Recipes – Breaded Fried Chicken and Squash
Filed Under: Do It Yourself, recipe on September 27, 2009
This is not something I had not made in some time. We’d had fried squash, unbreaded, several times this summer, but this was the first breaded fried squash I’d made all year. Normally, I don’t like to go to all the trouble it takes, but in this case, I was breading chicken to fry for dinner anyway, so I figured since they’re relatively the same, I’d do both.
Here’s the results.
All you need for the chicken is some dried bread crumbs, crushed, and some spices to throw in. And chicken, of course. You’ll also need oil to fry in the pan–I usually use olive oil, for the extra flavor, but you can use chicken grease, vegetable oil, or whatever you’d like.
Crush the bread crumbs fairly thoroughly. For this, I like to use my dough kneader that I got at the thrift store for $2. It’s a 1970s model before they were making them from wire. I don’t like the wire ones because they’re too flimsy to be effective. In this dry mix, I added crushed cilantro, black pepper, basil, and lemon seed. I always go light with the amounts, however, since chicken absorbs a lot of flavor from external sources like this. Other things that are good are minced garlic or garlic powder, onion salt or powder, or chives. Another option, which I used all the time when I was single and poor, was to crush croutons (I could pocket several packets from the pizza restaurant I was working at) as they’re pre-seasoned and all. I don’t recommend stealing them, of course.
Once you have the crumbs, heat a pean over medium-high heat with your oil in it. You want a shallow puddle of oil throughout the pan, maybe an 1/8 or so deep. Use a brush to coat the chicken pieces in oil (I just dip the brush in the pan, but you can do it from a bowl). Then roll the chicken into the crumbs and spices, coating thoroughly. If there are parts that lift up, do so and stuff the “pockets” formed.
Once coated, drop the chicken into the pan and brown on both sides, about ten minutes or so per side. Tongs are a big help here, but you can use two long-handled forks or spoons as well. Once the chicken is thoroughly browned on all sides, put it into a baking dish (no oil) and bake at 400ºF for about twenty minutes, turning halfway through. This soaks in and removes the oil from the skin.
If you prefer the chicken crispy fried, lower the temperature to 350ºF and cook for ten to fifteen minutes more.
Then eat and enjoy!
To bread squash, mix as above and ad olive oil to the bread mix to make it sticky–about the consistency of a gingerbread pie crust. Cut the squash into slices that are about 1/4 inch thick and bite-sized (maybe an inch around). Dip those slices into the bread coating, getting them as well-coated as possible, then drop into the frying pan with oil (as above, for chicken).
Fry for about one to two minutes, turn and fry the other side. You want them to be slightly black at the edges and brown overall. Transfer to a plate with a paper towel or non-stick cloth (thin cotton or non-wooly cloth of whatever type) to soak out the extra oil.
Once most of the oil is dried out, remove the breaded and browned squash to a wok or similarly-shaped pan. Cook over medium heat in the wok, tossing constantly, for about eight or ten minutes. This finishes the cooking inside the squash, tenderizing it.
Serve and enjoy!
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