Glamorous Simple Food! Panure à L'anglaise

How do you dress up a simple dinner kids will love & adults will admire?

 

(Chicken) Poulet pané à l'anglaise

One of my favorite meals is Chicken Milanese! The French classic technique, "Panure à L'anglaise" means, "breaded in the English fashion." This technique requires that the food be first dredged lightly in flour, dipped into egg mixture, coated with bread crumbs and then beautifully pan seared. You can easily use this technique for chicken, fish, pork, veal and vegetables. In France, they use fresh bread crumbs made by trimming crust off of white loaf bread, slice and dry in oven 200 degrees on baking pans for 40 min (or leave out over night 12+ hours) and then food processor.  Shhh - I use panko, add grated parmesan cheese and skip the flour and pan searing steps.  

I thought this would be an easy day at school learning, panure à l'anglaise. Au contraire! To my surprise, it took practice to master flavor by seasoning with salt and pepper, creating an evenly breaded, almost smooth, skin surface and then perfecting the searing to golden color.

Panko creates a delicious, crunchy texture to vegetables and meats. Mistake proof and kid approved!  Pound thin chicken, pork or veal, use thin fish fillets, zucchini, yellow squash, onions, eggplant or tomatoes. Baking in oven omits the fat and task of pan searing in oil.

Grape seed oil is tasteless and has a higher smoke point vs olive oil. Olive oil turns bitter at high temperatures. In France, they use tasteless peanut oil mainly for searing because it is lower in cost and has the highest smoke point of all tasteless cooking oils.  nteresting Europe does not have the food and peanut allergies we do in US. If I cannot use peanut oil, I prefer grape seed over the taste of canola.

Ingredients
Serves 4-6
4 cups unseasoned panko crumbs
6 organic large eggs
Salt & pepper
1/2 c fresh, grated parmesan cheese
2 t Italian seasoning
1/8 t garlic powder
1/8 t onion powder
1 T olive or grape seed oil to add to egg mixture
Grape seed oil spray or olive oil spray (click to see product)
2 or 3 pans for panure a l'anglaise process
OPTIONAL
3 zucchini,  washed and sliced into 1/4 inch discs.
1 large eggplant, peel skin, slice into discs, salt well and let sit for 30 min.
Chicken tenders, chicken parts or pounded breast, veal or pork meat or use thin fish fillets.

Preperation
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
*Do not use the same egg and panko mixtures for raw vegetables and meats.

Pan 1:
-Beat 3 eggs
-1 T grape seed or olive oil (important step to obtain golden color)
-Dash salt and pepper

Pan 2: 
-4 cups unseasoned panko crumbs
-1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
-1/8 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper
-2 tsp Italian spices
-1/8 tsp garlic powder
-1/8 tsp onion powder
*I recommend following these amounts and then you can adjust to your taste next time.  You can also add cayenne, dried mustard among others.

Instructions
*Do not prepare veg and raw meats in same batch.
-Pound chicken pieces until thin and season w salt and pepper.
-Assembly line set up.
-Set up your 2 pans with egg and panko.
-Liberally spray baking sheets with olive or grape seed oil spray.  Place next to pans.
-Rinse and pat dry all veg or meat.
-Salt and pepper both sides.
-Soak each piece well in the seasoned egg mixture.
-Set in the panko crumbs and coat both sides well.
-Lightly shake off lose crumbs.
-Place each piece on sprayed baking sheet.
*Spray each piece with olive or grape seed oil (important for golden color).
*Repeat all of the above steps if you are making a larger batch.

Zucchini (courgette) ready for oven

-After 15-20 minutes in oven, turn with tongs and bottom side should have color.
-Spray baking sheet again under each piece.
-Spray each piece new side up.
-Turn up temperature too 400 and place back into oven for 15-20 min to finish.
-If golden color is not achieved, turn the oven temperature up to 425 and cook 10 more min and check.

Zucchini (courgette) 

Poulet paner à l'anglaise below (first turn in oven)

Finished to golden - eggplant (Aubergines) below

Kids will eat their veggies!  Serve any of the above with moutard de dijon.  To add more flavor to chicken, eggplant or fish, make a bruschetta mixture of chopped tomato, salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, fresh garlic and basil.

Try and freeze any leftovers and then place frozen into 375 oven for 15-20 min to warm.

Bon Appétit!