Colonel Lois’ Cole Slaw

I will start this post off with a confession to you. I don’t eat cole slaw. Never have. I’ve tried it a few times, but never got past the raw cabbage taste.

SuperMan, on the other hand, loves cole slaw.

So, because I love my man, I make cole slaw. Regularly. Or at least I try to make it regularly.

I’ve been making a concoction that was mostly invented through trial and error and a little coaching from my momma. (That’s what mommas are for, right?)

SuperMan eats it and says he likes it, but I always felt like I could do better. So, I’ve been on the hunt for another recipe he might like. But it’s challenging because I don’t eat cole slaw and therefore it’s hard to tell what might or might not work in a recipe.

I knew that SuperMan liked Cole Slaw from KFC. And so I set out to try to replicate that recipe. Why not start there, I thought? I searched on the internet for some of those restaurant-secrets websites where they have tried to duplicate restaurant recipes for the home kitchen. After finding a few with the KFC cole slaw recipe, I decided to give it a try. We were having friends over for dinner and I was serving a cold supper of chicken salad and pasta salad and I thought the cole slaw would be a perfect accompaniment.

I am sorry I don’t have a picture for you – the photo-taking part of this food prep task got forgotten in the huge mess I made in my kitchen. I had stuff everywhere. I was more interested in getting finished and cleaning up than in documenting the finished products!

ANYWAY.

The verdict of those who consumed it was that it was a pretty-darn-close replica of the Colonel’s cole slaw recipe. One of my friends, who said she’d never had KFC cole slaw said she loved it. And what made me even happier was that SuperMan loved it. That’s what really counts. 🙂

This is not a real mayonnaise-y type of cole slaw. It’s got a tiny bit, but it’s really more about complimenting the natural flavors of the vegetables in the salad. It’s not goopy or real wet. Actually, if I did eat cole slaw, this would be the type I’d want. Fresh, crisp and clean tasting.

Here you go:

Colonel Lois’ Cole Slaw

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 Tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper (I used a little more because SuperMan likes pepper)
8 cups finely chopped cabbage (1 head – think chop the size of grains of rice. Use your food processor)
1/4 cup finely shredded carrot (about 1 carrot)
2 Tbsp minced onion

Chop carrots & cabbage into very fine pieces (like rice grains)
Combine mayo, sugar, milk, buttermilk, lemon juice, vinegar, salt & pepper in a large bowl and beat until smooth.
Add the cabbage, carrots & onion.
Mix well.
Cover & refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

A couple of notes:

I made mine the night before I was planning to serve it. The next morning, there was quite a bit of liquid in the bottom of the bowl. SuperMan didn’t like this, so I placed about 2-3 paper towels in a colander and dumped the bowl of cole slaw in the colander. I let this sit, over another bowl, for about 30 minutes. Most of that excess water drained out. Now, truthfully, I think most of that was from the milk and vinegar, etc. that I’d put in it and I think it was supposed to be there. But the man didn’t like it, so I got rid of it! He said it didn’t affect the taste at all.