Crispy Crusty Chicken

This here is mainly for D as he loves this sort of meal for the evenings - a simple salad, some chicken or fish, maybe a soup. That's it.

I was looking for ways to not fry the chicken for a nice crunchy crust and yet have juicy chicken inside. This recipe is inspired by America's Test Kitchen recipe I saw on PBS where they used plain cornflakes to coat the chicken before baking.

Well, I didn't have corn flakes handy but had a lot of bran flakes cereal, and Fiber One™ cereal (which comes in pellet form), so, I decided to use a mixture of Fiber One and Bran Flakes and quick-cooking oats for the crust.

I used boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into fairly uniform size pieces so they will cook evenly. I marinated them in some soy sauce and red wine vinegar for about 30 minutes to keep them juicy. Then encrusted them with the cereal pulsed down a bit coarsely and pan-fried the chicken till done.

The salad is a simple romaine lettuce, with home made yogurt-mustard dressing, which also acted as the dipping sauce for the chicken.

Ingredients
for the chicken:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into even-sized pieces
1 cup bran flakes, ½ cup Fiber One™ cereal, quick-cooking oats coarsely pulsed
½ cup all-purpose flour, just for dredging the chicken pieces
1 egg, beaten
2-3 Tbsp canola oil
salt, pepper to taste

for the yogurt-mustard dressing:
1 cup drained Nancy's™ plain yogurt (I like Nancy's as it is sour and thick)
¼ cup dijon mustard, or stone ground mustard, or plain yellow mustard
2 Tbsp Frank's Red Hot™ hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1. place the all-purpose flour in a shallow plate; the beaten egg in another shallow plate and the bran+fiber one crumbs in another shallow plate handy before starting
2. heat the oil in a pan
3. dredge the chicken pieces in flour, shake off excess, dip both sides in the egg, then press into the bran crumbs till well coated
4. place the crumb-coated chicken pieces in the pan with hot oil, and leave it alone for 3-4 minutes over medium high heat till it sizzles and the crust sets
5. turn and cook the other side similarly
6. if the chicken pieces are thin enough, it should be done on the inside by now - check with an instant read meat thermometer - I usually let my chicken get up to 170°F
7. if the pieces are too thick, finish cooking in a 375°F oven till chicken is done

For the yogurt-mustard sauce/dressing: combine the dressing ingredients, adjust to taste