The perfect fried chicken (so far)

Cooked fried chicken for may times but always a fail. The crunchiness is not always a perfect outcome. But as they say, keep on trying! And that I did..until..one trial turns as a success.

• 1/2 kg chicken wings, clean and cut each wing into two pieces
• 5 cloves garlic, pealed
• Ginger, pealed & sliced any way you want
• Ground black pepper
• Salt
• Cooking oil
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 2 eggs, beaten

This is my own rendition for cooking a friend chicken. Almost the same as the usual way of cooking an FC but the difference is on tenderizing the chicken. I don’t want eating rare meat nor any hint of blood in my FC so first thing I do is to tenderize the cut chicken. Put the chicken in a pot, add the garlic & ginger, bit of salt and boil until chicken is tender.

Drain and pat dry with paper towel.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a non-stick pan in a medium fire. Don’t make the oil reach its smoky level as it will just burn the coating of the chicken.

Get three plates for the breading. First plate – make a bed of plain flour.  Second plate - crack 2 eggs, add pepper & salt & beat thoroughly.  Third plate – mix some salt & pepper to the bread crumbs and spread in the plate.

Roll the chicken first to the flour, shake off for any excess, then dip to the beaten eggs, then lastly to the bread crumbs. Again shake for any excess coating then carefully put to the frying pan. Fry till brown and turn for the other side to cook.

Serve and eat while crispy.  Bring out the catsup to dip, but mine is fresh labneh.

حياتي in kitchen

"Cooking is an art and patience a virtue... Careful shopping, fresh ingredients and an unhurried approach are nearly all you need. There is one more thing - love. Love for food and love for those you invite to your table. With a combination of these things you can be an artist - not perhaps in the representational style of a Dutch master, but rather more like Gauguin, the naïve, or Van Gogh, the impressionist. Plates or pictures of sunshine taste of happiness and love."
-- Keith Floyd, A Feast of Floyd --

Hayati invaded the kitchen today and prepared the dinner. Like me, he is also a novice in this field, yet he tried to make a good food. For him, cook on your own way and just enjoy the experience.

For our snack while watching a TV show, a ready to cooked cheese and chicken flavored samosas, which we bought in Spinney's. This popular Indian stuffed pastry I guess is the counterpart of the famous lumpiang shanghai.

And for dinner, we enjoyed his rendition of fried rice with chicken. 

For this dish you'll need:

• 1/2 kg chicken legs (Hayati removed the skin, rubbed with salt and washed thoroughly)
• 3 cups basmati rice (washed and soaked in water for 30 minutes before cooking)
• Carrot, cut into small cubes
• Green beans, sliced to almost same size of the cubed carrot
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 eggs, beaten
• salt to taste
• 1 fresh yoghurt

Direction:

• Cook the basmati rice as per direction specified in the package.
• Heat oil in a pan. Sprinkle salt into the chicken and fry in low medium heat.
• Once cooked, remove the chicken and set aside.
• In a casserole, add little oil and sauté the onion.
• Add the carrots and green beans. Cook for about 2 minutes.
• Then add the beaten eggs and mix slightly.
• Add the cooked rice and chicken. Season with salt and stir.
• Cover the casserole and cook in a low fire for about 5 minutes.
• Serve with yoghurt.