Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Basic Breading Tactics


Fat Guy

Recommended Posts

I've never given much thought to breading. The breaded and fried (either pan fried or deep fried) or baked cutlet or chop has never been part of my culinary repertoire. Lately, however, I've been dipping a toe into the ocean of breading, particularly with chicken tenders and cutlets, those universally beloved foods of today's youths (one of whom lives under our roof).

So, can we talk about breading? There seem to be a whole mess of ways to do it.

You've got your breading itself, which can be bread crumbs of various kinds (toasted, fresh, panko, herbed), or cereal (corn flakes, etc.), or other stuff (ground up pretzels, crackers, whatever). I guess some people also use just flour -- is that technically breading? There are also batters -- is that breading?

Then there's the liquid you use to make the breading adhere to the meat. That could be milk, or eggs, or some people seem to do both in stages. I'm not really sure I understand how that works.

There also seem to be different methods of getting the breading on to the meat: the zipper bag "shake and bake" method, the shallow bowl method, maybe some other methods I've not noticed.

Then of course you have to cook the stuff.

Who's going to give the primer on all this?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

whenever i bread i make sure that my breading is not too dark as it will darken sooner than lighter breading. well of course sometimes you would have no choice but to use darker breading. then i would also consider the thickness of the product i am breading as it would need to cook fairly fast, especially if it was a darker breading. then there is the oil.. it needs to be clean as well.. or it will darken faster. i guess flour is considered breading, i may be wrong on that. i don't think that batter is considered as breading, then again i can be wrong on that too.

as for the techniques i like to hand bread as to the shake and bake cos of the adherence of the flour and bread on my product. i press it down every time i flour it or bread it. i like to use eggs or eggs wash for my liquid. eggs will cook and stick to the product better than just milk alone... i either deep fry them ( then again how can you go wrong with deep frying?) or just fry it in a shallow pan...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Everyone has a different method, but my tried and true has a few steps.

This produces a basic, great crumb coating. It crisps up nicely when shallow fried. Good for pork chops, boneless chicken, and pressed eggplant. As I'm frying, I keep the finished ones in a low oven till serving time, the breading holds up very well, or even improves.

The stages are: First a dredging in seasoned flour, then a dunking in an egg-water or egg-milk mixture, then a ride through the breadcrumbs, pressing them on. This is usually good, but somtimes it goes back into the egg, then pressed into the breadcrumbs once more.

Then let it dry for about a half hour. This is important, because everything knits together, and the breading stays put, while it's cooking.

I can't give amounts, because I just shake the stuff on the trays as I need it, starting with about a half a cup each, and adding handfuls as I go. I start with two eggs, and about half a cup of liquid, beaten together.

Most of the time, I season the flour with salt, pepper, paprika or a bit of cayenne, and onion powder. That's just my standard everyday cutlet flavors, I vary it up based on what the cutlet thing is going with.

Another tip is to only use one hand for the procedure. One hand to grab the end of the meat, roll, dunk, dredge, press. All the breading stays on the tip of your fingers, and you're not up to your elbows in breading and goop.

Doing stuff in just flour is good, too, or a combo of flour and cornstarch, it makes a very light, slightly crisp coating. I like it a lot, but I wouldn't call it 'breading'. It adds some texture and interest to whatever food, and holds in the moisture nicely.

Edited by Lilija (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like the other respondants, I'm in the seasoned flour/egg wash/breading camp. My only contribution is that I like my egg wash pretty thin (dilute the egg with some water, although milk also works, I prefer the water). Seems to make the breading less *gloppy* (technical word, that). Breading can be whatever seems appropriate to the "bread-ee" as it were. I particularly like panko, but regular bread crumbs work just fine, as do saltine crumbs. I usually don't like flour for the "breading" part. That seems to cross the line into batterdom, and I believe they are different critters.

Breading, at least to me, equals pan fried or oven baked/roasted/fried (with copious amounts of oil for the latter).

Batter equals deep frying, or way more oil than pan frying.

--Roberta--

"Let's slip out of these wet clothes, and into a dry Martini" - Robert Benchley

Pierogi's eG Foodblog

My *outside* blog, "A Pound Of Yeast"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My epiphany came when I read or heard that shallow frying is not a thin film of oil but at least 1/4 inch of oil in the pan that is good and hot but not too hot!

Save yourself a lot of cleanup by putting the flour and the bread crumbs on wax paper.

After breading, put the product on a cooling rack over a plate or baking tray and stick it in the fridge for at least 30 mins, loosely covered with wax paper.

These tricks work for me and it took me years to get past soggy, oil-soaked food to crispy, perfectly browned breaded ingredients.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to chime in and mention, DO NOT GRILL BREADED MEAT!

Hahahaha! I only say this because I have seen it done before and it never turns out well. Baked or pan fried only.

Also, crushed nuts work great as a breading when mixed with panko or bread crumbs. Oily marinades work as a bonding agent as well. I've never tried it with a watery marinade, but I get the sense that it wouldn't go so well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Panko breadcrumbs are the equivalent of frozen peas or canned tomatoes; essential kitchen staple and a simply brilliant product. I love the way you can change the texture of the crumb from coarse to super-fine just by hand-rubbing it. You can use the different crumbs in different ways:

If I’m doing small robust items to deep-fry, like prawns or squid, then I’ve found by dunking in a simple tempura batter (just flour and water) then in some fine panko gives better crispier results than just tempura alone.

