Ruth Schmidt's Fried Chicken

Ruth seasons puts some salt and pepper (you can see the bits of pepper) in flour and then dredges the chicken pieces in the seasoned flour. She uses an electric frying pan and white Crisco. You can buy sticks of Crisco, which don't have any trans-fat now. I think she uses about 1 to 1 1/2 sticks for her medium-sized, square frying pan probably set to 350-375 degrees. She browns the pieces skin side down and then turns them over, adding a few pieces at a time. When the pan gets full, she piles up the browned pieces on top of each other toward one side of the pan and continues cooking until all the pieces are browned. Then she puts the lid on the pan, reduces the heat--maybe 325º--, and cooks everything for another 30 minutes or so skin-side up. Lastly she removes the lid and and lets everything crisp up for another 10 minutes.