Anonymous wrote:Every time I cook breaded chicken the breaking sticks to the pan and I end up with un-breaded chicken! What am I doing wrong? I let the meat come close to room temp before cooking, I make sure the oil is hot, I keep the heat medium to low. What is the secret?

I just use the chicken right from the fridge -- are you supposed to let it come to room temperature?

I use a cast iron frying pan, with a little canola oil. I put it on medium to high, though, not low. I usually skip the flour and just dip in egg and then in breadcrumbs, and I never have problems with breading sticking.

One thing -- after you dip the cutlets in bread crumbs do you fry right away, or do you bread them all, then fry them all? Try dipping each one immediately before frying to see if that helps.

19:02, 19:43, 19:55 and 20:00 all have it. Especially with the order of the breading.

You don't need a nonstick pan, and in fact I wouldn't recommend one. You want to preheat the pan first before anything goes in it, which isn't a good idea with nonstick (you'll cook the coating off). Cast iron's great, but you can do it in your heavy stainless too, as long as you make sure you use enough oil (peanut, grapeseed, or canola, not olive) and have the oil hot and shimmering. Also, get the pan hot BEFORE you put the oil in. Hot pan, cold oil, swirl it till it's hot and shimmering.

Your problem may be your low to med. temp. You should be going med. high--enough to sizzle, but not so much it smokes or spatters. And once it's in, don't try to move it too soon. Let it sit and brown, it should unstick by itself.

http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/8764/Chicken-Fried-With-Bread-Crumbs.html

Flour, egg, breadcrumbs


Crack the eggs into a bowl and lightly beat with a fork. Put the flour in another bowl, and add the salt and pepper. In the third bowl, put the bread crumbs.
2.
Dip a piece of chicken in the flour, covering both sides. Gently shake off any excess. Dip the floured chicken in the egg and let the extra drip off. Then lay it in the bread crumbs, and scoop some over to cover the top. Press down gently all over, then lift from the bowl and set on a plate. Do that for all the chicken.

You can use olive oil, but yu have to watch it.

Try it in this order: Flour; egg, milk, or buttermilk(what ever you use, I just use egg); bread crumbs.


Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Get your pan hot. Dredge chicken in flour, followed by egg mix and finally breadcrumbs. Heat a large skillet coated with cooking spray or oil over medium-high heat.(to test if oil is right temp, drop a little bread crumbs in, it should sizzles.) Add chicken to pan;( don't screw around with it, let it cook) cook 3 minutes on each side or until chicken is done. Remove from pan; keep warm.
If the pan is not hot, the food will absorb the oil and bread crumbs will stick to the pan. The sizzle is small bubbles breaking, forming a layer b/w the pan and food.

Wait until the pan is hot.

You have several issues
1. Use a nonstick pan or castiron skillet
2. Wrong kind of oil, you can't "fry" chicken in olive oil it's smoke point is too low, so your oil isn't going to get hot enought. You may have better luck breading the chicken and baking it if you don't want to truly fry it.
3. Your breading is all wrong. You need to dip the chicken in an egg wash, then flour, then butter milk and bread crumbs. Your breading isn't binding to the chicken.

Buy the pre-breaded chicken breasts from Trader Joe's. Five thousand times easier and faster.

I recently discovered a great trick for baking/broiling breaded chicken ... cook it on a cooling rack (with baking pan underneath to catch crumbs). With this technique both sides cook and one is not mushy. Not sure why I never heard of this before. It works great.

Deep fry it.

Thanks for the replies. I am not using a nonstick pan. I'm using olive oil and tonight's breading was mustard on the chicken which was then coated in sourdough breadcrumbs. The only other breading I do, which also usually sticks to the pan, is flour/egg/breadcrumbs.

Use more oil than you think you should use and make sure it is hot and shimmering before you add the chicken.

Don't use olive oil...it isn't good for very high heat. Use canola, vegetable, coconut, grapeseed...

Agree -- what kind of pan, oil and breading are you using? I'd use a non-stick, with oil in addition.

However, the root cause of your problem is that you're probably trying to move the chicken too soon. Leave it alone in the pan while it's cooking.

what kind of breading and oil are you using?

Every time I cook breaded chicken the breaking sticks to the pan and I end up with un-breaded chicken! What am I doing wrong? I let the meat come close to room temp before cooking, I make sure the oil is hot, I keep the heat medium to low. What is the secret?