Chicken Fingers Aren't Just for Kids

Sometimes, even moms want to eat chicken fingers and french fries for dinner.  But the frozen variety that come out of a bag, just not my style.  Well, OK, maybe sometimes when Kassidy hasn't finished all hers, and I'm really hungry.  But regardless, sometimes we just want that chicken finger feel, but as a parent, not the chicken finger experience.

Walking around Market Basket last night, all I had on my mind really was asparagus from yesterday's entry.  And along with that I was hungry for chicken fingers.  How on earth do you combine the two?  Easy, make your own.  So, I grabbed a package of chicken breast, a bundle of asparagus and potatoes.  I took a white russet potato for Rob, and sweet potatoes for me.

This will easily feed a family of 4, or in our case, a family of 3 (an extra piece for mom, and leftover for Kassidy's lunch)

• 3 Chicken breasts, fillet them into strips, much like chicken finger strips.  Make them as long as the breast itself, no more than 1/2 in thick, and no more than 2 inches wide.  From the 3 breasts I think i got 16-18 fingers.
• Place them all into a bowl.
• Add to this bowl 1 beaten egg and enough milk to just cover all the chicken.
• I add in many shakes of Franks Red Hot as well.  Something I picked up from Paula Dean several years ago on the Food Network.  As Kassidy gets older I will be dumping more and more hot sauce in.  Right now, it was really just used as an acidic seasoning.  You don't taste it in the finished product.  But eventually, I'll add enough so you do.  For last night, it was enough to turn the milk/egg mixure into a pink color.
• Let the chicken sit in this and get happy for 20-30 minutes
• Or, for however long its going to take you to prep the asaparagus and potatoes.

• Wash the asparagus, break them, put them into a frying pan, drizzle with oil, salt and pepper.  Don't turn on, that comes later.  Also, while you're waiting for the chicken to get happy, prep your potatoes for french fries.

• Peel skin off the potatoes.  Slice into thin strips that look like french fries.  The thinner you cut them, the less time it takes to cook, just remember that.
• Cover a cookie sheet with tin foil, spray it with cooking spray (so they don't sick) and lay out the fries.  Drizzle with olive oil, generously coat with salt and pepper, get your hands dirty and toss them around.  Pop them into a high broiler and close the door.  Keep a watch on these, you'll want to turn and flip them every so often.  

• OK, back to the chicken.  Time to prep the cooking station.  I use Peanut Oil.  You can use Vegetable, Olive, etc, but I find that Peanut oil for frying gives the most consistent heat and stays a good moderate temperature.  
• You need a sturdy frying pan.  I use a Calphalon 16" skillet, you can also use a well seasoned cast iron pan, or if you're lucky enough to have a deep fryer, you can try them in there too, but this is a pan fried chicken finger recipe.  Results should be the same.
• Pour enough oil into the skillet to give it a good covering.  Let me put it this way, when the chicken is lying it in, the oil should cover just over 1/2 the depth of the chicken.  Remember, you sliced them thin, so 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch of oil in the pan.
• Heat the oil on Med to Med-High heat, depending on your range this could vary.  You'll know the oil is hot enough when 2 things happen:  1.)  you start to see rings in the oil and 2.) if you toss a droplet (and I MEAN A DROPLET) of water into the pan and it POPS.  

• Back to your chicken.  Now, I've fried chicken several times, and I go back and forth between a a flour base and a bread crumb base.  It really depends on what you're in the mood for and what type of meal you're making.  In this instance, I used Italian Seasoned bread crumbs.
• In a separate bowl, sprinkle a good layer of bread crumbs in and place 4 chicken fingers onto the bread crumbs.  Pat down, flip, pat down, give them a good covering.
• Using long handle tongs, GENTLY place 1 finger at a time down into the oil.  We're only going to do 4-8 of these at a time, giving them room to cook, not shocking the oil and keeping things at a nice even temperature.
• Let them sizzle and get happy.  You know they're ready to turn when you can visibly see that the chicken is hardening.  Flip them, move to another side of the pan and place 4 more in.  This way, you're always rotating 4 fingers at a time, optimizing your time and keeping htem all warm so they don't end up at the table cold.
• Hey, did you check the french fries?  Open the oven door, give them a toss.
• If you turn your chicken over and find that it's black, then you either left it in there too long, or your oil is too hot.  Adjust accordingly.  Remember, these are going to continue to cook a little once you remove them from the pan, placing them on a paper towel to soak up the excess oil.
• Keep repeating these steps until all your chicken has been cooked.
• Hey, check your fries!  Toss and check tenderness.
• When you have 8 chicken fingers to go, turn your asparagus on Med-High Heat and cover.
• You're basically steaming these like any other vegetable to an al-dente, still crisp state, but cooked through.  Give them a toss about 1/2 way through cooking.

