Today we are making chicken nuggets for grown ups.
So crispy, so tender, and so big you could call them chicken schnitzel, which admittedly
sounds more grown up.
What makes this chicken so tender and juicy is the yogurt marinade.
Yogurt has 3 functions in this dish.
The lactic acid makes the chicken more tender.
The acidity gives it great flavor.
And the last thing yogurt does for us is acting as the glue for the bread crumbs.
I don’t use what’s known as the standard breading procedure where you first dunk the
meat into flour, then egg, and finally breadcrumbs.
That’s an awful lot of dishes to dirty, and why?
Yogurt is plenty sticky on its own.
I know it’s a very casual dish, and it’s tempting to just wing all the quantities,
but I strongly advise against that.
If you coat your chicken with more yogurt than necessary, you’ll have to waste a lot
of paper towels and time to remove that yogurt later on.
It’s also very difficult to get the salt right without measuring it.
What you are making is a brine and judging the salinity of a brine by taste is not easy.
Here is the brine for 2 pounds of chicken.
Put 1/2 cup of plain yogurt into a medium bowl.
You want a plain yogurt that’s not very thick.
Alternatively you can use buttermilk or kefir.
Add 1 garlic clove grated on a microplane zester into a smooth paste.
The exact amount of garlic is not important, so feel free to use as much or as little as
you want.
The amount of salt is crucial, and unfortunately it’s tricky to measure.
If you are measuring by weight, the salt type doesn’t matter and you’ll need 8.4 grams
of salt — any salt you want.
But this amount is so small that a regular kitchen scale won’t measure it accurately.
So unless you have a high precision scale, I don’t recommend weighing the salt.
If you want to measure by volume, the salt type will make a huge difference because all
salts have different crystal shape, size, and density.
I’ll give you the volume for 3 salt types that are most common in the US.
By the way, my family just happened to mention over dinner the other day that comic san serif
is the most hated font on the internet.
Did they have to wait 8 years to tell me?
I seriously had no idea.
I asked them what’s so bad about it and they told me that it makes it look like I
am trying to be friendly.
And you know what -- they are absolutely right.
Giving people 4 different measurements for salt is kind of embarrassing, so I try to
use a friendly font to soften the blow.
Don’t worry, in real life, I am not friendly at all and from now on, I’ll use a font
to reflect that.
Anyway, where were we…
oh yeah, the brine.
I like to add 1 tsp of Dijon mustard, a pinch of cayenne, and some black pepper, but all
of them are optional and the amounts are flexible.
Mix it all up very thoroughly and we are ready to deal with the chicken.
The cut you want here are skinless, boneless chicken thighs.
Don’t even think about using chicken breasts for this dish.
They’ll be tougher, dryer, and more expensive.
The only reason I can see why someone would use breasts is because they want to reduce
the fat.
If that’s your goal, choose some other dish.
Pan frying requires a good bit of fat in the skillet, so changing the thighs for breasts
is not going to make a significant difference in your fat consumption.
Cover a cutting board with a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper.
It’s optional, but it makes the tenderizing step way less messy.
Check your chicken thighs for any remaining bones and cartilage.
If you have big chunks of fat or tendons dangling around, you can trim them, but don’t drive
yourself crazy.
Some fat is good and will result in a more succulent dish.
Lay out the chicken thighs leaving a little room around each piece since the pieces will
expand.
Cover with another piece of plastic wrap and beat your chicken with the flat side of a
meat tenderizer.
If you don’t have one, you could also use a skillet or a rolling pin.
The goal here is to end up with roughly the same thickness throughout to help the chicken
cook more evenly and to make the texture softer.
Our next step is to coat the chicken very thoroughly and very evenly in the yogurt mixture.
The easiest way to do that is to spread most of the yogurt on top of the chicken, leaving
just a little of the yogurt in the bowl.
Then put the thighs in the bowl on top of each other.
Shimmy them together to get the yogurt to spread out and you should end up with a very
even coating that is just thick enough to help the breadcrumbs stick.
Cover the chicken with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
But if you are in a rush, cooking the chicken right away is perfectly fine.
When I am choosing a skillet for this dish, my main priority is the size.
This dish can work in any pan that provides even heat distribution (stainless steel, non-stick,
cast iron), but because the pieces are so thin, you need a lot of surface area to lay
them out.
A 12 inch pan with sloped sides can fit 3 to 4 thighs, so plan accordingly.
Put enough oil in your pan to cover its bottom generously.
For a 12 inch pan with sloped sides I am using about 3 Tbsp of oil.
Choose an oil with a high smoke point.
Something like canola or grapeseed, not extra virgin olive oil.
Set the pan over moderately high heat and wait for the oil to shimmer.
While the pan is heating up, coat the chicken with Panko bread crumbs.
The bread crumb type will make a huge difference.
Panko are fluffy and produce the best crunch.
Gently press on the chicken to help the breadcrumbs stick.
Use two hands to get the pieces in the pan to prevent them from folding over.
They should sizzle on contact with the pan.
I’ll just cook 2 pieces for the video and save the rest for dinner.
Swirl the pan to distribute the oil evenly and let the first side brown without disturbing
the chicken.
Regulate the heat so that the first side takes 3 to 4 minutes to brown.
If the chicken browns too fast, it won’t have a chance to cook through.
If you start tinkering with it too soon, you might encounter sticking and mess up the breading,
so leave your chicken alone.
When you see a brown outline around each piece, it’s time to check if the underside is brown.
If some loose breadcrumbs get too dark, just push them away.
Slide a spatula under the chicken, support it from the top with your hand, and flip it
over.
Let’s do the second piece.
Add some more oil since the first side probably sucked up most of what you put in the pan
originally.
Cook until the second side is brown and the chicken reaches around 160F in the thickest
part.
If you don’t have a thermometer, don’t worry about it.
Chicken thighs have a huge range of temperatures at which they taste good.
Besides, testing thin pieces of meat with a thermometer is not very reliable anyway.
Get the pieces out of the pan and let them rest for 5 minutes.
These are just as tender as the processed chicken nuggets most American kids grow up
with, but the flavor is unbelievable.
Add some veggies and you have a very easy and very tasty meal.
If you want to learn more about buying chicken, here is a video you might find interesting,
and if you are ever in the Boston area, maybe I’ll see you in one of my classes.