hello this is chef john from food wishes comm with crispy garlic bread crumb
chicken that's right there's nothing like a crispy fried chicken cutlet so
when I got a food wish for that recently I was pretty excited but then I
remembered we'd already done a video for that so I decided to try the impossible
and do a baked version that was almost as good and not only did this method
help us avoid that messy breading station in big pan of splattering how
grease I also think it produced a more flavorful product so with that let's go
ahead and get started with one of my least favorite ingredients ever and that
would be the boneless skinless chicken breast which I almost never used because
I really like skin bob believe it or not this is one of the few recipes I know
where the boneless skinless chicken breast actually works better and what
we'll do season those generously on both sides with a mixture of kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper and of course a little touch of cayenne and by
the way for some recipes it works better if you remove that little tenderloin
also called the filet but here I actually think it's gonna work better if
we leave those attached and yes those are kind of torn up so whoever cut up
this chicken might need to sharpen their knife but anyway like I said we'll go
ahead and season those on both sides and then we'll head to the stove where we're
gonna sear these over high heat and about a tablespoon of olive oil and
we're gonna want to start with a smoother side down and that pan should
be nice and hot when these go in alright we want these to start sizzling and
searing immediately and once we have those placed in the pan we're not going
to touch them or do anything for exactly two minutes okay just let him sear and
if you're one of these people that hear something like that and thinks to
yourself I could probably touch it a little that's not gonna be a problem is
it yes it is because it might be sticking and you could tear some flesh
off but if you don't touch it for a couple minutes that crust will actually
release from the pan and we should be able to easily turn it over without
incident and then what we'll do is give that second side exactly two minutes
before removing those from the pan onto a plate and the reason we're only giving
these a couple minutes is because most of the cooking is going to be done in
the oven so that our garlicky breadcrumbs have enough time to really
get nice and brown so we do not want to cook them too much at this stage and in
addition to giving those breasts a little extra flavor by searing we're
also building up some beautiful flavor the bottom of the pan where those
chicken juices have now caramelized and then what we'll do once our chicken
seared is turn our heat down to medium-low and add a nice big chunk of
butter and as soon as that melts or almost melts we'll go ahead and dump in
the star of the show about a 1/2 cup of panko style breadcrumbs which are just
like regular breadcrumbs only way way more awesome and we'll cook this on
medium-low for about three or four minutes until those breadcrumbs just
start to turn a little bit golden and while you can do this with regular
breadcrumbs the panko style works so much better here because they're a much
larger much more jagged crumb which is gonna provide for a much crispier
texture in the final product and yes you can make your own and we will cover that
a little bit in the blog post but anyway we'll cook those crumbs in that chicken
flavored butter for a few minutes at which point we'll add the other star of
the show a whole bunch of crushed or finely minced garlic and we'll stir that
in and cook it for exactly one minute all right we're basically just taking
the raw edge off that garlic since that's of course gonna cook more when we
place our chicken in the oven and then what we'll do after we've cooked that
stirring for 60 seconds is turn off the heat and add the last two ingredients
some finely and freshly chopped Italian parsley as well as a couple tablespoons
of grated fresh parmigiano Reggiano or what my American friends would call
Parmesan cheese and when the heat off we'll go ahead and stir that in and that
is gonna be it for our crispy garlic bread crumb topping which at this point
is already crispy but it's gonna get even more crispy once baked so what
we'll do is just reserve that til needed while we move on to make what I'm
calling the glue and all that is is a spoon of mayonnaise to which we're gonna
add a little splash of aged balsamic vinegar as well as a spoon of some nice
hot Dijon and by the way if you were planning on customizing this by sneaking
in some exotic herbs and spices this would be the place to do it okay I was
thinking something like hot smoked paprika or maybe some curry powder would
be nice so as usual feel free to adapt this to your liking
I mean you are after all the disco Stu out of your pool a glue but enhanced or
not what we'll do is spread that over nice and evenly mostly on the top
surface but we're definitely going to want to get some on the sides as well
and then once we have that stuff applied we'll go ahead and spoon over our bread
crumbs equally distributed over both breasts
and then once we have that pile down we'll give it a little press with the
back of our spoon firmly but gently and we're most concerned with the top
surface area but we will also attempt to apply a little bit to the sides as well
and then once those are set we'll take a spatula and carefully transfer those
back into our pan and as we're doing that we can try to get some of the loose
crumbs on the plate to sort of stick on to the bottom which I was only partially
successful doing but hey I'm still glad I tried and then what we'll do once
those have been transferred back into the pan is pour in about a quarter cup
of chicken broth I'll be careful not to splash it over the top all right we
don't want wet crumbs but I did want that under the chicken to not only add
moisture to the cooking process but also to help prevent any crumbs on the bottom
from burning since we're gonna finish this by placing this into the center of
a very hot 450 degree oven for about 10 to 12 minutes or until our chicken is
cooked through and our crispy garlic bread crumbs are beautifully browned and
no sorry you don't get a fork scrape I didn't want to mess up the tops and then
if we want we could serve these immediately and simply spoon those pan
drippings onto the plates but what I'm going to do is let the chicken rest for
a couple minutes while we make a very quick very easy pan sauce which we can
do by splashing in a little extra chicken broth as well as squeezing in
the juice of one lemon and we'll bring that back to the stove and place it over
high heat and please be very careful because that handle is really really hot
which would be a super easy thing to forget so while this pan sauce is easy
it's also very dangerous so be sure to keep a towel in your hand and don't let
go till you're done and that's it we will simply reduce those liquids by
about half and if we blend drizzle in a little more balsamic vinegar for a
little extra touch of acidity plus it's going to deepen that color just a little
and make it look a little more like a chicken sauce another than checking it
for seasoning that pan sauce is done and it is ready to spoon around our plated
chicken and you don't have to strain it but I did because it's going to look
better so we'll apply a few spoons of that around our beautiful breasts which
in case you're wondering is sitting next to some hearts will remain with a Korean
dressing which is just like russian dressing
except it's Korean I'm still working on that but one
I perfected I will share but anyway is the wise man once said you don't make
friends with salad so let me grab a fork and knife and dig into this chicken and
as usual I will start with the smallest driest end because if that piece is
awesome the thicker moister parts in the middle
are going to be even more awesome and awesome it was alright the combination
of those super crispy garlicky crumbs and that moist flavorful chicken really
was fantastic and speaking to texture one thing I loved about this is the
breadcrumbs took on two different textures okay most of them were really
crispy and crunchy but some of them from around the sides and the ones that have
fallen into the sauce had observed some of that delicious moisture and we're
very reminiscent of like a dressing or a stuffing so I really did enjoy that
contrast as well it was sort of like eating a crispy fried chicken with a
side of stuffing which are never served together but maybe should be and above
and beyond the incredible taste and texture that nice thick layer of crispy
garlic bread crumbs really help keep the meat from drying out which is a very
very common problem with using boneless skinless chicken breasts but here that
was absolutely not a problem so I am really loving this technique for many
reasons but anyway that's it what we're calling crispy garlic bread crumb
chicken well maybe not exactly the same as a fried breaded chicken cutlet this
technique really did provide for an amazingly similar experience with less
prep and way way way less of a mess and now if you'll excuse me I need to go and
perfect that Korean dressing but in the meantime I really do hope you give this
a try soon so head over to food wishes calm for all the ingredient amounts of
more info as usual and as always enjoy
you