A Breaded Exit Strategy

I’m such a lazy ass and haven’t been to the grocery store in about three weeks. But because I stock the shit out of my pantry, and made one *quick* stop to buy lettuce, I managed to build a solid dinner using two techniques.

One, I followed the mantra of the great KOD. Earlier this year she conducted an experient, Eating Down the Fridge. But the contest of sorts coincided with my spring break this year so I unfortunately wasn’t home to cook the remains of my kitchen. But I love the idea of not shopping and cooking from what’s on hand, especially because as noted earlier, I’m lazy on the whole grocery store thing. (I want my farmers’ market back!)

It’s also the first night of Passover today. Now, I’m not really religious anymore, but I spent like 10 years of my life in Hebrew school so I still remember the ancient act of getting rid of all BREAD products before the holiday starts.

Plus, I was trying to get 80 to eat salad without bitching so I decided to bread the chicken and toast up croutons with a few-days-old whole wheat loaf. (Oh shit, don’t tell him it was whole wheat!)

Recipe post jump

I thinly sliced two skinless, boneless chicken breasts and then coated them with wet bread crumbs. Yes, I know, that’s totally not how breading is supposed to work, with all of the different egg and flour and buttermilk and bread crumb steps, or whatever happens to those dishes where directions are followed.

But somehow my blended mixture of bread, 2 honkin garlic cloves, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, za’atar, cumin and extra virgin worked. I smashed the mixture into pre-salt-and-peppered chicken strips and then pan fried them in a light coating of oil on a non stick pan (our biggest pan – I hate batches).

This chicken sat on a bed of red leaf lettuce, feta crumbles, diced avocado, carrot shreds, croutons and tossed with a quick dressing of lemon juice, mayo, extra virgin, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.