Pompodour Chicken

This chicken is GREAT for making chicken fingers out of for kids for a nice healthy dinner or even for a family dinner, or you can make chicken breasts out of them like I usually do.  You can buy the thin slices of chicken breasts or you can pound out your breasts and cut them in half to get 2 servings out of one breast.  My favorite way to eat this is with homemade BBQ sauce. You can also serve with the sauce of your choice, honey mustard, Bearnaise for a more elegant dish or even Ranch.  However you like it, that's the way you do it!  You can serve it with pasta salad, coleslaw or even gourmet mashed potatoes with marmalade glazed carrots on the side.  This chicken is as elegant or as casual as you want!  Enjoy!  It's a favorite in our family and for guests as well!!

What you need: 

3 Bowls which contain each of the following...

Flour coating: (Bowl #1)

1 1/2 Cups flour

1 tsp Garlic powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Pepper

For the eggwash: (Bowl #2)

6 eggs whisked until bubbly,or you can use a cup of egg beaters which I prefer because it makes the breading more crispy, but I can't get them here. Grrr...

For the breading: (Bowl #3)

4 chicken breasts (for 8, 1 piece each or 4, 2 pieces each)

3/4 Cup of flour

Cup of Sliced almonds (with skin)

Cup of seasoned bread crumbs

1/2 Cup Almond meal

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt 

1 tsp pepper

Let's get to work:

My Dad professional retired chef, owner of many restaurants, and member of Chaine des Rotisseurs (actually he was high ranked as an officer) taught me how to do this chicken and also the wet hand dry hand method when coating any meats.  Use one hand (wet hand) to grab the meat and do the egg wash, and the other hand then coats the meat with the flour, etc.  If you follow this method, your hands don't get gunked up with flour and egg wash.  I love my Dad the Master chef who I have learned so much from!!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all the breading ingredients together in one bowl.
2. Ok so if you bought chicken breasts that were not already cut thin, you will need to put them between 2 pieces of saran rap or even a zip lock bag works and pound until even.  The chicken will spread and that's good.  You can then cut the chicken in half to make 2 pieces out of one breast or  several pieces to make chicken fingers.
3. With your chosen wet hand, pick up the chicken and place it in the flour mixture which is in your 2nd bowl, and with your dry hand, coat the chicken well.
4. Take the chicken with your dry hand and dunk into the egg wash (3rd bowl) and with your wet hand then dunk into the breading mixture and press into the chicken with your dry hand both sides until all chicken is coated.  Place on a plate for the next step.
5. When all chicken is done, heat some oil that coats the bottom of a pan and sear each chicken piece, both sides until the almonds turn golden.  Be careful not to burn the almonds, so place enough oil in your pan.  I use olive oil.
6. Take chicken out and place on baking dish and repeat until all chicken is done and bake in a 350 degree oven until chicken appears to be sizzling. Serve with your favorite sauce!

This chicken is fantastic for a party dish and can be made the night before, sauteeing in the pan, but not actually cooking until the day of your party.  Freezes VERY well too for a quick meal!  I hope you enjoy this chicken as much as we do! Makes amazing sandwiches the next day too with some nice thick crusty bread, mayo, hot mustard and a slice of muenster cheese and purple onion.  OH MY!!!!!  =)