The wait is over

I'm finally writing my first post. On Thursday, I decided to make Egyptian Chicken Panne. The original recipe is from www.recipezaar.com, posting #201246. However, I'm typically not likely to be following a recipe (especially a new one) to a tee. It is quite common for me to split a recipe to try the original author's intent and then compare to my own ideas. In this case, I ALMOST followed their original recipe and definitely tried two different variants. As indicated by the blog title, I like garlic...a lot. What is not indicated is that I also like curry powder a lot too. These two preferences influenced the change to the recipe as well as how I would make it next time ...shocking...but I would definitely use more garlic and more curry powder!

Ingredients

4 boneless chicken breasts

1.5 Tbsp of lemon juice

1 small-medium onion

2 tsp salt

2 tsp pepper

2 Tbsp garlic powder

curry powder (honestly I didn't measure but I used around 1 tsp.)

4 slices of toasted or dried bread crushed into breadcrumbs or 1 -1.5 c. plain breadcrumbs

frying oil

1. Slice chicken breasts into thin strips (3-4 strips per breast)

2. Cut up onion and grind into liquid using a food processor or other weapon of choice.

3. I split the chicken in half into 2 ziploc sandwich bags so I could try two flavor options. You could use bowls if that is your preference but make sure you have lids if you want to shake the marinade around.

4. I combined the lemon juice and garlic powder with the onion and poured half the mixture into each bag of chicken.

5. Add curry to one bag of chicken.

6. Close and place both bags of chicken in the fridge for around an hour. (You can leave it in longer if you have the time, patience, or forethought.)

7. I fried this in a fryer so I poured the oil in the fryer and heated it to 375F. If you want to make on the stovetop, pour oil so that it will cover about half the chicken in the pan and flip the chicken. The stove top method is great for those who love to stir but be very careful of popping grease. Feel free to use a deep pot and tongs to decrease cleanup and keep your hands distanced from the grease.

8. After preparing the oil and letting the chicken marinate as long as I cared to wait (surprisingly I waited an hour), each piece of chicken was rolled in breadcrumbs and placed in the fryer. The fry time took about 8 minutes with one thicker piece that required 9 minutes.

Notes: When this is repeated (not if, because its good) I will not bother with garlic powder but instead use 2-3 garlic cloves. Also, I recommend using a stronger onion. I used yellow but it was mild as yellow onions go. The flavor was close to a white onion so for me a little disappointing. Further, I would definitely recommend more curry powder... at least 2 if not 3 Tbsp for 4 chicken breasts. That being said, I really like curry, so someone else could try going by the yellowness or the fragrance of the spice.

Unlike southern fried chicken, I would not recommend double coating this chicken with breadcrumbs. I think it would make it too crusty and take away from the spice flavors but to each their own.

I made sweet potato fries along with the chicken and attempted making garlic aioli to go along with them. The fries were great but I didn't think of taking a picture until the plate was empty. I plan to repeat them very soon. The aioli didn't go as smoothly as anticipated. By this I mean, round 1: aioli: 1, me: 0. However, I demand a rematch! Maybe the next round will be more in my favor.