Breading Meat & Fish

I tried unsuccessfully for several years to properly bread meat and fish, and even sometimes veggies.  I finally tried the method below and it works for me every time.

The problem a lot of people have with breading meat and fish is that the home-made breading doesn't stick to the food once you start cooking it.

You can play with the spices listed below.  If you want plain breading, leave out the spices and cheese.  If you want an Italian style breading, add the spices.  You can play with whatever spices you like.

I always use crackers instead of bread crumbs mostly because I literally don't keep bread in my house, and if I do have bread in my house it's too fresh to use as bread crumbs.  Crackers will keep a long time in the cupboard, and make a lovely bread crumbs.

For additional crispiness and a bit of a different taste you can add panko crumbs to the mixture below.

This recipe is good for chicken, veal, fish, pork chops, eggplant, etc.  

There are so many people who are avoiding gluten these days, so if you are one of those people, this would work just fine with gluten free crackers.  Just make sure they are finely crushed. 

Breading Meat & Fish

Recipe by Fluudbloggler

Ingredients

• 20 Saltine crackers
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup white flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder (optional)
• pinch of basil, oregano, parsley (optional)
• 3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in a large ziploc type bag and close tightly.
   
2. Crush first with your hands, then take a rolling pin or large bottle and roll over the bag until all the crackers are finely crushed.
3. In a pan put egg white and quickly beat.
4. In another pan or dish spread flour through the bottom of the pan.
5. Whatever meat or fish you are breading, first dry with a paper towel.
6. Dip the meat/fish in the flour and coated completely.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Shake off excess, then dip meat/fish in the egg mixture until coated completely.
   
8. Put meat/fish in the cracker bag mix and shake until well coated.
   
   
9. Heat about 2 tbsp olive oil in the bottom of a pan, and once the oil is hot, place the meat/fish in the hot oil, making sure it sizzles.  If it doesn't sizzles when you add it, your oil is not hot enough.  Cook until you see the sides of the meat starting to crisp up, turn over.  and repeat on the other side.
10. DO NOT put the meat/fish back in the oven on a rack because that's when your breading starts to flake off, and get mushy. You can however, bake the meat/fish in the oven from the beginning instead of cooking in oil.  Give the meat an extra 10 - 15 longer cooking time than normal in this case.