with Cheryl Smith and Tanya Holland on fried chicken

Sweet n spicy: My mother used to soak her chicken in buttermilk before making fried chicken? What's the point? Can I skip this step and still get good fried chicken?

Tanya: That's what I do! We did a recipe for the show; it's a great tenderizer. That's the kind of fried chicken that makes you want to "hit your mama" as they like to say! That's the best way; I would advise that you not skip this step.

Cheryl Smith: No! I've tried Tanya's fried chicken and it is wonderful, I used to just marinate my chicken in a combination of spices, and I used to use a Cajun spice recipe from Paul Prudhomme's book initially. When I started doing fried chicken, I would marinate it in that and leave it overnight. I would then dredge it and fry it. But since then I have found out about buttermilk. So I've tried it, and I actually like both.

- From a Food Network online chat event