• All your fingers done?  Good, your fries should be too, remove them from the oven.  Check the asparagus, and remove everything.
• Plate & Serve
• I enjoyed these with a glass of Virginia Pearmund Cellars Viognier.  Kassidy chose chocolate Milk, and husband had water.  Very versatile meal.
• Enjoy!

Your Mom Made WHAT for Dinner?

Today's meal is good "5 ingredient fix" and great for leftovers.  I can take absolutely no credit for this dinner, whatsoever.  This one comes straight from my mother in law. 

Back in the 90's when dating my husband, then boyfriend obviously, we came home to his house one night to his mom cooking this in the kitchen.  Now, my own mom is a great cook and experiments a good amount and I grew up with a decent variety of food.  But when you're introduced to another family, you're introduced to a whole new culinary experience too.  I was also brought up on the philosophy that you eat what is placed in front of you, all of it.  And if you are a guest in the house, you choke it down and compliment it like its the best thing you ever tasted.  Thankfully, I do have a pretty varietal palette and have yet to really come across something I can't choke down.  Example:  I had asparagus the first time ever with my husband's family.  Smothered them in ketchup of course, but ate them nonetheless.  Today, they are a regular vegetable in our house, and I have my mother in law to thank for that.  But this isn't about asparagus.  This particular meal is simply referred to as "that ham, egg and pea thing."

The "ham, egg and pea thing" was boiling away that fateful night when we came home and I wondered just what I was in for.  Chopped up pieces of what appeared to be left over ham, peas (oh God), hard-boiled eggs (hrm) and... some kind of white sauce.... poured over spiral noodles.  Everyone seemed pretty excited they were having this meal, particularly my husband, while my mother in law just matter of factly placed the mixture on the table and we all dug in. 

I proceeded with caution.  Noodles, check.  And this mixure of ham, egg, peas (?!) and sauce over it.  How, on earth, was this going to come together in my mouth and taste good?  If you've ever watched me eat; I'm known to eat the contents of my plate from smallest to largest, one item at a time, and I twist my plate towards what I'm currently consuming.  Yeah, not really an obsessive compulsive, just a quirk.  My sister gets a kick out of it.  Anyhow... I like my foods separate.  Prime example, Thanksgiving dinner.  Each food group gets a corner of the plate all to its own.  And certain foods are actually required to be next to one another. Stuffing must be placed next to potatoes, which must be placed next to turkey, and so on.  As a child I watched my great-grandfather put it all on the plate and then scoop it all into a pile and mix it up.  I think it was this horrifying experience at the tender age of 8, that I now must eat things separate, but equal.  But I digress.  So here are these ingredients which typically would be served scooped on the plate separately, being served to me all on one spoon.  Sitting down, hoping no one sees my trepidation, I take my first bite, and voila, who knew... it's awesome!  I ask, what do you call this?  The answer is just "the ham, egg and pea thing."

I have yet to really play with this recipe, since I find it's pretty perfect.  The combination really needs no added flavor or changes.  While I've often thought about what I could do with it, I hesitate in fear of truly ruining it some night and finding I have a pot full of it, and a husband who won't eat it.  Why mess with something that works?

There is no measuring in this.  Just eyeball how much you need for how many you need to feed and make.

• Leftover cooked ham.  Cut into 1 inch chunks.
• Pasta
• Frozen or leftover peas
• Hard-boiled eggs, sliced
• White Sauce - Milk/Butter/Flower/White Pepper/Mustard Powder

1. Boil water, pour in pasta, about 1/2 way through cooking, add your peas to cook them if frozen, and cook until pasta is just al dente
2. Strain into colander, let sit, return pot to burner on med-high
3. Melt ~6T of butter, sprinkle in white pepper to taste (later you can add more), add ~1/4c flour and a good shake of the mustard powder - keep stirring, don't let it sit, you'll burn it.  cook for a minute or two to make the flour taste go away.. this is a rue
4. Add to the rue, 2 to 2.5 c milk, whisk and keep whisking until it comes to a slight boil and starts to thicken -> White Sauce
5. Turn down to low, keep a watch and stir often
6. Fry up your ham so it's warm
7. Cut your boiled eggs (about 4).  slice and dice, so the pieces are large enough to find, but not giant
8. Put the eggs into the white sauce and whisk up well until all the yolk is dissovled and mixed in
9. Add the ham to the pot
10. Add the pasta/peas to the pot
11. Mix until all items are coated in white sauce
12. Serve

I like mine with a sprinkle of black pepper over the top.
This is something that even my 4 year old picky eating daughter will consume with glee.