How to Bread (almost) Anything

Ever wonder how to bread something so that the breading doesn’t fall off and the inside of the food is cooked and soft while the outside is crisp and flavorful?  Here is your answer! A super easy method to bread almost anything, cheesesticks, chicken, pickles, mushrooms, onions...the list goes on and on and on.

Recently, while I was working through a full repertoire of fried foods for Chanukah, I breaded up a bunch of foods that you don’t always see.  So, I’ve saved up some photos and I want to teach you how you can bread nearly any food! I’m going to demo some fun ones for this article.

About Breading

You can tell when you are eating something that was just not breaded well.  The breading slides right off or just isn’t attached to the food inside. If you cut into your chicken, the breading should stay on the chicken for the most part.  That’s what you are looking for. You need a crisp outside and a tender inside as well. So how do you get a breading that will adhere to your food?

The 3-Bowl Method

Prep

First, you will need to make sure that your food is prepared to the size of pieces that you want breaded.  It should be clean and ready to dip before you begin.

The First Bowl

The first bowl is called the dredging.  This step is what keeps the breading ON the food.  It’s a very important step that many skip mistakenly thinking it’s pointless.  This bowl should contain some starch. The starch can be seasoned or not depending on the composition of your breading.  The food will be dipped in the dredge, which will adhere to the natural moisture of the food. This creates a smooth and dry surface for the next step.

The Second Bowl

The second bowl is beaten eggs.  That’s it. It’s always just beaten eggs.  You will want to have plenty of eggs in the bowl because some starch will mix in with them.  You will take your dredged food and coat it completely in egg. Then on to bowl 3.

The Third Bowl

This is the actually breading that you want.  It could be panko or matzo meal or cornflakes or pretzels, so on and so on.  Usually this bowl is well seasoned. If it’s not possible to season, such as when using cornflakes or pretzels that don’t hold seasoning well, then you need to season the dredge.

Technique

It’s best to choose one hand to be dry and one to be wet.  You are going to get messy, so don’t get too worried about that.  Using the wet hand, drop the food into bowl 1. Then using the dry hand, coat it with starch, tap it to shake loose any excess.  Then drop it in the egg. Use the wet hand to coat it, then tap off the excess and drop into bowl 3. Switch again to dry hand to coat it and then set it aside.  Once everything is breaded, it’s best to let it chill in the fridge for 20 minutes or so. Then it can be either baked or fried. Make sure the oil is hot enough that the outside will get crisp without absorbing too much oil.  Usually 350 degrees or so. If you are baking, you can bake on 350 for chicken. Some things may need a higher temp to get crisp. Also, breading needs oil to get crispy. So if you are baking, you will need to spray some oil on the food before it goes into the oven.  

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Recipe Ideas

Fried Pickles

Bowl 1-Cornstarch with Salt, Pepper, Chili Powder

Bowl 2-Beaten Eggs

Bowl 3-Cornflakes, hand crumbled

Fried Mushrooms

Bowl 1-Cornstarch

Bowl 2-Beaten Eggs

Bowl 3-Matzo Meal with Salt and Pepper

Fried Matzo Balls

Bowl 1-Cornstarch

Bowl 2-Beaten Eggs

Bowl 3-Matzo Meal with Salt, Pepper, and Za’atar

Experiment, be creative and enjoy!

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