This week, food writer Libby Kimber shares this simple, tasty recipe that works for every night of the week.
Chicken schnitty and chips
Serves 4
- 6 chicken thigh fillets
- 1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
- 1 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 Tbsp chicken stock powder
- 3 eggs
- 2 1/2 cups (150g) panko breadcrumbs
- 1 Tbsp dried rosemary
- 1kg potatoes, peeled and cut into rough 5cm angular chunks, resembling shards
- 1 cup (250ml) chicken stock
- 1/2 cup (125ml) white wine
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- Sea salt
- Rice bran oil, for shallow-frying
- 1 baby cos lettuce, cut into wedges and washed
- vinai-no-regrette, for dressing
Optional, to serve
Sauerkraut, aioli and lemon wedges
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Place each chicken thigh between two pieces of baking paper and smack it out firmly to 1.5cm thick. Don’t be too rough or you end up with sections breaking up. A thigh schnitzel does result in a wonderfully misshaped crown affair – all the more spots for the crumb.
Combine the flour, onion powder and stock powder in one bowl.
Crack the eggs into another bowl and lightly beat.
Mix together the panko crumbs and dried rosemary in a third bowl.
Then line a baking tray for the finished schnitz.
Dust the chicken pieces in flour, drench in egg and press into the crumbs, then place on the tray.
Repeat this until your fingers are bulbous with crumb – E.T. fingers are a suitable gauge. Rinse and continue until finished. (Or use skewers to avoid this situation.)
Set aside until ready to fry.
Toss the potato shards in the stock, wine, lemon juice, paprika and salt to taste, then tip into a roasting tin and spread them out. Roast for 40 minutes, flipping halfway through.
Heat about 5mm of rice bran oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat and cook the schnitzels for about 3 minutes each side.
You want them golden and cooked through. It’s best to fry in batches to achieve this.
This close to the end of the week you would hope the salad has at least attempted to make itself, and to be fair … it kinda has. Leaves + dressing. Eat with the schnitties and shards.
Vinai-no-regrette (vinaigrette)
Makes a bit over 1.5 cups (375ml)
- 1/2 cup (125ml) lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed (into big chunks you can fish out later)
- 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup (50g) grated parmesan
- 1 cup (250ml) extra virgin olive (EVO) oil
Optional
Fresh herbs, chilli, other mustards and anchovies
Lemon juice + garlic + Dijon + sugar + salt + parmesan > a jar or bowl.
Leave for 30 minutes.
Walk away.
Make dinner. Pour a drink. Talk to your guests. Play a round of Pictionary with your kids where all they draw is a stick man even if they get the word ‘carwash’.
The key is to let the lemon juice dissolve, cook and suck the deliciousness out of everything in that mix. Just go away long enough to suddenly think ‘Oh, the salad dressing!’.
Add the EVO oil and shake or whisk like crazy.
Learn this. You will use this dressing often. Here are some things I do with it:
- Halve the quantities and make it in the base of the large bowl you plan to serve a big green salad in. Tossing dressing from the bottom up is enlightening.
- Add chives.
- Add basil and some smooshed roasted cherry toms.
- Toss it through a zucchini pasta with ricotta.
- Combine some with an equal amount of mayonnaise and mix with a shredded roast chook for the easiest picnic roll filling.
- Add a tablespoon to your scrambled egg mix.
- Mash with anchovies and butter to eat on toast.
All images and text from Every Night of the Week by Lucy Tweed, photography by Lucy Tweed, Murdoch Books, RRP $35.
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