Did They Eat It: Crusty Lemon Chicken

Crusty, it's funny how a word can sound so gross in some situations ("He had crusty eyes" and so delicious in others, "Oh it had the best bubbly crust on it."

I made our Monday night meal from that cookbook I mentioned before, Seat of the Pants Suppers. It's something we'd had before but, who knows! Liking it one night does not mean you'll like it the next. I sometimes think my children are tag teaming me, "Okay Max, you liked soup last week, this week you have to hate it and I'll love it. Go Team Make Our Mother COMPLETELY FUCKING NUTS."

You need bread crumbs to start out with, preferably Italian Seasoned bread crumbs. Below you will see Not Italian Bread Crumbs, I was out of them. 

So I made my own Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs following this recipe. Nice.

You'll also need the juice of a lemon.

And about one pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into four servings. I usually just buy a full set of breasts (Hello, Pornographic Googlers and/or Plastic Surgery Researchers!) and take my chances. If you were smarter than me (and owned a meat cleaver) you may want to smush your breasts down so they're sort of the same thickness. (Smush + Breasts, man you must be disappointed, Random Googler.)

Now, you dredge the chicken pieces in the bread crumbs, don't skimp on the bread crumbs. I try not to skimp but I'm always left with over half the bread crumbs left. Wasteful and I'm not sure I'm making my chicken crispy enough. Any suggestions? Should I dip them in an egg white first or something? (Nothing to add much fat to the recipe, I have an Incredible Shrinking Husband to think about over here.)

Now add half the olive oil (2 Tbsp) to a pan and heat over medium high heat. 

Also add the whole tablespoon of butter (don't tell Logan, I put TWO decadent tablespoons in our pan...naughty.)

Also add all the juice from that one lemon to the pan.

Place your chicken in the skillet and let cook until brown and crusty (I know....crusty...bleh. But it's good with butter and bread crumbs, trust me.)

Then flip over to the other side and add the other half of the olive oil.

Here's the other crusty (/delicious) side of the chicken when it was done cooking. I'll admit I had to turn down my heat a bit and cover the pan to get my pieces to cook through. I may have even over cooked, but that's what I like to do to chicken. Make it dry and tasteless. Luckily there was enough butter and oil in my pan to overcome my genetically given desire to destroy the flavor in pieces of meat. 

Look at what was left in the pan. I look at this picture and remember how badly I wished I had a little wine to toss in there and make a sauce. It was so delicious and CRUSTY looking I felt a little devastated while spending an hour scouring the pan clean. Mostly I felt devastated to be scrubbing a disgusting pan but you know what I mean.

So Did They Eat It?

Logan: Yep, really good. 
Max: Yeah, I can live with this.
Maddie: You sure you made this? Seems like something dad would cook.
Me: Wow, I'd eat this every day if it meant my family would all eat it. I might spend more time creating a side dish I would be more interested in. I like a lot more stuff going on with my dinner. We'll consider this a "Non-Challenging" meal (NO ONIONS!) for my family.

Here's the whole recipe: 

Crusty (In A Good Way) Lemon Chicken

1lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into four serving pieces
1 c. Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs (only have plain? Try this mix up.)
1/4 c olive oil (divided)
1 Tbs butter (or two if you're naughty like me)
Juice of one lemon

Dredge each piece of chicken in the bread crumbs. Don't skimp on crumbs (make sure to leave your tips on making crumbs stick in the comments, please!)

Heat half the olive oil, all the butter and all the lemon juice in skillet. 

Fry the chicken pieces over medium high heat until brown and crusty. Turn chicken over. 

Add rest of olive oil to pan and fry other side of your pieces until they're cooked through. 

*Optional add a slice of mozzarella cheese to the top of each portion and let melt before serving. (Sounds good to me, soul killing to 3 out of 4 people in this house. I skip it.)

Comments

[liveparadox]

That sounds really tasty. I've been reading your blog for a while now, and I was starting to wonder whether there was a meal out there somewhere that your whole family would enjoy... ;)

To get more bread crumbs to stick to your meat, dipping in liquid is the trick: egg, milk, yogurt, doesn't really matter. Even better, dredge/dip/dredge again. Messy, but the crust will be incredible.

[Betsy]

I have a new favorite trick for clean-up when I cook something like this. I love watching cooking shows and they always "de-glaze" the pan to make sauces or whatever. So now, I always do the same thing whether I'm making a sauce or not.

After I take the food out I put the pan back on the burner and let it heat up again (usually until I smell something burning and think 'oh shit, I better get back to that' - I always have 4 hungry boys swarming me). Then I pour some water from my teakettle into the hot pan and ALL the gunk on the bottom comes right up. It's amazing!

[mpotter]

i hate to tell you, but i love this series....
because i'm SO MUCH like your family.
so i find the plain/boring recipes and say YAY! basically if they will eat it, i think i can try it myself.

i already love the no-peek chicken on the stove you do that's very similar to this.
can't wait to try this one too.

i know. i'm so so sorry.

