When I finish midterms I need comfort food, and even though I’ve been eating Slim Fast and wheat bread for breakfast lately, sometimes I just need something fried in the evening.
So in my quest to find a healthful (or just not extremely fatty) post-midterm self-indulgence I came up with this very simple recipe for pan-fried chicken and mashed potatoes.
This dish is a little bit more complicated than what I’ve been writing about, but when I tested the recipe with a few friends it only took me about 45 minutes to make three times as much as the amount for which recipe above is intended.
In order to use your time most efficiently you need to prep accordingly.
Since it takes my pitiful stove 10-15 minutes to boil already hot water, usually the first thing I do when I walk into the kitchen is heat up some water.
If you’re making this for one, you would only need a small pot for the potato, but if you’re making any more than two potatoes you’ll probably need a larger stock pot to fit them all.
While the water is trying to boil, scrub your russet potato lightly under running water to get the dirt off, then dice it into pieces no bigger than 3â„4 of an inch.
I like to leave the skin on because that’s where the potato retains most of its nutritional value, and with the amount of butter you’re going to be adding to it, it’s best to maintain the illusion that on some level this is healthy.
Similarly, I like to maintain the illusion that this dish is a reward for doing very well on all my tests and papers, but in reality I need greasy, country comfort food.
As a side note, I also think leaving the skin on adds more of a rustic feel and offers a meatier texture.
If your water is still trying to boil, move onto the chicken and take a large plate, or preferably a large, shallow bowl, and crack an egg into it, then add a few tablespoons of water.
Add in some salt, pepper and your favorite poultry seasoning (I like Emeril’s) and beat the egg till it’s scrambled.
Take another similarly shaped bowl and toss in a cup of Italian bread crumbs and the same seasonings you put in the egg. Italian bread crumbs are already seasoned and chunkier than other types, and work best for this dish.
The water should definitely be boiled by now so toss the diced potatoes in the pot of water along with some salt and stir. The potatoes should take roughly 10 minutes to cook, and you can tell whether they’re done (fork tender) by pushing a fork into them and lifting it up. If the potato easily comes off the fork it’s done.
You need to be very careful when dealing with chicken because of the bacteria it can carry, so make sure after every time you touch the meat you wash your hands, and keep careful track of everything the chicken touches so you can disinfect it later.
Get out a plastic cutting board, some wax paper and a meat mallet.
Place a boneless, skinless chicken breast between two sheets of wax paper and pound it till it’s about 1/4 of an inch thick.
If you don’t have wax paper use a freezer bag, and if you don’t have a meat mallet use another blunt, heavy object ““ like that course reader you spent $80 on but never read ““ hey the midterm’s over!
Make sure the meat is uniformly thick so it cooks evenly, and then coat it in the egg wash and then coat it in bread crumbs.
Put a pan on over medium heat and melt in a tablespoon of butter, while adding a good dose of extra virgin olive oil.
Once the butter and oil combine you can toss in the chicken, which should take about three minutes to cook on each side until it’s golden brown.
Once the potatoes are done strain them and toss them in a bowl, along with one to two tablespoons of melted butter, salt, pepper and chives.
Mash them with a fork till they’re chunky, and there you go: pan-fried chicken and mashed potatoes.
If you gain weight after midterms, e-mail Pesce at apesce@media.ucla.edu.