"The Canon," Part II: Pan fried chicken

I will admit, right up front, that fried chicken intimidates me. I do not make it well. I have tried, but it is one of those dishes that just defies my efforts. I am determined to try it again, very soon, but for now....

When I speak of the fried chicken that intimidates me, I am speaking of those varities that involve letting the chicken sit in butttermilk overnight, and then coating them and frying them in cups and cups and cups of melted lard, or oil, or what have you. I am NOT speaking of the panfried stuff, which is where I turn my attention now.

For those of us who are too frightened of REAL fried chicken to do it, pan fried chicken can come to the rescue. I am not going to say that it is better or not as good as "Southern fried chicken," it is a dish onto itself.

There are thousands of variations on this theme. Again, when checking these, I found mind boggling variations. All, however, share two characteristics: there is a dip into which you immerse the chicken before coating it. They all work from dairy and eggs. I did not find cream in the mix, but of course, buttermilk and yogurt show up. So do the various types of mik. And the dairy is combined with eggs. As with corn pudding, the number of eggs varies; however, as a 'rule' I found that one egg was good for half a cup to one cup of dairy.

Then there is the coating. Oi, the coating. Flour. Corn meal. Cracker crumbs. Potato chip crumbs. Bread crumbs. Cereal. You name it, it's been used to coat chicken (When I was growing up, Nana used bread crumbs). One variation caught my fancy: corn flakes.

Now, I have no patience for ready to eat cereals generally. I eat one, in order to, ahem, "keep things moving," but I wish I didn't have to. They're expensive, they're nutritionally unsound, and the cereal companies are making a fortune selling you a box of cereal that has 11 cents worth of ingredients in it, for 5 bucks. Corn flakes, however, have an inherent sweetness (from the corn, AND the sugar added during the processing), that seemed to be a good fit for the chicken, which I planned to serve with a sharper sauce. So that was my coating. Here's the recipe. Again, make this with your kids if you like. They will love this recipe, and I am going to offer some suggestions along the way, to make this more kid friendly.

You'll need a bowl, and a flat surface to do this, like a baking sheet or a big, wide pan. You'll need milk and eggs, in a ration of half cup milk to one egg. I cannot give you precise numbers, because it will depend on how many pieces you make. Start with half a cup , and one egg, and mi it well. Let four boneless, skinless chicken breasts sit in this, while you get the corn flakes ready.

How do you get them ready? By crushing them. You can do this anyway you like. I just got my hands in and went to work. How much? This is hard to say. Start with three cups or so, and add more if you need it. After you've crushed them, add a teaspoon of salt.

Now, here's what may be the most important thing to know about this recipe. Corn flakes, when they get wet, will stick to anything, including each other. So unless you have a nice, flat surface that is going to accomodate all of your chicken in a single layer, the crumbs are going to stick to each other, and not to your chicken. So you can either use a flat surface, or you can add more crumbs for each piece of chicken. Hard call.

Take the pieces out of the milk mixture and let the excess drain off. Then, coat them in the crumbs, pressing the crumbs in if you need to. Like I say, this WILL tend to get frustrating later in the process. Stick with it.

When you're done, add a third cup of vegetable oil to a nonstick pan, and when it's hot, add the chicken, over medium heat. Don't crowd the pan: be ready to do several batches if necessary.

How long to cook? A real good question. If you're making this for adults, who like a browner, darker flavor, six minutes to a side will do it, but you will get a very dark product. If you are going to cook for children, who will want it paler, I would say three to four minutes to the side. This won't finish cooking them; however, you can move the chicken to a baking sheet and finish it in a 375 degree oven, for about ten minutes. You'll get a lighter product that the children will love.

One of the benefits of this recipe is that you will wind up with leftovers such that you can make another controversial American canonical food: hush puppies. Mix leftover crumbs with leftover milk and eggs, form egg shaped balls, and fry them in the chicken oil, until they're brown on both sides, and try not to eat them all.

The issue of what is, and is not "canonical" food will be with us for a while. Theorizing is fine, but as Calvin Trillin once wrote, "let's eat."

Indeed.