Italian Fried Chicken

Place the full size chicken breasts one at a time into a large Ziploc bag. Proceed to “pound the bejesus” out of them until they’re anywhere from 1/3 to 1/4-inch thick.

Cut the pounded chicken into whatever size pieces you’d like – you can do larger pieces for the adults and nugget size pieces for the kids… it’s all about what you want to achieve.

Place the chicken into a Ziploc bag – you can reuse the one that you put the chicken in to pound it thin. Pour enough Italian dressing into the bag to thoroughly coat the chicken and cover the pieces. Push all the air out.

Place the bag in the fridge and let the chicken marinate for at least an hour. I usually start this after lunch and let it go all afternoon.

About 1/2 hour before you want to serve dinner, put 3 pie dishes or similar on the counter. Mix the bread crumbs, parmesan cheese and crushed up Rice Krispies together. Fill one plate with some of the bread crumb/Rice Krispies/parmesan mix, put the eggs in another (well beaten) and the flour with some salt & pepper in the third.

Drain the excess dressing off the chicken pieces, you don’t want them dripping or they become hard to keep dry in the breading process.

Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture, then move to the egg mix and then finally to the breading. Set each piece of chicken on a plate or tray until all pieces are coated.

Set out a baking sheet covered in layers of paper towels. Heat oven to “warm” and then heat a fry pan over lowish heat. Add oil & a pat of butter to the fry pan and begin to fry the chicken pieces.

Periodically you’ll need to drain your pan – this is because if you don’t you’ll end up with burned little bits of breading sticking to the chicken as you cook it. I usually put in fresh oil & butter after I’ve filled the pan and cooked what fills it. So if the pieces of chicken are large I may only cook one piece per cycle of oil/butter. However, this also means you don’t have to completely submerge the chicken in the oil to get it cooked.

The relative thinness of the chicken means it only has to cook a few minutes on each side, smaller pieces take even less time!

As the pieces of chicken are cooked, transfer them onto the baking sheet and into your warm oven. This way they stay nice and warm, and crisp till all the pieces are done cooking.

Serve with your favorite side dishes – around here it’s mashed potatoes and peas!