Fishermen who target catfish are no strangers to unusual concoctions, but catfish recipes typically border on rancid — not make the angler hungry for lunch. The recipe for garlic chicken that someone gave guide Mac Byrum was different from any he had ever seen.
Byrum claims the catfishing version of garlic chicken can be prepared ahead of time
“You can start with bone-in or bone-out, but you’ve got to take the bone out to do this,” he said. “In the summertime, I use a cut that you could lay a 50-cent piece on, but in wintertime, I go down to the 25-cent piece.”
Byrum reason’s that a catfish’s metabolism is much slower in the winter than the summer, so smaller baits are more productive. He suggests cutting the bait first, then sprinkling garlic powder on just one side. He said that using more garlic will bake the chicken, making it stringy and reducing the blood content of the meat.
“I lightly sprinkle garlic powder on each piece, depending on the season,” he said. “Then put the pieces in a Ziplock bag, seal the bag and squeeze the bait around in the bag, which moves the garlic around.”
After preparing the chicken, Byrum leaves the bag out on the kitchen counter about an hour or two to let the seasoning work. If he’s fishing the next day, he will put the bag in the refrigerator. The bait can also be stored in the freezer, to be thawed at a later date.
Even a natural bait enthusiast like Dieter Melhorn admits there’s a time and place for the chicken bait.
“Early in the winter, when I start back fishing, I’m not going to have anything in my bait tanks because I’m not going to know where the perch are,” he said. “I’ll throw some of the garlic chicken in the boat and have it as a backup bait.”
Melhorn warns that with handling any raw chicken, be sure to wash your hands afterwards and before handling anything you intend to eat because of a risk of salmonella.
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