Look what I made last night — chicken nuggets that tasted JUST like the kind you get for Chinese takeout with Sweet & Sour sauce. I fried them in lard and used a breading I found on Families.com. YUMMO.
Here’s what I did:
I heated my trusty iron skillet and melted about an inch of lard. Then I cut up 2 large chicken breasts into 1-inch pieces.
For the breading I did exactly as they directed — I mixed a cup of flour, ¼ tsp salt, ½ tsp paprika, ¼ tsp pepper, and ½ tsp baking soda in a glass pie plate. Then I added ½ cup of water and 1TBSP vinegar. It was really pasty so I added another ¼ cup water.
I dredged the chicken in the breading and used tongs to place them in the hot oil. When they were browned on the first side, I carefully flipped them over to cook on the other side. Sure, my kitchen is covered with grease from floor to ceiling, but it was worth it. (But now I’m putting one of those fancy deep fryers on my Christmas list.)
I just need to learn to make Sweet & Sour sauce and we’ll be all set. We just ate them with ketchup because we’re classy like that.
P.S. I hear that chicken is also good fried in beef tallow, but I haven’t bought that yet. It just so happens that this week Kelly is giving away a “honking sized pail” of beef tallow from U. S. Wellness Meats.
This post was linked up with the Grace’s Kitchen Friends and Tasty Tuesday blog carnivals.
Strangely, I just read a post this morning about making sweet and sour chicken in a whole foods manner: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2009/11/kitchen-kops-sweet-sour-chicken-or-pork-recipe.html
And I don’t even LIKE Americanized sweet and sour. In China it’s not all yucky-breaded with syrupy orange sauce. Blegh.
Above poster fried in beef tallow–I think that’s slightly different than lard? Ha. I have no clue.
Jessie
Beef tallow is from, um, beef.
Lard is from pig. 
That’s the difference, as far as I know. Both are supposedly nutritious. I haven’t found beef tallow as yet.
They look much better than McNuggets.
I found a super easy sweet n sour sauce online that I’ve made a few times and really enjoyed. But of course, I can’t find it now….