Menus 2Nov-8Nov

[nwhiker]

Plan for afternoon/evening of 3Nov:

Stress bake, cake for sure, maybe cookies. Dinner will be mac and cheese. Total diet blow out, but I figure it'll be either celebratory cake, or drowning my sorrow in comfort food.

Rest of the week is more boring and mundane.

Monday: leftovers.


Tuesday: Baking. Mac and cheese. Homemade, not Linnea's powder crap.


Wednesday: chicken salad on artisan rolls. Salad?


Thursday: pork loin chops, stuffing. Asparagus. Testing out a recipe.


Friday: sausage, mushrooms, and rice.


Saturday: eggplant, sundried tomatoes, goat cheese on rolls.


Sunday: waffles with panko chicken. Fruit salad.



Dh and Linnea like the whole waffles and fried chicken thing. I'm going to see if we can approximate something at home. I might even try to fry the panko chicken.

Comments

[camelsamba]

Over the summer I learned how to make panko-coated pan-fried chicken cutlets (aka chicken ton katsu?) from Zane, before he became a vegetarian. Toby loves this so now I try to make it fairly regularly. (I oven-cooked it once; not quite as great per Toby but acceptable to us adults.) I remember my mom used to make "real" fried chicken - chicken on bones - every now and then. I've never tried that though.

[nwhiker]

Wow. I cannot imagine frying chicken with bones. The only things I've ever done have been fallafel and hushpuppies, and those are easy. I despise frying, to be honest. I might try pan-frying, that's a better idea than what I was considering, which was to cut the chicken to obtain nugget size pieces and attempt to deep fry those.

I'm lazy, I buy panko "breaded" chicken from Costco (because rowers...), but how complicated is your recipe? :)

[camelsamba]

i used to make parmesan chicken "nuggets" or tenders in the oven. I should try that again.

I'll put the link to the video Zane originally shared with me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqXa7k_cpnQ
The three step breading is key. The process is kind of labor intensive, but I've found a few short cuts.
1. i don't really bother with the pounding any more (focus more on cutting thin).
2. I've learned that I don't have to deep fry, and I don't bother to temp the oil any more. But it might be good to do it the first time. (Can check oil temp by dropping in a few of the bread crumbs.)
3. I also learned a trick from a NYT cooking article, to tilt/twirl the pan when you first put the chicken in. This supposedly makes the coating lighter / airier.
4. I make lots; they reheat fine in toaster oven (or regular, if you don't have toaster oven). Do all or a lot of the breading before starting frying, rather than alternating.

The example is chicken parmesan, but Zane swaps in more Asian leaning spices and tops with tonkatsu sauce. Since we don't currently have tonkatsu sauce, Matthew & I use a bibimbap sauce and Cassie uses ketchup.