We've been trying to economize lately and that included pulling the reigns on my culinary experiments. Sometimes good food can be expensive. So, Derek and I decided that for a week, or at least a couple of days, we would only use what we already had to make dinner. Tonight it's scrambled eggs with bacon and spinach mixed in. Sweet! I guess I could have made spinach omelets but ,oddly enough, I have no idea how and was too lazy to look up a recipe. Last night, however, did not go as planned.
We happened to have chicken strips in the freezer, and Gluten-free bread crumbs (basically cornmeal) left over from a recipe tried a couple of weeks before. What about chicken fingers?! I haven't been able to fry anything since I stopped using wheat flour and, man, something fried sounded really good. Fried chicken!!!! How I miss fried chicken. The golden, crispy skin covering moist, plump meat seasoned and fried to perfection. The salty crunch of the first bite as it revels in your mouth. The joy of licking your fingers clean from a tasty chicken leg! Well, chicken fingers, but it's fried and it's chicken right? Sadly, I must wait a little longer for such enjoyment. I very lovingly breaded the chicken, thoughts of crispy joy dancing about in my head, and slowly began to notice that little corn capsules were forming around the tips of my fingers. If I didn't' know it was corn I would have thought it was thick, liquid concrete with an amazing amount of crazy glue mixed in. No matter, flour does the same thing right? That's where the similarities ended. While the chicken looked very nice breaded and laying on the plate, once they were in the oil they stuck to everything. The sides, the bottom, the fork, the chicken finger next to it, and if there was anything else to stick to I'm sure they would have just to spite me. By the time they were cooked and I was done wrestling them to the plate, most of the breading was gone, leaving behind huge bald spots that reminds one of a vulture with a bad molt. Well, maybe not, but it was pretty sad looking. As there wasn't enough breading left to classify the chicken as fried or fingers, we needed to figure something else to do with it. Thankfully, Derek had the solution. We had Jasmine rice, corn and peas & carrots, so we cut up the chicken, cooked the rice, warmed the veggies and combined them all into a happy bowl of goodness! The slight sweetness of the rice and what was left of the breading mixed with the textures and the veggies and rice were wonderful! Success! An enjoyable meal was had by all! So, sometimes the unplanned is far yummier than sad attempts.
The moral: cornmeal bread crumbs are not for frying, only baking. Oh, and Derek is a genius.
The End.
