Fried chicken and vegetable salad

My kids were home all day today. And yesterday. Stormy weather. Classes were suspended. According to the latest news, they will resume tomorrow.

Anyway, this dish made with fried breaded strips of chicken thigh fillets, romaine lettuce and cherry tomatoes was today’s lunch. The idea was to make a salad a la KFC. Although my kids dug into the salad (Sam loved those cherry tomatoes!), what they really did was to eat the fried strips of chicken with fried rice. The salad was just a salad for them and not a main dish as it was for me.

The dressing for the salad is sort of a cheater’s Caesar’s salad dressing. See, when it storms here, we’re pratically stuck in the house. It isn’t a good idea to venture to the wet market or the supermarket just to buy a few items. When it storms, we make do with what there is. In fact, power was out yesterday and, not knowing for how long our water supply would last, we ate out of paper plates.

So, how to make this fried chicken and vegetable salad…

Ingredients :

6-8 chicken thigh fillets, cut into 1/2-inch wide strips
salt
pepper
a cup of flour
lots of romaine lettuce
lots of cherry tomatoes
2-3 c. of vegetable cooking oil

Cooking procedure :

Tear the root ends of the romaine lettuce. Cut the leaves into strips crosswise, about 1-inch wide.

Wash and drain the cherry tomatoes.

Place the chicken strips in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Work the salt and pepper into the chicken meat. Let rest for about 5 minutes. With the size of the chicken pieces, it won’t take them long to absorb the seasonings. Add the flour to the chicken and toss well, making sure that every piece is well covered with flour.

Heat the cooking oil in a fryer until it starts to smoke. Fry the chicken in batches. Do NOT overcrowd the pan; otherwise, the temperature of the cooking oil will drop and instead of crispy chicken strips, you’ll have soggy chicken strips.

When the chicken strips are lightly browned, remove them with a slotted spoon and drain on several layers of paper towels.

(Note that you can use commercial breading mix, if you prefer. As a rule, I stay away from them because I like total control over the amount of salt and pepper that goes into whatever I’m cooking. If you choose to use seasoned breading mix, omit the salt and pepper.)

To serve, place the lettuce on a plate. Arrange the fried chicken strips on top. Add as many cherry tomatoes as you like and spoon some salad dressing over them.

Cheater’s Caesar’s salad dressing :

Place in a bowl 1/2 c. of mayonnaise, 1/4 c. of Dijon mustard, 1/2 tsp. of finely minced garlic, juice of 1/2 lemon, about 1/2 tsp. of salt, 1/4 tsp. of pepper and 1/2 tsp. of sugar. Mix until blended. Spoon over your salad.