the pragmatic chef™

TPCs Kid's Parmesan Chicken Strips

I made these from a dozen boneless, skinless breasts, and I bought them that way to make life a bit easier. You should be able to get 5 strips from each breast, the tender itself, then 4 even slices from the breast along the longest edge. Season them with some salt and pepper.

It took about 16-20 slices of bread to make the breading. I winged the rest of it, but I threw in quite a bit of grated grana padano cheese, some thyme, oregano, sage and salt & pepper. I like rosemary in this too, but most kids don't, and this was all about kids. Zapped it up in a food processor, and set it aside.

If you're doing a lot of these, take the time to organize your breading station properly, similar to this:

(Standard Breading Station setup)

From bottom to top- seasoned chicken ready for breading, the silver work bowl has extra breading, the three plates have flour, milk, and breading in them. Egg is good, too, but I had allergy issues to deal with. Top are sheet pans lined with parchment.

Remember the wet hand/dry hand technique- Wet hand picks up the chicken and puts it in the flour. Dry hand covers it with flour well, pats, shakes off the flour and puts it in the milk. Wet hand flips it in the milk and puts it in the breading. Dry hand covers the chicken in bread crumbs, pats, shakes off excess and places on sheet pan. If you do this, you'll have much better looking chicken and a lot less gunk on your fingers.

The E-Z Hook® is great for jobs like this, too, especially if you're a bit squeamish about handling raw chicken.

I pre-cooked them 2 pans at a time, until the breading was set and the chicken was just starting to firm up then cooled them, then packed them wrapped in plastic wrap in row of six into gallon freezer bags.

I also made a bunch of macaroni and cheese, but that's another day...