Or, you can season coarse Panko with rosemary, thyme, parsley, lemon zest, parmesan cheese (or other hard cheese) and S&P for a ‘Milanese’ type crust for veal, pork, chicken even fish using the panne (is this how to spell this word?) method. Of course, you can always leave it unseasoned and have it as it was intended as Tonkatsu!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This proves to be fertile ground. I'm looking forward to learning a lot here.

Let me start with a basic problem, though. Let me tell you what I did yesterday and maybe we can unpack it and figure out where my technique could have been improved.

I cracked an egg into one wide, shallow bowl and beat it with a fork (I added salt and pepper to the egg -- was that wrong?). Into another wide, shallow bowl I poured a bunch of panko. I took boneless, skinless chicken thighs from the refrigerator. I dipped each thigh first in the egg, then I put it atop the panko pile and flipped it over and around and smooshed it around until it had what looked like a good coating on it, then I laid the breaded pieces out on a half-sheet pan. Cooked in about 1/4 inch of corn oil.

I'm fairly confident in my actual cooking methods -- I've got good pan frying, deep frying and convection baking skillz. However, the breading phase just didn't go well. I had a lot of trouble getting the panko to adhere, and although I was able to force the issue by pressing and manipulating the chicken pieces, a ton of the panko came off during cooking. So by the time I was done pan frying the first batch, the oil was completely ruined by hundreds of little floating burnt pieces of panko. It was beyond skimmable. I had to start new oil. And the finished pieces had a lot of gaps in the breading. What breading there was, was not of uniform thickness. So there were patches of no breading, patches of light breading and patches of heavy breading such that there was no way to get the stuff cooked to a desirable degree of exterior crispness.

I also thought the flakes of panko were too coarse. What's this about using your hands to change that?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here’s my method:

Progresso Italian flavored breadcrumbs mixed with a little seasoning salt (or Old Bay if I'm frying fish).

1 egg about a ¼ cup of milk (I usually eyeball it) mixed together

Dip the cutlet in the eggwash than in the breadcrumbs and fry.

Sometimes I’ll use panko or a mix of panko and Italian flavored breadcrumbs. My kids prefer no panko.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This proves to be fertile ground. I'm looking forward to learning a lot here.

Let me start with a basic problem, though. Let me tell you what I did yesterday and maybe we can unpack it and figure out where my technique could have been improved.

I cracked an egg into one wide, shallow bowl and beat it with a fork (I added salt and pepper to the egg -- was that wrong?). Into another wide, shallow bowl I poured a bunch of panko. I took boneless, skinless chicken thighs from the refrigerator. I dipped each thigh first in the egg, then I put it atop the panko pile and flipped it over and around and smooshed it around until it had what looked like a good coating on it, then I laid the breaded pieces out on a half-sheet pan. Cooked in about 1/4 inch of corn oil.

I'm fairly confident in my actual cooking methods -- I've got good pan frying, deep frying and convection baking skillz. However, the breading phase just didn't go well. I had a lot of trouble getting the panko to adhere, and although I was able to force the issue by pressing and manipulating the chicken pieces, a ton of the panko came off during cooking. So by the time I was done pan frying the first batch, the oil was completely ruined by hundreds of little floating burnt pieces of panko. It was beyond skimmable. I had to start new oil. And the finished pieces had a lot of gaps in the breading. What breading there was, was not of uniform thickness. So there were patches of no breading, patches of light breading and patches of heavy breading such that there was no way to get the stuff cooked to a desirable degree of exterior crispness.

I also thought the flakes of panko were too coarse. What's this about using your hands to change that?

I think the resting in the fridge for 30 minutes mentioned by Anna is critical to keeping the crumbs attached. A little milk or water with the egg also helps with crust formation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fat Guy, i agree with the above, a light seasoning of flour would help as would thinning the egg with a little water. You need to beat the egg till it is uniformly mixed, and thinning it makes this process easier. The thinner egg wash should coat your chicken more evenly and thereby helping to stick the crumb more evenly. If you have holes in your crust it implies that the crumbs are finding gaps in your egg wash. For a thicker crust dip your chicken in the egg wash again and give it another even coating of crumbs. Resting in the fridge helps to firm up the egg, flour & crumb coating.

With Panko, it's quite easy to rub handfuls of it between your hands to make the crumb finer. Just try it, you'll see for yourself. Maybe that's another reason why your crumbs are not adhering. Coarser crumbs are more likely to drop off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also thought the flakes of panko were too coarse. What's this about using your hands to change that?

Precisely. Breading size matters. As an example, it'd be difficult to get a whole shelled hazelnut to adhere to chicken. Ground hazelnuts would be fine. Panko comes in different size flakes based on brands. You can crumble it in your hands like dried herbs or give it a whiz in the processor.

