Crunchy Garlic Chicken

Another fantastic recipe from Jamie’s Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals. I’ve already made half a dozen recipes from this book that have been great.

This came out really good but the crumb texture wasn’t quite what I expected, being a bit thick and globby because of the butter. I’m writing down what I did, as it is in the book, but I think next time I would just leave the butter out of the mix and maybe add a few more crackers. This was just enough for 4 chicken tenders, so served 2 of us plus lunch today for one of us.

• 1 clove of garlic, peeled
• zest of one lemon
• 6 (or more!) plain crackers or breadcrumbs or saltines, etc.
• 2 Tbs butter
• 4 sprigs fresh parsley (I used a bit more)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 large spoonfuls of flour
• 1 egg
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 4 chicken tenders
• olive oil

Use your food process to mix up the breadcrumb mix: crackers, garlic, lemon zest and butter (although I’d leave that out next time),  parsley, salt and pepper.  Run the processor until it’s all mixed up and the crumbs are fine.

Put the flour on one plate or pie pan.  Put the raw egg into another plate or pan and stir together with a fork. Add the breadcrumb mix to a third.

Pound the chicken out until thinned a bit. You can lay a sheet of plastic wrap on the chicken and pound with a plate or the flat side of a meat tenderizer.

Heat a few spoonfuls of olive oil in a skillet.

Coat each side of the chicken with flour, then egg, then breadcrumb mix. Fry about 4-5 minutes on each side. Alternately you can bake in a 475 F oven for about 15 minutes.

Squeeze a bit of lemon over the chicken, then cut the pieces into strips and serve.

Simple Salad with Vinaigrette

I served with a very simple salad of watercress, sliced radishes and sliced cucumbers, plus some boxed stuffing mix, which I rarely use but was quite good.  We also had some really good asparagus, also a recipe from this book. Usually I just barbecue it or roast it but we both really liked this simple vinaigrette he dressed it with.

Full title:  America’s Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family’s Favorite Restaurants

I was sent a review copy of this book. So full disclosure, we do NOT eat out near as much as the average family, which is 3 times or more per week according to the press release they sent me with the review copy.  So my review is not based on how “accurate” these recipes copy certain dishes but how they tasted.  And so far so good with one minor exception.

The first recipe we tried was from the Olive Garden, for Chicken Crostina. This has you cook  some boneless skinless chicken breasts in olive oil, then top with a mixture of shredded potatoes, Parmesan, garlic powder, parsley, and bread crumbs and put under the broiler for a few minutes, until the potatoes are cooked. This in itself was fantastic. And it worked well as leftovers, believe it or not. We just nuked the leftover chicken with some topping. Mmmm.  The full recipe called for a sauce of roasted garlic, white wine, cream (I used half and half), Parmesan, parsley and diced tomatoes. The pasta and sauce was so-so. I found it bland. The girls found it “winey.”  Perhaps using fresh garlic rather than roasted would kick it up a notch.  More something was needed anyway.

My youngest asked me to try the Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe next but I don’t have a pressure fyer, which the book said was key. So I did what I normally do for recipes. I took the “gist” of the KFC recipe, in terms of soaking in buttermilk (except I used sour cream thinned with some milk) and egg, then dipped in the flour and mix of 10 spices (flour, oregano, chili powder, sage, basil, marjoram, pepper, salt, paprika, onion salt, and garlic powder. I omitted the Accent because I don’t ever use that because I have reactions to it. )

Then I used the cooking method in the same cookbook for Church’s fried chicken. We don’t have Church’s around here but I can attest that the cooking method works great! Basically, you dip the chicken pieces in whatever–I used the KFC variant of egg and sour cream rather than buttermilk, the Church’s recipe in here calls for just egg and water. (The spice mix for Church’s is  self rising flour, cornstarch, seasoned salt, paprika, baking soda, biscuit mix, Italian dressing mix, and onion soup mix.) So I used the KFC mix mentioned above, but cooked it a la Church’s.

Basically fry in hot oil skin side down about 5 minutes, then turn and cook a few more minutes, then put on a foil lined pan and  cover 3 sides (so steam can escape) and bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, remove the foil and bake another 5 minutes.

Oh yum!  Turned out great! I served with mashed potatoes and gravy I made from the drippings from frying the chicken so it had all those nice spices in it.  I actually did measure the oil, wondering how much oil the chicken would absorb when I was frying it, since we do try to be moderately healthy around here. I had cut up a whole chicken into legs, wings with meat, thighs, and breasts then cut the breasts in half so basically had 10 pieces.  I started with 1 cup of canola oil and ended up with over 3/4 of a cup after. Then I used 1/4 cup of it for the gravy, which made about 2 cups.

The recipes cover quite a range of restaurants and are well written and easy to follow.

How to Make Gravy for Chicken:

If you’ve cut up a whole chicken as I did, since whole chickens were .79/pound and the cut up ones were over $3/pound, use the neck and gizzards and such to make the broth for the gravy while the chicken is baking.  (If your family doesn’t eat wings, use those as well.)  Just cover the chicken parts with water and simmer. If you have a bit of onion and/or carrot and/or celery add it with some salt and pepper.  Simmer while the chicken is baking and use the broth for the gravy.

Heat 1/4 cup of the drippings in the same pan you fried the chicken. Add 1/4 cup flour while cooking over medium heat. Stir until absorbed and then cook another few minutes, stirring around. Add 1.5 to 2 cups chicken broth (or chicken bouillon and water) slowly, stirring it in until you have it a bit more runny than you like, then cook it down a bit, stirring. Allow about 5-10 minutes at the end for making the gravy. If you want milk gravy, use 1/2 broth and 1/2 milk for the liquid.

Really a great dinner, served with mashed potatoes and a green salad with avocados and tomatoes.