Delish Chicken Francese
They fried up nice and golden brown
Let’s see how this un-crisped fried chicken turns out
Difficulty: 1/5
Ingredient Availability: 5/5
Time: 1hr 30 minutes
I don’t really remember why I chose this recipe. I had found it and bookmarked it well before I started this blog. I suppose it looked simple enough and seemed somewhat interesting. A fried chicken dish that doesn’t come out crispy on purpose was something new to me. Plus, the more I cook, the harder it is to find a place where lemon doesn’t make things better.
Key Ingredients and Omissions:
You might have noticed I tend to skip out on garnishes
Nothing important in this recipe was left out. I just didn’t garnish it at the end with parsley.
Instead of using canola or peanut oil for this recipe, I used what I had: vegetable oil. I doubt this made much of a difference.
Tools:
Pan/skillet
Pans or other for dredging
Cooking Review:
Pounding and seasoning chicken: 26 minutes
After cutting each chicken breast in half, I pounded each one to make them thinner (close to 1/4 inch). I put a pice of plastic wrap on the counter, followed by a piece of chicken and another piece of plastic wrap. I used a small pan to pound the chicken, which was very slippery and hard to control. The chicken would move and come out from under the top piece of plastic wrap while barely getting thinner with each whack. I recommend using a more focused pounding method if you have one. If I made this again, I would’ve used a rolling pin. If you have a meat mallet, use that. Once everything had been made as thin as I’d like, I seasoned both sides of each piece of chicken with salt and pepper.
Be generous with the salt and pepper
Preparation for frying: 20 minutes
I used two cake pans to to make the dredging stations. One was just flour, while the other was egg, garlic powder, and salt. I then added oil to to skillet and heated it up.
Frying: 24 minutes (4 minutes per side, 3 batches)
After coating each piece of chicken in the egg and flour, I let each side fry for 3-4 minutes per side. I then placed them on a paper towel lined baking sheet while I continued with the remaining batches. I did end up needing a little extra flour than what the recipe called for.
They look pretty good without the sauce
Making Sauce and finishing: 20 minutes
One tip when making the sauce: When tossing the butter in the remaining flour and adding it into the wiped out skillet, don’t add any of the stuck on eggy bits. They will not break down in the sauce later. I fished most of those pieces out once I noticed that they wouldn’t disappear. Otherwise, this step is pretty easy, combining the rest of the ingredients and cooking them down. The chicken is then added to the sauce and heated through before serving. I had to do this last part in two batches, as not all of the chicken fit in the skillet at once.
Analysis:
I really enjoyed the combination of flavors in this dish. The lemon wasn’t over powering and paired very well with the garlic and butter flavors. Of course, the chicken wasn’t crispy at all, and I’m honestly not sure if it ever was, which isn’t a problem. The chicken was tender and juicy, too (something easy to mess up with chicken breast). Given the simplicity of the recipe and the impressive flavors, I’m giving this recipe a 9/10. The only missteps were that there wasn’t enough flour and that the recipe wasn’t quite clear enough about the butter flour tossing step, which could lead to a lumpy sauce.