[Lisa]

Yum! I would eat this too!

[Krissy]

Ooohhh, You've posted this somewhere before because I copied it down a while ago and have been making it ever since. My family LOVES it! You need to try it people :)

[tonya]

Maddie rocks. The ironic thing? I have my very own "Maddie" (not name, personality) and for some reason, I find yours WAY more entertaining.

[Shannon]

This looks delicious! By the way, you can totally just use a little water (or broth, if you have any) to deglaze a pan like that and make a sauce. It won't be as rich as with wine, but the spices/butter/etc. that made the mess at the bottom of the pan will still flavor it enough to make it very tasty. Don't waste all that deliciousness!

[Marianne]

Put some flour (a 1/4 cup or so, with a pinch of salt and pepper) in a big ziploc, toss the breasts to coat, THEN dip in beated egg, then in your breadcrumbs. The crustiness (and deliciousness) will blow you away. Sometimes I get lazy and also put the breadcrumbs in a ziploc.

[Laura F]

My mom taught me a 3 step method for breading chicken (works with veal, too)
First coat in flour, then in egg (thin egg out with a little milk) then in the bread crumbs. The egg makes the crumbs stick, the flour makes the egg stick. More work, yes, but the crumbs stick like glue.

[Emilie]

Oh. my. goodness. I finally found a recipe that my entire family will love. My kids love crusty chicken (speaking of, another word that can be gross or not gross: nugget) and that looks like a great dish that will please everyone's pallets. I'm making it this weekend.

p.s. I don't know if I ever commented before, but I also went to your high school (a year behind you i think... I was good friends with Christie Wills) though now I live in Maine. I love your blog. Thank you for it!

[Heather]

Ditto the water in the hot pan method to clean out all the gunk, an amazing trick that took me 35 years to learn.

Alton Brown has a great book that is more of a how/why cooking methods work than a cookbook. It provides explaination of why, breading for example, needs a starch first, then a protein, then the bread, certain steps need to be taken to get the real results over the easy but so-so results.

[Lisa V]

What Marianne said, first dip in flour, the egg, then bread crumbs. Perfect. I used it on pork chops too, where I through some parmesan and rosemary in with the bread crumbs. Yummy.

[Lisame]

I love sauce! I would have put one cup mixture of half water and milk into the pan on medium heat while scraping up the yumminess. Then I would have put some capers in that and drizzled over the chicken.

[liza]

i make something like this most weeks (sans lemon, and crumbs that contain gluten. I gotta say they cook in two minutes if you slice the breasts thin (instead of cutting down the middle vrtically, cut down the horizontal middle) and then pound them. i am actually looking for a meat hammer bc i am sick of pounding away with an extremely heavy metal something or other.
the pounding makes the differnece b/w being fried all the way through in minutes, and the whole caboodle needing to be covered and cooked.

[Meredith]

If you go the flour/egg/bread crumb route, you can combine the leftover egg with leftover bread crumbs, form a patty and fry it up. It what my mom always did when we were kids and she made chicken parm. I do the same now, except I make just one for myself to have with a glass of wine before dinner. It makes a nice appetizer.

[Melani]

I LOVE this recipe--got it the last time you posted it, whenever that was. I cook it on the stove until both sides are crusty and then pop it in the oven until it's cooked all the way through. I can't seem to ever cook it right when I do it on the stove. I'm so worried that I won't cook it all the way through that I end up turning it into chicken jerky.

[Lisa V]

You don't a meat hammer to pound chicken. I use a rolling pin and it works just fine.

[Lar]

I second or third the suggestion to add some broth to the pan after you take out the chicken, maybe add a little more lemon juice too, some salt & pepper and voila--instant sauce.

Also, your chicken will cook faster if you slice them in half lengthwise, so they're not so thick. In fact, I'd have sliced the one in the bottom left of your "raw chicken" photo into three slices--it was really thick (that's what she said).

[Nothing But Bonfires]

The idea of your children tag-teaming each other about who's going to like/hate which food this week is HILARIOUS. One day they'll both mess up and be like "Mom, I hate ice cream!" and you'll know their plan has failed.

[Marci]

Ditto about the flour & egg before the bread crumbs. But here's a trick my MIL taught me: put the chicken (or whatever) in the freezer for a few minutes before cooking, it helps the crumbs to really stick. I usually do this while I'm heating the pan & cleaning up the mess of breading the chicken. I also usually pound my chicken pretty thin when I cook it this way. I use a meat hammer, but my dad uses a rubber mallet, and says it works better.

[followingtheroad]

Mmmmmm... I'm going to try this. Yum.

[Amy]

Ditto on the flour, egg, bread crumb combo.

