Basic Breaded Chicken, Pork and Fish

When we first got married, these were some of the first basic recipes I got from my Mom. For some of you, these may be very elementary. However, maybe these basic recipes will help a few people out, so here they are:

Whether you are breading chicken, pork chops or fish, the recipe starts the same way. The only exception is boneless, skinless chicken breast which I pound first to tenderize.

Get out two medium soup bowls or two pie plates. Pour some breadcrumbs into one of them. Start with 3/4 cup or so. In the other bowl, beat one egg with a fork and add a bit of milk. Coat the meat/fish in the egg mixture then coat it in the breadcrumbs.

At this point, you can either place the breaded items in a greased baking pan or you can lightly fry them to get them crispy before baking them. If you are frying them, put enough canola oil in a frying pan just to cover the bottom of the pan. I put the heat on med./high and fry each item until light golden brown on each side. Add more oil if you like. Then put them into the greased baking pan.

I bake all my chicken, pork and fish at 350. This may not be correct, but it's what I do. For chicken, I would cook unfried boneless cutlets for 40 minutes and fried cutlets for 30 minutes. For pork chops of medium thickness, I usually do the same timing as the chicken. For fish fillets, like cod or haddock, if they are not fried, I bake them for about 15 - 20 minutes. If I am frying them, they will cook all the way through in the frying pan, about 5 minutes or so per side.