The Yummiest Fried Chicken

Fiu! well it's been a while followers, but have no fear, I'm still posting, and once I have completed my last final (I'm almost done!) I will be posting steadily alllllll summer long.
To kick things off though I thought I'd start with one of my favorites, that really represents my past, instead of my present; southern food instead of italian food. This was definitely inspired by my lovely visitors, Laurel and Ginger. They came to visit me here in Italy and they're from Blacksburg like me! We decided to have a big southern feast like the good ol' days in Virginia, complete with biscuits, mashed taters, and fried chicken. Unfortunately due to a lack of kitchen space, thermometers, pans, and general know-how, I didn't do southern style friend chicken, but more like breaded, pan fried chicken. But, my dear followers, TRUST ME on this one- you will not miss out with this recipe. It was around the table loved by all, Italians included. We served it simply with some buttermilk biscuits and honey, fresh romaine salad and some beer. PERFECT! Please give this recipe a try if you don't mind making a mess in your kitchen and you want some deeeeeeeeeeelish food!

Thanks also to Lars and Ging for their help in the execution of the dinner (lars made the biscuits, ginger the potatoes) and thanks to Lani for helping me set up the assembly line, and keeping it up in running during the process :-)

The Yummiest Fried Chicken
(serves 12 with maybe leftovers)
1.3 kg (about 3 lbsish) chicken tenders (these were just boneless skinless breast filets)
2 cups of flour (ish)
3-4 eggs, beaten
2 cups of breadcrumbs (ish)
grated parmesan cheese (to your taste, we liked a lot)
salt
pepper (freshly cracked definitely key)
olive oil (probably about 3/4 cup I'd say)

1. set up your assembly line with 3 shallow soup bowls, the first with flour, the second with the egg yolks, the third with a mixture of the bread crumbs, grated parmesan, and pepper. (Add about half of all of the ingredients, and then add more as you go in order to be able too dip the chicken, and also to not put too much as the amounts were all estimations)

[the set up: see the chicken, flour, eggs, breadcrumbs?]

2. coat the bottom of a frying pan with olive oil and turn the heat on about medium, the oil shouldn't be too hot as it will either burn the chicken or splatter you, nor too cold cause it will make the chicken really heavy with oil

3. salt both sides of the chicken (gives the best flavor if you salt the chicken directly)

4. dip the chicken first in the flour to coat completely

[assembly lineage going on]

5. then dip the flour coated piece in the beaten eggs, until completely coated

6. dip in the bread crumb mixture, again to coat completely

[me and lani restocking the bread crumb mixture, now this is real teamwork=)]

7. Now transfer to the frying pan, and cook on each side about 3-4 minutes (the filets are really thin). It depends also on your pan size how many you can fit in the pan, because too many will cause the temperature of the oil to drop too much, so maybe 2-3 in a medium size pan, 4-5 in a larger skillet.

[sizzle sizzle]

8. Once they are golden brown on both sides, they are ready! Take them out and put on a dish with paper towels to absorb excess oil and then serve hot or keep warming in the oven while you finish the process, we were making this dish for a lot of people so we kept them warm on about 200 fahrenheit toaster oven. You definitely don't want them to keep cooking because at this point they are perfectly tender inside and crispy on the outside.


Buon appetito!