I made a very good dinner tonight, and I’m dubbing it Chicken Romano.
I don’t like to deep-fry, but I love fried chicken. What I did was cut up some chicken breast tenders into small, manageable pieces. Think 2-3 bites each. They were already marinated with Italian dressing. I coated them with flour (mixed with salt & pepper, of course), dipped them in a milk bath (mixed with hot sauce, of course), and then dredged them in some Italian bread crumbs, salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, parmesan cheese, and a whole lot of romano cheese. I cheated and combined about 2 tbsp of bacon grease with about 4 tbsp of canola oil. It was just enough to coat the bottom of my pan. I fried the chicken over medium-high heat for about 4 minutes on each side, doing it in two batches so I wouldn’t crowd the pan. I did have to add a bit of canola oil to the second batch because the first batch soaked up some of the oil. Fried the chicken until nicely browned and transferred to a covered plate to keep warm.
Next I sauteed about half an onion, diced, in the same pan. Add salt, sautee until soft & starting to brown. At that point I added 5 cloves of garlic, minced. Continued to sautee until the onions were very soft and the garlic was golden brown. Add in some thyme and the mushrooms, dixed potatoes, and carrots - all of which I’d roasted a few days ago. Add a little more oil so nothing is 100% dry. Stir to combine, then turn up to almost-high heat, cover, and cook for about 5 minutes. Stir to redistribute the tasty seared bits, throw in roughly chopped spinach and a handful of diced green onions, cover again, and sear/steam for another 5 minutes. It would’ve been nice to add some diced tomatoes or diced sun-dried tomatoes, but I didn’t have them ready.
To serve, I sprinkled a little more romano cheese over the veggies. Bring the chicken to the plate, and there you have it. If I’d had some crusty bread it would have been perfect. When I started cooking, I didn’t know I’d be frying chicken. Next time I’ll actually plan the meal.