Batter and Breading
Source of Recipe
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Recipe Introduction
This recipe has been revised to distinguish between batter-dipped and
breading-dipped. Batter usually has only an egg and liquid coating
and is deep fried. An additional coat of bread crumbs, Parmesan
cheese, or crumbled corn flakes makes a crunchier coating and can be
easily baked (for those like this cook who are on a low-cholesterol
diet).
List of Ingredients
Many recipes marinate the chicken pieces in the
refrigerator for several hours in a buttermilk mixture before dipping
in batter.
One recipe for Shrimp Po' Boys tosses cooked, peeled, and deveined
shrimp with olive oil, rolls them in bread crumbs, salt, and pepper,
and
broils them in a single layer on a baking sheet for 4 minutes.
Some general rules of thumb from Joy of Cooking to make fritter or
tempura batters:
* Resting the batter for a couple hours in the refrigerator breaks down
gluten before it becomes too elastic for the coating mixture to
adhere. Then it really won't stick! Using fewer strokes when
mixing also helps.
* Food and cooking surfaces, of whatever you're coating, should be dry
to allow batter to adhere.
* Egg whites should be beaten at the last minute before cooking, or
coating becomes soggy.
* A general rule of thumb for baking batter-dipped fish seems to be
10-12 minutes in a "very hot oven," or till fish flakes. (The editor is
still trying to figure out how to know when fish flakes without
destroying the integrity of the batter coating.)
An author (unknown) of recipes for fried chicken from the Washington
Post, 1/4/95, holds this principle sacred in both batter dipping and
breading: lightly dust with flour before dipping in egg. If this
important step is missed, he/she says, the breaded coating or the
batter
crust will roll or peel off. He also prefers soaking chicken in
buttermilk or some other liquid before dipping in flour and egg.
Recipe
For batter:
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cp beer
1/2 cp flour
2-3 T Tabasco sauce
pinch of salt
2 egg whites
1. Sift flour and salt in a bowl.
2. Stir in beaten egg, then gradually mix in beer and flour.
3. Set aside at room temp for an hour.
4. When hour is almost up, beat egg whites and fold into batter.
5. Fry according to instructions below.
For breading:
1 cp flour
1-2 cp breaded corn flakes or bread crumbs
2 T spice mix (this cook's favorites are sage, thyme, sage, garlic
poweder and black, white, and red pepper)
1. Place flour, batter mixture and breading mixture on separate plates.
2. Dredge first in flour, then dip in batter, then dredge in corn
flakes/bread crumbs.
3. Bake according to instructions below.
For baking:
Place on cookie or baking sheet, drizzle with 2 T melted butter if
you're feeling decadent, and bake at 425 degrees for about 45 minutes
or
til tender and no longer pink and coating is crisp and golden.
For frying:
3 T butter
3 T oil
Combine butter and oil in frying pan, enough to coat a frying pan with
1/2" to 3/4" and heat till it starts to smoke (365°), and add chicken
pieces, skin side down. Cover pan and cook about 10 minutes. Turn,
remove cover, and cook another 10-20 minutes or till done.
Drain on paper towels then place on large cookie sheet with brown paper
and keep warm in 250 ° oven.
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