#1′s home made breaded chicken baguettes
Unlike in England, where you’re lucky to find an out-of-date Twix and maybe a curly-edged sandwich, the petrol stations in Ireland are a haven for the half starved motorist. Practically every one will have a deli selling not only the ubiquitous ‘breakfast roll’, an artery-busting ensemble of sausage, bacon, fried egg and maybe even some black pudding, all levered into an enormous half of a french stick, but that most beloved of items in my children’s eyes: the hot chicken baguette.
Every time we get petrol, there emanates from the back seat of the jeep the most pathetic begging and pleading, and no matter how much I quote Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and give empassioned speeches about the miserable fate of intensively farmed chickens, it all falls on deaf ears. They don’t give a toss if the chicken was free range, nor even if it was miserable, or even a tad depressed - what they want is a chicken baguette – and when they want it is now.
So faced with this irritating chirruping today, I decided that what my children needed was action and not words, and set about teaching them to make a kinder, healthier alternative to the crap they crave. It just so happens that the fridge at English Towers generally contains the odd bit of cold chicken, either left over from the Sunday roast or from when I get a large pack of chicken breasts, poach them and use half for chicken noodles. So when we got home, I cattle prodded them into the kitchen and set them to work:
1 egg
Splosh of milk
Leftover cooked chicken
2 slices bread
Salt, pepper
Olive oil
Butter
So first, crack the egg into the bowl, whisk in a big splosh of milk and then slice each chicken breast into three and dunk in the eggy mixture.
Meanwhile, set a small child to work with the food processor button (safety first here people, children with stubs for fingers will never make Booker prize winners) reducing the slices of bread to fine breadcrumbs. Season the breadcrumbs well.
Next, whip the chicken out of the egg mixture and into the breadcrumbs. Toss until both chicken and child are liberally coated with breadcrumbs.
Finally, heat your oil along with a knob of butter until nice and hot, add your breadcrumbed chicken and fry until golden.
Stuff into a baguette and serve with coleslaw and baked beans. Yum scrum pig’s bum and a bloody sight kinder than anything Spar can offer. Hugh would be proud *sigh*.
13 Responses to “#1′s home made breaded chicken baguettes”
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My son ordered veal in a restaurant when out with us one day. We gave him such a hard time (his brother included) that at the end of the meal when we asked him how he enjoyed his veal and was it as nice as he thought it would be, he said ‘It was really, really good, but I probably won’t ever eat it again. It’s not so good that it’s worth it’. And as far as I know he never has.
?!?
Can’t wait to use that, frankly.
(and thanks for the recipe!)
Over in Oirland, it’s ‘Yum, Yum, Pigs Bum, Cabbage and Potatoes’.
Obviously…
also, one our wedding night, the canadian wedding, we had a wonderful meal, but … Mrs M chose two things that were not approved by the Vancouver Aquarium, and not sustainable. Mrs M, being very green, discussed long and hard with DBM, but said Sod it, it’s my wedding night, I’ll obey the rules after !
Moon: Wow – father material alright!
Jay: Did you see The F Word when Janet Street Porter reared veal calves? She did it humanely but was still devastated when they were slaughtered. Very interesting.x
Susan: Feel free. It’s handy when you’re searching for that perfect phrase to sum up something particularly tasty
Jen: Did you just make that up
Moon: I find it difficult to buy sustainable fish – there’s supposed to be a certain place cod are fished that’s okay, but they’re never labelled or anything so how do you know?
http://www.msc.org/cook-eat-enjoy/fish-to-eat
I know because I cook ‘em.
Perhaps I could look into where the others get their chickies from?