The brown rice and asparagus I got down-pat, no problems there. But the chicken part, not so much. It’s not that I can’t sauté a decent chicken breast on it’s own. I do just fine with the spices, and the moisture, and don’t usually end up with a dry old piece of cardboard. But you can now add something to the list of things that I’m NOT good at…frying. I’ve tried probably a million recipes that involve dredging the meat in either butter or egg or something else wet, and then dredging it again in a crumb-y mixture of either breadcrumbs, or cracker crumbs and parmesan, etc. You get the point.
I add the prescribed amount of oil to the pan at the prescribed heat, and then add the dredged meat, and wait the prescribed amount of cooking time and then BAM (thanks Emeril), when I turn it, I lose the breading. It usually sticks to the pan, or sometimes just turns to mush and melts off of the piece of meat, so then I end up with either a pan full of mush or a pan that is covered in stuck, burning breading and under-cooked chicken or meat. AAGH! What am I doing wrong?!?
Anyway, that’s what happened last night. The parmesan crust that I so carefully applied to the chicken breasts got stuck to the pan and when I turned them, it was all over. By the time the breasts were done, the breading was turning a brownish-orange and was completely stuck to the pan. For the cream sauce, the recipe said to add chicken broth and deglaze the pan, and then add the cream cheese and stir to a nice, thick consistency. Except when I deglazed the pan, all that stuck-on breading came up in big, brownish-orange chunks and I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. Instead of turning into a smooth and creamy, Alfredo-type sauce, it turned into a chunky, brownish-orange mess. I figured I wouldn’t use it anyway, but then Avery gets a look at it and says, “ewwww, it’s looks like pu-uuuke”. Which really drove the knife in my heart ½ an inch deeper (gotta love my 5-year old's honesty), except I knew it was true.
I didn’t make them eat the sauce, nor did I want to for that matter. Quite frankly, it did look like puke. Oh well. We ate the chicken (sans breading and cream sauce) anyway, and at least the asparagus was crisp and the brown rice was good with some butter and salt and pepper. Not a complete loss. But if you have any advice about my ineptitude in the frying department, I’m all ears.
6 comments:
Since I am confident Paula is not going to post on this blog, let me offer my advice.
First and foremost is a GOOD pan. The silverstone ones are the best, closely followed by cast iron, but cast iron has care issues such as no soap and water and reseasoning that make it a bother. They are more heat resistant, though.
Second is enough oil and a bit of butter. (Oh, Paula is blogging on !) and keeping the heat at a moderate level. When the item being fried has no fat content of it's own, the heat needs to be lower, and the added fat needs to be greater. I always add some butter/marg. because it smokes at a higher heat and warns you to dial down. I also add slips of butter under the meat as I lift it to check on color. Give the chicken longer on the first side. Try to turn only once. If you feel you have too much fat in the pan after removing the chicken, spoon some off, not pour it off, with the pan off the heat. Then return and add your deglazing liquid. Hope that helps !
LOL...You know what a hatchet is don't you, Bug?
PS: Emily LOVED watching your girls last night. She was very worried that she left the house messy. I hope she didn't.
PPS: My friend, Jodi Heiner (Chapman), said you were her favorite girls camp youth leader. Said you told them about a very scary babysitting incident when someone put a puppy in the door. I really want to hear about that. Also shared other funny stuff you said that would be more appropriately shared in person. :) Do you remember her by chance?
Tips for frying...buy a fry daddy.
Well thanks for the report, but I'm sorry it didn't go so great. I agree, it's tricky to fry. Don't have any tips for you as of yet. But I do have a deglazing story...I deglazed the turkey roaster at Thanksgiving for the gravy. The trouble was that the chicken broth I had put in the bottom of the pan had evaporated and pretty much burned up. Deglazing a pan with burnt broth=burnt gravy. Oops. I learned my lesson there. Props for trying a new recipe though!
Suzanne ! You must write the story of the Kuhn's baby-sitting scary night. Find a good illustrator (?), and "you could make a million !"
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