Cooking with Blobby

710 texted me a recipe for Ritzy Cheddar Chicken Breasts. 

He "claims" he didn't send it to me to make, just as an item of interest. Uh-huh. Who are we kidding here? He expected me to make it. So..........I proved him right.......or wrong, depending what he actually wanted. 

It really was not hard. 30 minute-ish. The cook time is to be 12-15 minutes, but if I stuck to that I'd be posting this from the ED with my food poisoning. 

Ingredients 

Yield: 4 servings 

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for greasing wire rack 

¼ cup sour cream 

1 large egg white 

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 

Kosher salt (Diamond Crystal) 

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1½ pounds total) 

1 sleeve Ritz crackers (about 100 grams) 

2 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar cheese, coarsely grated (about 1 cup) 

½ teaspoon garlic powder 

½ teaspoon onion powder 

Preparation

Step 1 Position rack in the bottom third of the oven and heat oven to 450 degrees. Place an ovenproof wire rack over a sheet pan. Dab a folded-up paper towel with olive oil and rub it over the wire rack to grease it. 

Step 2 In a medium bowl, whisk together the sour cream, egg white and Dijon mustard until smooth. Season with salt. Lay the chicken flat on a cutting board and carve each breast in half horizontally so you end up with four thin cutlets. Add the chicken to the sour cream mixture, and using your hands, smear the sour cream all over the chicken. 

Step 3 In a large bowl, crush the Ritz crackers into coarse pieces with your fingers. Some crackers will turn to rubble while others turn to dust. Add the cheese, garlic powder, onion powder and olive oil. Season with ½ teaspoon salt and toss until evenly distributed. Holding one of the chicken cutlets by its thinner end, add to the bowl with the crumbs, and using your hands, pack the crumbs onto the chicken, pressing them in to create a thick coating. 

Transfer the breaded chicken to the rack in the sheet pan. Repeat with the remaining three cutlets.  (we had three breasts, which made six cutlets.)

Step 4 Bake the cutlets until the outsides are crispy and the insides are no longer pink, 10 to 15 minutes. Let the chicken cool slightly so the coating can set, about 5 minutes, before transferring to plates and serving.

I forgot to get a serving picture, but that's ok. 

I'm not sure I adhered to the waiting 5 minutes of cooling so the coating could set up. It didn't seem to be an issue, but maybe it would have been a little better. 

The meal was fine. The chicken was moist and tender. The topping was good texture with ok flavour. While the recipe didn't say to flip the chicken, and I assume the rack would provide cooking evening on all sides, next time I'd flip. 

The bottom sides were cooked, but not crispy. A little soggy actually, and that wasn't a great texture. 

And that cook until 'no longer pink'?  Fuck that. I used a meat thermometer. Chicken gets cooked until 165 - no questions. 175 if it's dark meat. 

We will have two additional meals out of this. And if I've learned anything from these recipes, it is that the next day most of the stuff I make are better. Maybe I should hold off on these segments until after I try the leftovers. 

But with cooking time, it was 30 minutes. Ish. Decent for a week night meal.