that we have this mixed up,
we can start putting it into the actual
cabbage and vegetable mixture, up to our liking.
Growing up, I really did not cook.
My mom and my sister did a ton of cooking,
and it wasn't really something that I did.
Even though, as an adult and living out on your own,
you kind of have to figure it out after awhile.
So I, of course, started to cook,
and I've always ate really healthy -
so I've had to try new and different things.
And so it's been kind of fun and inspiring to do that,
and to come up with a new menu every single week.
Being in the South,
having fried chicken, coleslaw, or mac and cheese -
one of those is always a staple in every meal,
it feels like.
Especially anything that has mayonnaise in it.
So, this is just really a memory from my childhood.
My mom used to make this coleslaw all the time growing up.
Still does today for big family gatherings.
And my family, my step sister, younger step sister,
her mother makes fried chicken for us,
and used to do it all the time.
And so it just, it really reminds me of home.
Even though I'm 4,000 miles away I get to taste,
have a little taste of home here in Seattle.
So now that I'm done with the coleslaw
I'm gonna put it in the refrigerator.
It's usually good if you can refrigerate it
for three to four hours so that it can really meld
all of the flavors together before you go and eat it.
So the next thing I'm gonna do is I'm going to
bread and make the fried chicken.
So this is going to sound a little bit weird,
but it's really good.
So this is a mix of panko and bread crumbs,
and I'm going to mix in powdered sugar.
I know that sounds weird, but it's really good.
And then in here I have a mixture of paprika,
sea salt, celery seed, and garlic powder.
Mix all of this together so that I have my dry mixture.
So the key to fried chicken is that
you need to have a wet mixture and a dry mixture.
So I'm going to crack two eggs in here for my wet.
So you wanna whip up the eggs pretty good.
And then the other trick to this fried chicken
is that you want to be able to put it in pickle juice,
to let it brine for at least 30 minutes to an hour
before you cook it.
The trick here is just to go wet and then dry.
If you were going to fry this
I recommend you do a double dip.
So wet, dry, wet, dry.
I'm going to dip it in my wet mixture -
and then I'm going to dip it into my dry mixture.
Working at Microsoft in Developer Relations
has been a really amazing journey.
One of the things that's really neat about it is that
Microsoft and in Developer Relations
we've really reinvented advocacy for customers.
Not just understanding what they need,
but meeting them within their own communities,
and making sure they have the content
they need to be successful.
And so being a leader at Microsoft means that
we really have to be able to create an amazing culture.
We have to think about the Microsoft values,
and what they mean to us, and how we live those every day.
It's been personally fun and challenging
and amazing to watch the transformation at the company.
The next thing I need to do is air fry the chicken.
So the chicken typically takes
six minutes on each side at 400.
I'm going to spray both sides of the chicken with some oil,
just to make sure that they do not stick,
and they'll get a nice even brown.
I will set this in here.
And then I'm going to lightly spray it again,
and then put the air fryer back in, and start the cook time.
Okay, so I'm gonna butter the buns
so we can toast them for the sandwiches.
I'm a huge fan of butter, so I try not to skimp here.
It's totally up to you.
As far as I'm concerned, it's a healthy fat.
Okay, so now that I've done that, I'm going to put them
face down in the pan and let them toast up.
So once the chicken is done in the air fryer,
I just wanna double check
that the internal temperature is 165 degrees.
I'm gonna use my thermometer and just double check.
Yup, we are good.
And then I'm gonna set it here,
and I'm gonna grab my buns.
You can see that they've been nice and they plumped up
because I actually put them in that pickle juice
for 30 minutes to an hour beforehand.
So it actually gets it nice and big for your sandwich.
I also mentor people across all of Microsoft.
There's so many pieces of advice
I could give to women trying to break into tech.
But I think never be held down
by the environment around you.
Always strive for new things.
Ask for what you want; don't be afraid to do that.
I know it seems hard and culturally not everybody
has grown up in a way that it feels comfortable
to go and do that.
I think you are your own cheerleader and your best support.
And so if you can put yourself out there,
and try and ask for what you want,
and what you think you deserve, I think more often than not
you'll find that you're going to get it.
And so I think that would be my biggest piece of advice.
We are going to dish up our sides.
Put some of this Southern coleslaw.
My mom's homemade recipe, I love it.
And then we will put some mac and cheese,
fresh out of the oven.
And I think my girlfriend, Morgan, is going to come in here
and do a taste test with me.
It's a very nice chicken sandwich right here.
- Looks excellent.
- [Both] Mm.
- Well, that's it for this episode of "Home Cooked."
Check out MicrosoftLife.com for more episodes.