Breaded Chicken

Photo: flickr user mvl1014

Ingredients

2 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 -lb. fryers, cut into serving pieces

2 cups Milk

2 cups Flour

3 tablespoons Chef's Salt (see below)

4 whl eggs

1/2 cup Milk

1/2 cup Water

4 To 6 cups bread crumbs

Shortening for frying

1 cup Salt

1 tablespoon Spanish paprika

1 teaspoon Ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon Ground white pepper

1/4 teaspoon Celery salt

1/4 teaspoon Garlic salt

Preparation

Crisp fried chicken is one of the things that I always find contradictory instructions for. "ALWAYS cover the frying chicken."

"NEVER cover the frying chicken." This is from "The Chef's Secret Cook Book" and directly addresses the question. It works too. I tried this out last night (used a bunch of chicken wings rather than whole cut up chickens) and came up with a crispy, nice batch of fried chicken. The trick is explained in the "Chef's Secret" section below. BTW, I used plain ol' commercial seasoned salt instead of the

"Chef's Salt" called for and it turned out just fine.

1. When cutting the chicken into serving pieces, separate the thighs from the drumsticks, cut each breast in half, leaving a part of the breast meat on each wing, and, if you wish, cut two separate back pieces.

2. Take out all the small bones like the rib cage, backbone, collarbone, etc.,leaving only the main bones in the pieces.

3. Mix the flour with the Chef's Salt. Beat the eggs with the 1/2 cup milk and the water, then strain through a sieve.

4. Dip each chicken piece in the 2 cups milk, let the milk drip off, then dip it in the flour-spice mixture. Be sure to completely cover with the flour mixture. Shake off excess flour and then dip in the egg wash. Turn the piece to be sure no dry spots remain, then place the piece on the top of the piled up bread crumbs, Sprinkle more bread crumbs over the chicken until completely covered, then gently but firmly press down so that the crumbs really adhere to the chicken. Shake off excess crumbs and lay the chicken parts on a paper covered tray, skin side up. Continue until all chicken is breaded.

5. In a large frying pan which has a lid, beat half of the shortening to approximately 360F and carefully, one by one, put in the chicken pieces, skin side up. Add the chicken slowly so that the fat remains hot. Cover the pan, adjust the beat to medium, and cook for about 10 to 12 minutes.

6. Remove cover, turn pieces, and fry, uncovered, for another 10 minutes or so. Remove the pieces to a warm place on absorbent paper and keep warm until served.

CHEF'S SECRET: By straining the egg-milk-water mixture, called egg wash, you avoid having big parts of the egg white adhere to some pieces so that there is not enough of the egg wash for other pieces.

Also, the straining makes the coating even.

If you want to avoid lumps of flour and bread crumbs on your fingers, designate one hand as "wet" and the other as "dry." With the wet hand, handle the uncoated chicken, dip it into and remove it from the, milk, and place it on the flour. Sprinkle flour over it with the dry hand, and coat it and lift it out with the dry hand. Place it in the egg wash with the dry hand, lift it out with the wet hand, and then finish with the, dry hand. It sounds complicated, but if you learn the trick you can prepare large amounts of chicken without ever getting lumps on your fin fingers.

It is important to cover the pan while the bottom of the chicken is frying as this keeps it tender. Frying the pieces without a cover after turning makes the skin crisp.

CHEF'S SALT:Mix well and use instead of salt:Be careful to use garlic salt, not garlic powder, If you use garlic powder a small pinch is enough.

Makes 8 servings.