Easy Peasy Crumb Fried Chicken

And so, another Diwali comes to an end. It always saddens me when we have to take down our fairy lights and store away our earthen lamps. Festivals do have their way of taking leave; everything looks so glum for a while. And then the next one comes along! Thankfully, in a country like India, we are never short of festivals.

Diwali has always been my favourite festival, unlike, say Holi. I am scared of people clamouring over each other to put colours. But Diwali is different. Although I am not much into bursting crackers, I like the way all the houses are cheerfully lit up. As children, both sis and I would be silently competing with our neighbours in decorating our house in a more innovative manner. And now, since both of us are married and staying in the same city, Bangalore, we compete with each other in decking up our rented homes!

She has always been my confidante and when I decided to create this blog, she was the first to know about it. Perhaps she is the only follower of my blog, other than my husband! But she is kind of fascinated by this whole process of cooking for the family, then keeping them waiting while the husband and I take turns in taking pictures of the food (my-angle-is-better-than-yours) and finally uploading the recipe at the dead of night. She always gets a text message at around 12.30 am or so, saying “Just uploaded one more post! Check it now!”. So much fun at such an hour!

I think she secretly harbours a wish of creating her own blog. Maybe someday she will and I would have to watch out! Both of us share our love for cooking and every day one of us asks the inevitable question “What are you going to cook today?” to the other. Generally, she replies with a non-committal “Oh just something, what about you?” but post lunch I always receive a text message saying “Cooked lovely (name-of-the-dish) today.” 

This fried chicken recipe belongs to her. She made this one day and sent across the picture to me as a reply to my what-are-you-cooking query. Her husband vouches for its taste and I trust his finicky taste buds. She says the pictures did not come out well and the chicken looks kind of burnt, but actually it is not. Let me share this quick chicken recipe with you without more ado.

Crumb Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

2 whole legs of chicken

One teaspoon ginger-garlic paste

One teaspoon lime juice

One tablespoon tomato ketchup

Salt and pepper to taste

1 egg

 ½ cup breadcrumbs

Refined oil for frying 

Method:

Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients except the egg and breadcrumbs for about 2 hours. You could also add some crushed green chillies, depending upon the amount of heat you want in the dish.

Whisk the egg well and dip one chicken leg into it. Then roll the chicken on a plate of breadcrumbs till it is evenly coated. Shake off the excess crumbs. In case you don’t have breadcrumbs, grind a few Marie biscuits and that will do the trick. In fact, I generally use biscuits as they are always there for me while the breadcrumbs are not. 

Now, heat some refined oil in a pan and fry the crumb-coated chicken legs. Flip over once one side is done and fry the other side. Remove the chicken legs when cooked and place them on paper napkins to absorb the oil. Serve them alongside a potato mash or mint chutney, or even better - just grab them with both hands and take a huge bite! Bro-in-law assures me that the chicken turned out to be quite deliciously clichéd – crispy on the outside while tender and juicy inside!

Writing about this has made me really ravenous and I intend to try out this dish for dinner today. I love easy recipes and this fits the bill. How about you trying out the same and let me know if it worked for you? Sisters are to be cherished and so should be their recipes, don’t you think so?