Crispy Chicken Fries

Recently I bought a packet of Nestum cereal because I wanted to cook Cereal Prawns. The thing is, it's sold only in 500g pack and only a small amount is used to cook the Cereal Prawns. Our family doesn't eat cereal, so I've been thinking of ways to use them up.

My picky rascal doesn't like chicken breast (tried making nuggets with minced chicken breast meat but he didn't like it); he loves fries and fried food, so I thought making chicken strips to look like fries might appeal to him. 

I bought a whole piece of deboned fresh chicken breast from the wet market (wanted the chicken fillet but not available). To make the meat more tender, I marinated the chicken strips in buttermilk overnight.

For the coating mixture, I used Japanese panko (for the crispiness), Nestum cereal (for the fragrance) and parmesan cheese powder (for the taste).

As the chicken strips were cut thinly, they cooked very quickly (not necessary to use a lot of oil to deep-fry, just pan-fry will do), so this is quite an easy and quick dish to cook and serve. It's great as snacks or for bento as well.

Crispy Chicken Fries

Ingredients

• 450g chicken breast/fillet
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (alternatively mix 1/2 cup fresh milk with 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Pinch of pepper
• 5 tbsp Japanese panko
• 5 tbsp Nestum cereal
• 5 tbsp parmesan cheese powder

Steps

1. Cut the chicken breast into thin strips and place them into a ziplock bag or airtight box.
2. Mix buttermilk, salt and sugar together.
3. Pour the buttermilk marinate into the ziplock bag or airtight box, shake to mix well. 
4. Marinate for at least 4hrs or overnight.
5. Mix panko, cereal and parmesan cheese powder together.
6. Coat each strip of chicken with the mixture.
7. Add some cooking oil in a shallow pan over medium heat, fry the chicken strips until golden brown on both sides.
8. Best serve hot.

The texture of the chicken was really tender due to the overnight marinate in buttermilk, and the outside was crispy and fragrant, with a tad of cheesy taste. Good to eat on it's own or with dips like chilli sauce or ketchup. I'm glad my rascal enjoyed it; he ate one piece after another with mayonnaise dip.

I think this panko-cereal-parmesan coating would be nice for fish fingers, prawns and squid as well, will try them next time!