The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 1098

bowlofflour.Scoopupsomeflourandtossitontop
ofthefood,thentossthefoodarounduntilit’snicely
coated.
2.Stillusingyourrighthand,pickupthefoodfromthe
flour,shakeitabittogetridoftheexcess,anddrop
itintotheeggbowl.Thistime,useyourlefthandto
movethefoodarounduntilit’swellcoated.
3.Stillusingyourlefthand,pickuptheeggyfood,letit
drip a bit, and drop it into the bowl with the bread
crumbs. Here’s the tricky part: If you were to now
use your right hand to pick up the food and flip it,
you’dgeteggonit.Useyourlefthand,andyouend
up coating it in bread crumbs. Here’s what to do:
Use your right hand to pick up some extra bread
crumbsfromaroundthefoodanddropthemontop,
thencarefullyspreadthemarounduntilyoucanpick
up the food without egging your hand. Flip the food
and repeat, pressing it into the crumbs to coat it
thoroughly.Itpaystohavemorebreadcrumbsthan
youneedinthebowl.
4.Pickupthefoodwithyourrighthandandtransferit
toaplateorarack,readytobefried.
Asfarascookingthechickengoes,Ifoundthatshallowfrying it in a wide skillet was less messy and easier to
clean up than deep-frying it. I also used panko-style
crumbs,whichIseasonedmyself—fareasierthanmaking
your bread crumbs, and much better than the sandy
“Italian-style” crumbs from the supermarket (see
“Fractals,Panko,andBread-CrumbCoatings,”here).


Nextup:thesauceandcheese.Ioptedtousemybasic

marinarasauceforthisdish;itsrichnessanddeepflavor
stand up nicely to the crunchy chicken. For cheese, a
grating of fresh mozzarella applied before baking is
traditional. Despite the nomenclature, Parmesan cheese
does not always make an appearance in this dish. But
that’s not gonna stop us. I like applying good-quality
Parmesan at three different stages. First, I incorporate
some into the breading. It takes on a sweet, nutty flavor
asitfries—muchbetterthanbreadcrumbsalone.Next,I
mix some in with the mozzarella before topping the
chicken with it before baking. Finally, I add a handful of
gratedParmtothechickenafteritcomesoutoftheoven.
The residual heat of the chicken softens the cheese
slightly,butyoustillgetplentyofintense,saltyhitsasyou
eatit.
Whilemanyrestaurantsopttoblankettheentirepiece
of chicken in a thick layer of mozzarella, that ends up
softening the coating too much. Instead, I found that
laying the chicken cutlets out in a casserole dish, then
spooningonsauceinalinedownthecenterandaddinga
layer of cheese left the ends of the cutlets protruding so
that they maintained at leastsome of that crispness you
workedhardtocreate.
I’d put this version of chicken Parmesan up against
anyLittleItalyversioninthecountry.