Saturday, November 14, 2009

Homemade Bread Crumbs + Chicken Breast Recipe

I enjoy cooking, but at the end of the day after caring for my toddler son, I am exhausted and I don't want to deal with multiple ingredients and complicated directions. So here's a recipe for those of you who have the same dread about turning on the oven. It even involves making your own breadcrumbs!

Ingredients:
--Boneless skinless chicken breast-- usually around three come in a package- The brand I used was Empire Kosher Organic.
--2 cloves of fresh peeled garlic
--2 slices of bread (I used whole wheat, but really any bread will do).
--Three large tablespoons of mayonnaise (I use Safflower Mayonasie because it tastes better and is slightly healthier than regular mayo)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven t0 300 degrees.

2. Take slices of bread and place them in oven for 15 minutes or until crispy. **note, do not raise the temperature from 300! Your bread will burn.

3. Remove slices of bread and place in two zip lock bags.
4. Take a rolling pin, use all the aggression and frustration you have (I don't know about you, but I have a bunch) and roll the crap out of those pieces of bread.

5. At this end of this cathartic process, you (theoretically) should have two zip lock bags full of fine breadcrumbs. Place them in a medium sized bowl and take out your handy dandy cheese grater.


5. The next two ingredients you will need are the mayonnaise and the garlic; Garlic first.
One by one take two cloves of garlic and shred them (using the cheese grater) into the bowl of breadcrumbs. Then mix the shredded garlic with your homemade breadcrumbs. You can add whatever spices you like, salt, pepper, basil, cumin etc.

**Note I could not take pictures of the next part of the process because my hands were covered in mayonnaise!

6. Take the chicken breast and place in the largest bowl you have. Spoon the mayonnaise onto the chicken and spread all over with your hands.

7. Then, dip the chicken into your bread crumb concoction one side and then the other. You're going to want to wash your hands after your brush with the mayonnaise...

8. Raise oven temperature to 350 degrees.

9. Pour some olive oil (or any oil you like) on a glass pan (I use my glass pyrex pans for this meal) and place chicken in pan.

10. Place in oven. Your breaded chicken should look like this:

**Note, I added some hot sauce which is why this chicken is tinged with a red hue.

11. Cook for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Set your timer!

12. After 30 minutes broil on high for 3-5 minutes to give the chicken a crispy effect.

13. Take chicken out of oven and enjoy! I know my son did...

2 comments:

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