How to Bread Chicken

Crispy, breaded chicken is unbelievably easy – and unbelievably delicious!

Breadcrumbs are like the magic fairy dust of cooking. Coat your food in them and VOILA it's transformed into a delicious crunchy, crusted piece of delight, with juicy, flavorful and tender meat hiding inside. Here we take a plain old chicken breast and by using a very simple method, turn it into a golden feast!

But before we transform our chicken, let's talk breadcrumbs.

In recent years panko seems to have become THE breadcrumb of choice for many people. So what's the difference between panko and regular breadcrumbs?

Panko is a Japanese breadcrumb, made from bread without crusts that is more coarsely ground, giving it larger and more consistently sized crumbs as well as a crunchier, lighter texture. Traditionally, it's used as a coating in various Asian cuisines. The wildest thing about Panko breadcrumbs? They are made by ELECTROCUTING bread dough. Don't believe it? Look it up!

Traditional breadcrumbs, like the Progresso Breadcrumbs used here, are made from bread with the crust still on, which you can see from the different colored crumbs. Traditional breadcrumbs are typically less uniform in size. This will give the chicken a more dense coating, as the finer crumbs will fill in the spaces between the larger crumbs, allowing for a fully coated chicken breast.

Now let's get to the breading part! It's a pretty simple process, but here's a little trick so your hands don't get all goopy: Get three dishes in front of you, starting with the flour on your left, the egg wash in the middle, and the breadcrumbs on the right. Once you start breading the chicken, you will want to use one hand for the dry ingredients only, and your other hand for just the wet ingredients.

Pick up the chicken with your "dry ingredient" hand, place it into the flour, turn until evenly coated, then place the floured chicken into the egg wash, making sure to not get egg on your hand. Using your "wet ingredient" hand, coat the chicken in the egg, lifting the chicken up and allowing excess egg to drip off and then place the chicken in the breadcrumbs. Then, using your "dry ingredient" hand again, turn the chicken until evenly coated in breadcrumbs and place on a separate dish. Repeat this, using your respective wet and dry hands to finish breading all the chicken.

It's that easy! Now you're free to cook your beautifully breaded chicken however you like.