RE: Breakfast - Chicken Piccata - 568
Dumped your chicken into the egg....
....at my worse I don't think I could have gone there. I think the worse I've done with meat besides burn it was one time way before I had kids one of my brothers stopped by and wanted to know what I had to cook. I told him someone gave me a leg of lamb that was in the freezer, he said well let's cook it up. I took it out and put it in a pan and water and tossed it into the oven. He asked what I was doing and I said cooking it, he replied that's not cooking it you have to let it thaw, rub some seasonings on it then slow roast that baby up. The reason for the floor is to dry the surface of the meat and give the egg something to bind to otherwise the egg just tends to roll off the meat. You want to save on not using so much oil for frying chicken do the oven method. You'll need a cast iron skillet or any pan you can stick in the oven safely, you pour about a quarter of an inch of oil into the pan, turn the oven on to four hundred twenty five degrees to heat the oil while you prep your chicken. You use some flour to roll your chicken in (I usually season the floor to whatever seasoning I like) then roll your chicken into an egg mixture of one or two eggs (depends on how much chicken you are frying) with one or two teaspoons of water added then mix the two together, then you roll the chicken back in the floor again. You should let the chicken sit for about ten minutes after rolling, this is suppose to help the flour dry onto the chicken a bit, then you place the chicken into the frying pan in the oven, let it cook fifteen minutes then turn the oven down to three hundred fifty, turn the chicken over and let it cook another forty five minutes. It is simply delicious and cooks to perfection every time. Joking aside though I have actually done exactly what you did...went from egg to batter...I spent years wondering why the flower or bread crumbs never stuck to the meat...I guess that initial dip into the floor is crucial to keep the egg stuck to the meat along with the breadcrumbs.
I am not a big pasta fan either unless I have to feed the masses, then it becomes crucial. The trick to making great pasta is placing the paste back into the pan after draining, back on the warm burner you took it off and stirring it until it loses it's shine or you no longer see steam coming off the pasta. You should do the same if you boil potato's, it will make firmer mash potato's or crisper American fries. When you are cooking it you don't let it cook completely soft either, it's suppose to be what they call al dente slightly under cooked, that way when you put your sauce over it the paste will continue to soften while absorbing the sauce making for a much tastier pasta.
Maybe I'll try doing a leg of lamb sometime. I think over the fire is better though and that's hard to do and probably impossible for me since I don't have an outdoor rotisserie thing. Plus it would probably take like 4 hours.
My son has a large smoker/grill, it's made for some interesting experiences. This is his third summer with it and his skills have improved quite a bit. He doesn't take criticism easily so it's made for some creative lie telling.
LOL Is he overcooking?
He tends to over cook when he grills but not so much when smoking. Smoking you use a lot of different flavored wood chips...finding the right combo and the amount of infusion of flavor into the meat is crucial. Just like seasonings...there's one's that are made specifically to bring out the flavors in different meats so some you wouldn't necessarily want to try on a meat it's not recommended for and if you are going to smoke with two different types of wood chips it's no different then mixing different seasonings and knowing which one's work best with each other.
The Thanksgiving before last he brought in his turkey he smoked...man that smelled bad, real bad, not spoiled bad or anything like that it was just the smell coming off the turkey of whatever flavor wood chips he used...we had to wait till he went into the living room to sit down while we quietly closed the swinging door between the kitchen and dining room then open all the windows and doors. It's on occasions such as this that there is no request to put the dog in another room or outside while we are eating...he can come in real handy to save face and he's never picky about what he consumes when it comes to meat. You don't tell him the dog loved it you just have to tell him it tasted great.