It’s been seven years since actress Paula Patton and her ex-husband, singer Robin Thicke, finalized their divorce after being a couple for more than two decades.
Following the split, the exes, who live relatively private lives as they co-parent their only son Julian Fuego Thicke, weren’t making much headlines together as of late until Patton’s resurfaced cooking video went viral.
In the Instagram post that was first shared on March 4, Patton is seen making her mom’s “famous” recipe for fried chicken. The 46-year-old shared that she was making 138 chicken pieces for her son’s school.
Patton started the clip by showing her followers the ingredients she used to season the items, including Lawry’s seasoning salt, organic black pepper, and paprika. As the recording continued, the “Jumping the Broom” star then began cleaning her chicken under running water before placing it in a Ziploc plastic bag filled with flour.
While making her way to the stove, Patton began filling her frying pan with avocado oil. When the oil finally heated up, she placed the battered chicken in the pan. Things began to take an unexpected turn after Patton stated that she added the listed seasonings on the chicken during the frying process.
She said while mentioning the recipe is her mother’s, “Now the next process is step five is the seasoning. So it’s just three ingredients that I use for seasoning these fried chicken. My mother’s recipe I have says Lawry’s seasoning salt very important, organic pepper and organic paprika.”
Patton added, “I start to dust it with the Lawry’s salt. Each chicken gets enough, maybe a little too much because I like it a little salty. Each chicken gets a little nice dose of pepper and give it some paprika.”
After adding the seasonings to one side of the chicken, the actress flipped the pieces to the other side and repeated the same process. After cooking the chicken, Patton then placed the pieces on a tray covered with paper towels.
The clip ends with Patton tasting one piece and saying, “Very good. Very good. Yay, so that so that’s Friday fried chicken.” Alongside the video, Patton captioned the post, “Fried Chicken Friday.”
On April 4, a month after Patton shared the upload, the clip began making its rounds on social media blog sites. Although it is unclear what prompted the video to go viral, fans immediately brought up Patton’s ex after viewing the recording.
The comments ranged from Thicke cheating on Patton because of her cooking skills to an individual asking the “Blurred Lines” singer if Patton’s chicken was good.
“ROBIN, you been invited to enough cookouts. Come show your ex wife how to season chicken.”
“No wonder Robin was cheating. Poor man was hungry.”
“Seasoning the oil was crazy… Robin couldn’t take it.”
“@robinthicke was the chicken good?”
“I see why Robin stepped out
Among the Robin remarks, others tried to make sense of Patton seasoning the chicken while it’s frying. One wrote, “Why is she seasoning the oil instead of the chicken? Make it make sense.”
Another said, “So we seasoning our grease now? I ain’t ever seen nun like it…”
A third social media user stated, “I lost hearing at “AND THEN WE’RE GOING TO ADD THE SEASONING”…… Ma’am!”
Patton has since removed her comment section on the post following the viral video.