How to: herby parmesan breadcrumbed chicken

I attempted a breadcrumbed chicken meal the other day, which went surprisingly well! I thought it would be a cheaper and healthier alternative to shop or takeaway bought breadcrumbed chicken. It's not super crispy but I think this way makes the chicken taste very tender. You can also decide whatever ingredients you want in the breadcrumb mixture and make it more interesting and flavoursome. I wanted to go for a bit of an Italian theme with the meal, so I added basil and parmesan to the breadcrumb mixture and served with a creamy tomato tagliatelle and simple garlic infused roasted vegetables.

Serves 3

Ingredients (for the breadcrumbed mixture)

A packet of small chicken fillets (enough for 3-4)

2-3 slices of white/brown bread (minus the crusts)

1 tablespoon dried/fresh basil

50g parmesan (grated/shavings)

Olive oil

A few drops of lemon juice

Salt and Pepper

2 eggs

A good scattering of flour over a surface

Take the chicken fillets and lay on a chopping board and wrap in cling film, bash these out until they are nice and thin.

Prepare the breadcrumb mixture in a small food processor. Add the bread and the basil with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice and give it a whizz. Add the parmesan and give a final whizz. Empty into a bowl.

Arrange your eggs in a bowl, the flour over a chopping/bread board and the breadcrumb mixture in a bowl.

Take turns dipping the chicken in the flour first, then in the egg mixture followed by the breadcrumb mixture, making sure it is coated well.

Get some olive oil going in a frying pan/griddle pan (I used a griddle pan which I prefer as it actually seems less greasy and you get the nice lines from the pan on the chicken!) then add the breadcrumbed chicken. It will cook pretty damn quickly as the chicken has been bashed to within an inch of its life so it is a lot thinner! Turn them over when they look sizzling and toasty on one side. It should literally take around 5-6 minutes to cook on both sides.

Then make sure your accompaniments are ready, and serve up! Yummy breadcrumbed chicken which is actually way healthier than what you'd buy AND you can actually make the coating more interesting. Enjoy!