Southern fried chicken has a fascinating history.
It combines West African techniques that used flavoured batter and palm oil to force seasoning deep into (albeit soggy) meat with Scottish techniques that used animal fat to create a crispy shell designed for preservation (albeit with little seasoning) [1]. Add in one of the few places on the planet, at the time, where cast iron was cheap enough to find its way to even slaves, and you get the cultural tradition that is Southern fried chicken: flavourful, crispy and accessible.