Ingredients
2-3 Chicken breasts
1 egg
Some flour
Some Light Soy sauce
Some Panko Breadcrumbs
Some veg oil for frying
The key to this is to be organised. You need to put some flour on a dinner plate, and a pile of breadcrumbs on another. Break the egg into a shallow bowl and whisk it with a fork. Put a puddle of light soy sauce into another shallow bowl.
Cut your chicken breasts in half along the length. You now want to turn these into a thin schnitzel type of shape. So in turn take each breast portion, put it on a board, cover it with a piece of cling-film and take a rolling pin in hand. Beat the chicken from the middle to the edge, flattening it until it is 6-10mm thick. Try to avoid tearing the chicken, treat it with respect and start gently. It can help to make a cut down the middle, thickest part of the meat before you start, through about half thickness. If you do this, put the cut side down before you beat it out.
As you flatten each piece toss it into the bowl of soy sauce and turn it over to ensure it is coated. You can if you wish take your prep to this stage and then leave the chicken to marinade in the soy for a while, leaving only the coating to do when it is supper time.
heat about 1cm of veg oil in a frying pan.
take each piece of soy marinated chicken and one by one shake any excess soy sauce from them. put them into the flour and turn to ensure an even coating. Again shake off any excess flour. Dip now into the egg and ensure an even coat, shaking off any excess too. Place the eggy chicken into the breadcrumb and press down to encourage to the breadcrumbs to stick. turn over to coat on both sides and repeat the pressing. Add more breadcrumbs to the plate as needed, to get good even crumb coat.
Lower the coated chicken into the hot oil and fry gently until the crumb is golden brown - about 5 minutes. Turn the chicken and fry on the second side again until golden brown. You want to fry slowly enough to ensure the crumb goes brown but also the chicken is cooked through. If the oil is too hot the crumb will burn and the chicken will not be cooked.
Remove and serve with accompaniment of choice (see above for some ideas)
Method
This is a staple or ours, again pretty simple and very tasty. The crunchy coating contrasting with the soft chicken inside, and a tang of Soy Sauce to make it all good. The Youngest Two are especial fans of this. For The Eldest I occasionally make a Katsu Curry Sauce to go with it (which is not that difficult, and is a store cupboard type sauce from first principles) and this gives you something not unlike the Katsu Chicken Curry served up at Wagamamas. The Boy likes the chicken in a roll with salad and mayo to make a chicken burger (completely unlike McD's one!). The Youngest Two just like it as it is with fries and corn. Simples
On this ocassion I had no potatoes, and no fries in the freezer so had to look elsewhere for carbohydrate to accompany it. I did have a packet of sweet potatoes, which I had intended to make soup from but had not gotten round to. So I made some sweet potato wedges which went well. The sweetness complementing the salt of the chicken. I will separate the recipes though, but you can find it here.
Quantities here are as ever a movable feast depending on how hungry your audience is. I tend to use 2-3 chicken breasts for 4 -5 people. And do not substitute normal breadcrumbs for Panko Breadcrumbs. Panko is sold in most competent supermarkets and are worth having in your cupboard. They are distinctly larger and crunchier than "normal" breadcrumbs and make a huge difference to the result. Excuse the lack of precision below. "Some" is not a recognised quantity, but it is intended to convey the quantity which is sufficient to coat the chicken without being too wasteful and throwing stuff away or too frugal and not getting the taste and texture we are after. Play it by eye, and you will be fine.