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Flour, eggs, bread crumbs, repeat. That’s all we need to do to get that beautiful golden crust on a pork schnitzel right? Not exactly.
There are a few factors to take into consideration when you want to fry anything coated in breadcrumbs. How hot should your oil be? Should you season your meat before frying? How will you ensure your breadcrumbs won’t fall off?
Don’t stress about it, follow these 7 tips and you’re bound to always have meat that’s cooked to perfection with an outer crisp and golden crust every time.
1. The cut of the meat or vegetable you’re going to fry needs to be relatively thin, this will ensure even cooking whilst frying. If you use a thick cut of meat,when taken out too soon; you will find the outer crust to burn resulting in an under-cooked or raw centre.
2. Spice it up, make sure to season your meat thoroughly when coating, you don’t want a tasteless schnitzel. Don’t be afraid to add fresh herbs to the mix!
3. See to it that you have enough crumbs for the amount of food you’re coating, you don’t want to have one evenly coated cutlet and the other only coated half way.
4. Make sure that you use a suitable oil for frying, stay away from using olive oil for deep frying. Canola or sunflower oil would be the best choice.
5. If you run out of eggs, mustard works just as well to get the crumbs to stick. (Tip: make sure everyone you’re serving likes the flavour of mustard as it can be a bit overpowering.)
6. Once you have coated your meat, place in the fridge for 1 hour before frying. (The crumbs are less likely to fall off when following this step.)
7. Ensure your oil is at the correct temperature for frying, before putting your meat in, 191°C is the ideal temperature.
Now that you’re set on how to coat your food put these tips into practice with these amazing recipes.
Crumbed pork chops with apple sage mash – try this recipe for a tender yet crispy pork chop paired beautifully with apple sage mash.
Baked coconut crumbed fish – don’t fret if you’re not big on deep frying, these tips still apply when baking. Give the above coating tips a go when baking this coconut crumbed fish.
Parmesan and lemon crumbed hake – with the addition of Parmesan and lemon, this crumbed hake gets a fabulous upgrade that you just have to try.
Herby crumbed chicken – as we said above, you can never go wrong with spicing things up when adding fresh herbs. The flavour is more prominent and the green from the parsley in this recipe just makes the crispy crumbed chicken pop!
Fried risotto balls – these tips can be handy when making arancini or coating veggies too. Try this mouthwatering recipe for fried risotto balls.
What your favourite deep-fried meal? Let us know in the comments on Facebook and Twitter!
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