To get the bread crumbs to stick to the chicken, I coat the chicken with eggs. I then put the bowl in the refrigerator. How long should I wait before taking the chicken out of the eggs and rubbing the bread crumbs on them?
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7Why do you think you need to wait?– TFDJul 12, 2015 at 23:48
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@TFD there is also spices in the mix.– CeleritasJul 13, 2015 at 1:22
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And...you need to wait because? The recipe says so, or you are trying to pre-prepare for a big event, or ...?– TFDJul 13, 2015 at 1:27
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@TFD for the spices and egg to get absorbed by the chicken was my thinking.– CeleritasJul 13, 2015 at 2:02
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19Chickens wait in eggs 21 days.– SobachatinaJul 13, 2015 at 3:22
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2 Answers
Spices or egg do not get absorbed into chicken, or any other protein in any significant manner given any safe amount of time
Some amount of sodium from a brine will get absorbed, but this is generally for different reasons, and is not a requirement for crumbed chicken
The easiest and safest method is to dredge in flour, dip in egg, dredge in crumbs, and cook (deep fry, pan fry, oven etc) all in one sequence of steps
The flour sticks to chicken well, and become a glue to hold the egg when it gets wet and hot during cooking. Egg alone will not stick well to chicken, see this post. The egg will stick to the flour well, and bread crumbs or Panko will stick to egg well see this post
For food safety reasons prepared foods should not be sitting around for too many hours. The normal process is to prepare and then cook. Also you should not save flour of crumbs for another day see this post
In my experience; it is best to allow the chicken to warm up a bit after being removed from the fridge, e.g. rest on bench 30 minutes before you plan to cook. Make sure the chicken is not wet, damp is OK. Line up your flour, egg, and crumb mixtures a short distance away from your cooking device of choice (for speed, simplicity, and safety). And in one continuous process; flour dredge, egg dip, crumb dredge, and then cook
Any waiting will generally cause coating failures. You do not need to be fast, but you don't want to have it sitting around. You fingers and kitchen will be messy, so no point stopping, get it all done in one go
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The procedure described by TFD is the correct one. If you really want to "marinate" the chicken, you should apply only the spices some hours before. When ready to cook, apply flour-egg-breadcrumb and fry.– algiogiaJul 13, 2015 at 8:55
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4@Noldor130884 You dredge in flour primarily to remove any surface moisture, so that the egg sticks better.– Joe MJul 13, 2015 at 14:45
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personally, I found that while egg sticks better after dredging in flour, the crust is more likely to fall off during cooking afterwards, so I usually skip this step. Not as thick crumb crust, but stays on the meat more firmly.– SF.Jun 2, 2017 at 8:46
As I always see my mother, she just coat it with egg then apply breadcrumbs and directly place it in the hot frying oil. Waiting is just for spicing or seasoning to allow the meat catching spices flavors.
