Cooking: Success! (Mostly!)

[thistlechaser]

Based on blogs I've read from other folks who can't cook, a good way to start is to keep making one dish over and over until you can reliably get it right every time, then move on to another dish and another. Of the many foods I miss from New York, chicken ...

Okay, what the heck. I googled to try to find out how the whole name of parm cheese is spelled, and when I entered 'chicken cutlets', intending to type parm next, the first suggested search term was "chicken cutlets bra inserts". Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over. Searching more... wow. "Chicken Cutlets Silicone Breast Enhancers" is a brand name. WTF. Seriously.

Anyway! Chicken cutlet parmesan (which totally looks spelled wrong) is my first goal-dish to be able to cook. It's amazing in NY. Really flat, crunchy on the outside, with yummy sauce and gooey cheese on top.

Step one: Make good chicken cutlets! Alas, the likely deal breaker here is that I'd like it to be as healthy as possible, which means not fried. Today's success was fried (but I made that decision on purpose, to see if my process was right, then I can try to make it bake-friendly).

Second issue is that this would likely not be good for company. I liked the flavor, but I bet it'd be bland as heck for anyone else. (I used just a little salt and pepper, no other spices.)

Egg wash, panko bread crumbs (only ones I had on hand, but basically "plain"), egg, bread crumbs. (I forgot to put flour out, so I just went through those two twice.)

This time I put a crapton of oil in the pan. Enough that the whole bottom was coated even if I didn't tilt the pan. Cooked 3-4 minutes per side.

Turned out really well! Not perfect though. They were a little thicker than I'd have liked, but it was 11 AM and my neighbors sleep in, so I didn't want to pound them too much. Worryingly about half the oil vanished from the pan. I assume it went into the chicken, unless my house is infested with cooking oil fairies. I did drain them on paper towels after, but... I worry how many calories were in these.

The sauce and parm parts were failures, but as I used sauce from a jar and shredded cheese from a bag, that's not surprising. The chicken was what I was concentrating on.

Getting kind of tired of cooking chicken, so I might not try again until next weekend. Still! Mostly a success! If I were willing to eat these fried every time, I'd call it a full success. The only real issue was that they were still too thick, so I could just cut them thinner or pound more to fix that!

Comments

[liedra.livejournal.com]

Aha! Now you'd fit right in in Australia -- we love our "chicken parmas" (or "chicken parmigiana") :D Good job on the chicken! Chicken itself is pretty bland yeah -- that's usually why you smother it in sauces and spices :D

What sort of oil are you using btw? You can cut down a lot on the unhealthiness of panfried food by using canola (rapeseed) or olive oils. Beware of olive oil though that as soon as it gets hot you put your food into it, I left mine unattended once while I was chopping up things and it almost caught on fire! (The pre-cursor to that was a lot of smoke coming from the oil.) But other than keeping an eye on it, olive oil's great. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Aie! That's one of my biggest fears in frying, that it will randomly catch on fire! Usually I use olive oil, but I was nearly out and didn't want to chance a fire (I know it has a lower smoking point), so I just used plain vegetable oil.

And yay! Yet another reason to want to visit Australia! :D

[liedra.livejournal.com]

One thing I do now to tell if my oil is ready is just throw a bit of whatever I'm cooking in - a bit of onion or breadcrumb or something. When I hear it start to sizzle, I know it's ready! And don't worry too much about olive oil, just don't leave it to heat for 5 mins by itself :)

Canola has a higher temp resistance so it's not so bad :) I generally use it when I'm pan frying chunks and slabs of things, and olive for when I'm doing something like a pasta sauce. I don't know what is in "vegetable oil" though :)

And yeah! Everyone should visit Australia! :D

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I think canola and vegetable oil are the same thing, though I'm not certain!

[itsbacon.livejournal.com]

CHICKEN BREASTS!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

They wiggle! They jiggle! They're... cold and slimy?!

[sahn.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the chicken parm. I coat the chicken with flour before adding the egg wash. If you do flour, then egg wash, then bread crumbs, the bread crumbs are supposed to stick better.

I don't think you need to pound it flat. At least I don't. Just call it something else. You can serve it with ketchup or waffles and call it fried chicken. Or you can serve it with honey mustard and call it chicken strips. Or you can serve it with teriyaki or katsu sauce or japanese curry and call it chicken katsu (my favorite option). Well... I guess katsu is supposed to be flat... but I'm still too lazy to pound it. I'd just look for thinly sliced chicken breast filets.

I don't use olive oil to fry because of the low smoke point. Besides, good olive oil is more expensive and frying things like chicken breasts tend to use a lot of oil. I have a small bottle of olive oil I use for dressings and a large jug of sunflower oil (though canola and corn oil are just as good) for frying and lubing up my pans. For frying, you can use refined olive oil instead of extra virgin olive oil. Refined olive oil has a high smoke point.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I had intended to use flour, I just forgot to put it out and my hands were all raw chickeny, so I figured I'd skip it this time. Using it is the best way though, I think.

I'd just look for thinly sliced chicken breast filets.

Ah, yeah, I wouldn't pound them if I had those. I buy whole boneless chicken breasts, and they're nearly an inch thick. Even butterflyed, they're still really thick... (Chickens have insane breasts nowadays!)

[sahn.livejournal.com]

I prefer dark meat so I usually buy thighs, but that's just me. :)