Friday Night Panko Fest

Panko...Japanese bread crumbs. They are light and fluffy and kind of make a tapping sound against each other. I finally bought some at the store last week so when I was faced with an evening stretch alone at home and time to make a bigger dinner, I decided to experiment.

A quick googling on the 'Net yielded chicken and onions. Onion rings! I looove onion rings, but I hate the grease that goes along with them, especially on my current low-fat health diet. Correction, I love onion rings when they are done well, not when the coating doesn't stick to the onion and falls off in globs. So I grabbed some chicken breasts at the store and went home excited to getting to the experimentin'.

The technique that I used to bread the chicken and onion could be used with really any surface you want to have a crispy, light, coating. You need to dry the food with a little flour, then dunk in something sticky so that the crumbs will stick, then dunk in the crumbs. What I found is that if you are dunking in the crumbs, the crumbs will inevitably get wet with the sticky solution and won't be usable. So alternate in small batches, don't just dump out all your crumbs you'll need at once. The other alternative which worked well, was to do the flouring and crumb-ing in a paper bag, shaking the food. This coated everything really well and the sticky stuff didn't leach all over everything.

Baked Onion Rings

2 egg whites
all purpose flour for coating
salt and pepper
2 small or 1 large onion, cut into rings
Japanese Panko bread crumbs, about 1 cup

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Lightly beat the egg whites in a pie plate or other flat, wide dish. In another bowl, add the flour. Add salt and pepper to the flour to your liking, or some seasoned salt, herbs, etc. In another flat, wide dish add the crumbs. Alternatively, use 2 small plain brown paper bags and add the flour to one and the crumbs to the other. Flour the onion rings, then dunk in the egg whites, letting the excess drip off. Coat in bread crumbs and lay on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake for around 10-15 minutes, turn over, and bake again until they are to desired brown color.

Panko-Crusted Dijon Chicken

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
2 egg yolks (or 2 eggs - I had yolks from the above whites)
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
all-purpose flour for dusting
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
Japanese Panko bread crumbs, about 2 cups

Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl and add the Dijon mustard. Mix well. Add the flour to a wide, shallow dish and add the Parmesan cheese. Add any other seasonings and salt and pepper as desired. Add Panko crumbs to another shallow dish. Alternate coating the chicken breasts with flour, then the egg mixture, then the crumbs, pressing the crumbs into the chicken. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees F for 20-30 minutes or until the juices run clear and internal temperature reads 160 degrees F. Add a shaving of Parmesan on top, if desired.