And I recommend pounding out your chicken breasts prior to cooking, as it makes it easier to control cooking time -- I put them between two sheets of wax paper (plastic wrap works too) and pound with a meat pounder. If you don't have a meat pounder, use a medium sized skillet. Note: kids LOVE being assigned the job of pounding out meat.

[Elizabeth]

Another approach, which I use when "oven frying" chicken breasts - dry the breasts with a paper towel, then either dip in egg substitute or coat with a little fat-free mayo, then roll in crumbs. Drying the chicken makes the egg/mayo stick, and the egg/mayo makes the crumbs stick.

[dina]

the dipping with flour and then egg method is the tried and true crumb glue method.
since you are a GF house, i bet some of the GF flours would add a tasty dimension of flavor.

also, if you are worried about the cholesterol in eggs, use an egg beaters type deal instead.
i'm single and only cook for one, so i typically buy a carton of the grocery brand when it's on sale, and freeze the rest.
you can do that martha stewart shit and freeze it in an ice cube tray, then put those in a ziploc to protect the taste.

and yes to deglazing!
i feel like such a fancy bitch when i do that.

[Nicole]

And when you de-glaze, the pan should be hot and the liquid that you pour in should be cold.

[Heidi]

A trick my dad taught me for getting boneless skinless chicken breasts to turn out cooked but still juicy/not-dry is to cook them over medium heat (as opposed to medium-high... so on my [gas] stove it would be at 5 instead of 7, for example) for 7 minutes a side. Works pretty well, in my opinion, but I realize all stoves heat differently.

[lynne]

Just when I think "why am I a vegetarian reading a chicken recipe again?" I come across the Random Googler/breasts lines and laugh out loud. You're hilarious.

[bonzai]

You can deglaze the pan with a bit of water and then more of the lemon juice (or even orange juice). Then when all the sticky bits are us, drop another tablespoon of butter in, swirl it around a bit and it's sauce to die for!

[bonzai]

Geez - I can type. That would be 'sticky bits are UP, not us'. Duh.

[Pam]

Leftover Crumbs: Leave them in the bag you shaked them in with the chicken, roll up in a ball and put in the freezer. Next time you make this, take out, add more crumbs as needed, and re-toss. Works like a charm, and no waste means you save the planet or something.

[Melissa Summers]

Nice! Love that idea!

[Allison Nelson]

Holy crap, this is an awesome recipe! I made it for dinner tonight and it's going on "the list" of things I will cook often. I also had to track down the Seat of the Pants Supper cookbook and bye it immediately.

[Heidi]

That looks really good. I was looking at it and thought, you could even cut the chicken up into bite size chunks, bread it the same way and then cook it and serve it over rice. Mmmmm.

[Dianna]

Totally agree with the flour/egg/breadcrumbs method above. Also try swapping the egg for some fat-free buttermilk or ranch dressing, if you're feeling adventurous! Goes great with pork, as well.

[Anna]

If those breadcrumbs touched raw chicken, I'd toss 'em. You can also make this with skin-on chicken breasts, and after pounding and breading, you can use a foil-wrapped brick to weigh them down.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/crispy-chicken-under-a-brick-recipe/index.html

[Quyen]

Love this series!
Try Wondra flour instead of all-purpose flour. then egg then crumbs. Panko crumbs are my fav.

[jenny s]

This sounds like a good one to try. And I know you've received lots of comments on getting the bread crumbs to stick, but I'll add my own. I've heard its good, after you dip chicken breasts in flour/egg/bread crumbs (in that order) to let them sit awhile. Also when you are flipping them, make sure you have a sturdy metal spatula that can really get under each chicken breast. I just made something similar last night, and I had to jam it under the chicken kinda rough-like so the crispy stuff stayed on the chicken. Also try this for a recipe, its so good and easy, my kids really love it. And its really not a recipe, just stuff in a pan.

*Melt about 2 T butter and 1 T olive oil in skillet, season chicken breasts (I like to use chicken breast tenderloins, so easy to cook with) with salt and pepper and cook until just about done. Mix maybe a tablespoon dijon (spelling?) mustard and about 1/2 cup of half & half or a bit more and add to pan with chicken, and finish cooking the chicken. The sauce kinda thickens a bit and its so yummy. My kids don't eat mustard and just love this. They have no idea whats in it, and if they did, they wouldn't eat it. I always serve it with either mashed potatoes or rice, and some veggie. yum yum! Loved reading about that damn dog of yours, you had me laughing at work, outloud, sitting by myself!! You're an absolute joy to read. Thank you :)

[Kate]

I just made this last night and loved it. Thanks! By the way, I did deglaze the pan with a little white wine and chicken broth to try to make a sauce, and it doesn't really work when the browned bits are breading (as opposed to unbreaded meat). The sauce ended up with very little savory flavor and soggy burnt breading floating in it. I suppose I could have strained the sauce to get the bread crumbs out, but the flavor wasn't worth it. On the plus side, it was easier to clean the pan (but that's my husband's job).