Sunday, January 29, 2012

Cooking Week Four: Pan Frying

This week's cooking challenge was about pan frying.  I'm not so good at this technique.  I'm not precisely sure why, but it isn't my strength.  For this challenge I went through my giant binder full of recipes I've ripped from magazines until I came across one that sounded good this week and fit the challenge.  I decided on Spicy Chicken Sandwiches.  It also had a recipe for lime mayo but as I believe mayo to be the devil, I ignored this part of the recipe. 


A number of problems arose with this recipe.  First of which was the direction to cut the chicken breast in half horizontally which I believed should look like this:



I only discovered how wrong I was when I was anxiously trying to make the chicken cook as fast as it said it should so I could go get my hair cut. It should have been the other horizontally, so that I had two very thin and identically shaped cutlets.  Duh. 



The second step was to marinate both halves in a marinade of one egg, 3 Tbsp. tabasco, and some oregano and salt.  I did this for 8 hours. I discovered I'm not hugely fond of that much Tabasco flavor.  I think I need to buy a different hot sauce, suggestions?



Then I had to crush up some tortilla chips.  Which I should have done much finer.  Why didn't I?  I dunno.  Just didn't.  Cuz I suck I guess.  So my breading did not stick well and I wound up having to just pour some  crumbs on top of my sandwich when I went to eat it.



Then you pan fry it.  If you cut your chicken right it should be three minutes on a side, but the way I cut it took much much longer.  All in all it came out okay.  My homemade hamburger buns helped to make up for what the chicken was lacking ( and the delicious roasted garlic potatoes I made!) but I would do it much differently next time.   


3 comments:

thesandwoman said...

I saw your post on Reddit, and being a big fan of fried chicken sandwiches, had to check out your post. I am sorry to hear that your sandwiches didn't work out better!

I actually do chicken thighs (boneless and skinless) for my chicken sandwiches, because I bake the chicken. It keeps the chicken nice and moist, and a thigh is the perfect size for a sandwich. I also use whatever kinda crumbs I have in the house. I highly, highly suggest placing the bag in a safe area before whacking at it with a rolling pin to get finer crumbs. It's an excellent release for aggression. :)

Thanks so much for sharing how this recipe worked out for you!

thesandwoman said...

Oh! Also, I don't marinade my chicken. I just season the crumbs with whatever I feel like (I usually use an all purpose meat seasoning deal).

And for hot sauce, Franks! :)

poodleskirts said...

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll probably use most of them (except for the thighs, the boy won't touch dark meat). I'll definitely give Franks a try and see if baking helps. :)

I'll also give whacking the crumbs a try. I'm thinking it could be a lot of fun ;)