The flour before egg is important. It absorbs moisture from whatever you're frying to keep the breading on. Without it your breading is likely to fall off after cooking. With the flour it will stick firmly after cooking. And season all layers of breading - flour, liquid, and top coating.

I prefer dredging via products laid on the counter (in paper plates or wax like anna auggested) to putting in a bag and shaking. The bag method doesn't ensure even coating. For cutlets I like to press the final breading on quite firmly. For something where you don't want such a firm coating, calamari, for example that will be deep fried place the breaded product in a medium strainer and shake.

For veal cutlets I like to add some grated parm and lemon zest to seasoned Italian breadcrumbs (I prefer 4C brand - they make iced T and breadcrumbs, I wonder how that came about?)

The temperature of the cooking fat is also quite important. You can follow proper breading procedure all day but put it into cold oil on the stove and you have a soggy, fat laden mess.

Happy frying.

My mom used to bread and fry zucchini sticks and tell me they were french fries. The epitome of health :biggrin:

edited for spelling

Edited by Lisa1349 (log)

Lisa K

Lavender Sky

"No one wants black olives, sliced 2 years ago, on a sandwich, you savages!" - Jim Norton, referring to the Subway chain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe that a light trip through seasoned flour before the egg dip would be a big help in the crust adherence.

HC

Word to that. :cool:

Also, don't season your egg mixture. It doesn't disperse properly (salt can eventually dissolve but pepper flakes just tends to stick together like wallflowers at a dance). Instead, season your breading/coating.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

Link to comment
Share on other sites

chiming in late, but affirming: the surface of the food to be breaded needs to be very dry before it goes into the egg wash, otherwise the eggwash won't stick. that's the purpose of the first flour. the rest after breading helps with this, too, because it allows the protein in the eggs to "bond" with teh flour underneath and the breadcrumbs on top.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe that a light trip through seasoned flour before the egg dip would be a big help in the crust adherence.

HC

Word to that. :cool:

Also, don't season your egg mixture. It doesn't disperse properly (salt can eventually dissolve but pepper flakes just tends to stick together like wallflowers at a dance). Instead, season your breading/coating.

Just to beat a dead horse, don't skip the flouring step. The egg wash needs something to stick to.

I season the flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs. My theory is: why not?

Another option - if you want something other than regular, dry bread crumbs, and you're not into the panko is matzo meal.

I never refrigerate before frying, and have never had a problem with the breading coming off.

Now - if you're making fried chicken vs. chicken tenders, I skip the bread crumbs and do a second dip into the flour.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This will not work in all cases, but when suitable, I like to add some finely grated parm to my panko. It "glues" the crust together, and of course adds a nice flavour. I flour and eggwash, too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm.... I never flour first, just egg wash and then bread crumbs. I have not had a problem with the coating falling off. Maybe next time I fry I'll try it both ways to test. If there is no difference why go through the extra step?

Edited by lcdm (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm.... I never flour first, just egg wash and then bread crumbs. I have not had a problem with the coating falling off.  Maybe next time I fry I'll try it both ways to test. If there is no difference why go through the extra step?

The flour is also a good place to incorporate your seasonings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My method isn't any different than what folks have said about flour, egg wash, then breading, but I don't season the flour. Rather I season whatever meat is being breaded. I've tried it both ways and I just don't think the seasoning penetrates to the meat when it's in the flour. Anyone else think so?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any hints for baking breaded fish or chicken rather than frying?

Theoretically this method can result in something tasty & crunchy, but regrettably, that has not been my experience.

pat w.

I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance

Were it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance.

-- Ogden Nash

http://bluestembooks.com/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any hints for baking breaded fish or chicken rather than frying? 

Theoretically this method can result in something tasty & crunchy, but regrettably, that has not been my experience.

pat w.

This recipe has won some great reviews.

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A couple of tricks that work well for me:

-I buy the day old boutique breads on sale and grind to size in the food processor as well as using panko crumbs. Best buy on panko is your local asian market btw.

-For foods I want to fry very briefly, e.g., shrimp, oysters, calimari, I frequently pretoast the crumbs in the oven as they may take longer to brown than the seafood should be fried.

-Some vegetables, e.g. green tomatoes and eggplant, do better peeled as far as getting a uniform crust. The skins are virtually as non-stick as Teflon.

-I like buttermilk and egg for an eggwash. Sometimes I beat cornstarch into the wash for a really crunchy crust.

-Agree that waiting 30 min or more lets the crust set up after breading.

-The separation of crust from the meat,fish etc., is due to steam being trapped behind a dense crust, if my memory serves me correctly. I seem to recall that this is less of a problem in pan frying than in deep frying due to the easier access to escape for the steam from within. Perhaps someone else can comment on this aspect.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any hints for baking breaded fish or chicken rather than frying? 

Theoretically this method can result in something tasty & crunchy, but regrettably, that has not been my experience.

pat w.

This recipe has won some great reviews.

Thank you. Sounds & looks delicious! We'll give it a try.

Now, any ideas on how to get a nice crunchy coating on a fish fillet in the oven?

Edited by Pat W (log)

I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance

Were it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance.

-- Ogden Nash

http://bluestembooks.com/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...