A Recipe from England

Ingredients:

2 Chicken fillets, any size/weight
4 slices bread
2 eggs
5 tbsp¹ plain flour
Pinch paprika
100g red Leicester cheese
50g Parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper

For béchamel sauce:
2 large tbsp butter
4 heaped² tbsp plain flour
300ml warm milk
1 onion, optional
1 garlic clove, optional
4 small mushrooms, optional

Method:

For bread crumbs:

1. Cut 2 thick pieces of fresh bread and bake in the oven at 160ºC for 10-15 minutes until the slices are dried out and slightly golden brown.
2. Once the bread is out of the oven, break the slices up and put them in a food processor³ until they are bread crumbs.

For the chicken:

1. Lay the chicken fillet on the work top⁴ and tenderize⁵ the meat using a mallet⁶ – keep hitting it until it is as thin as you want. Use the flat side of the mallet as white meat splits if you hit it with the spiked⁷ side.
2. Next get 3 dinner plates out, put seasoned flour onto one plate and coat your chicken pieces.
3. Whisk⁸ the eggs, add the seasoning, pour onto the next plate and coat the floured chicken.
4. On the final plate, dip both sides of the chicken in the breadcrumbs.
5. You may need to push slightly on the meat to make sure you totally cover the meat.
6. Heat a frying pan and add enough oil to shallow fry the chicken pieces.
7. Add the chicken, cook on each side until the crumbs are golden brown, this may take up to 5 minutes on each side.

For the béchamel sauce:

1. Melt butter in a pan on low heat.
2. Leave the heat on and add approx four heaped tablespoons of plain flour and mix.
3. Slowly, add small amounts of milk and cream it into the butter and flour mix.
4. Keep adding milk until the sauce is slightly runny⁹, not too runny or it will dribble¹⁰ off the meat. You need to keep mixing for about 10 minutes until the flour is cooked. You can add crushed garlic, onions, mushrooms to your sauce if you like. If you choose to add these, put them into the sauce when you have got the texture you like. Then keep cooking and stirring until the garlic/onion/mushrooms are cooked.
5. Paste thick layers of the béchamel sauce on top of the chicken, then grated red Leicester cheese on top and finish with a thick coat of grated parmesan.
6. Put the chicken on a baking tray and cook in a pre-heated oven at 180ºC for about 5-10 minutes so that the cheese is heated through – don’t leave it too long or the breadcrumbs will burn.
7. Serve with home made chips and garlic mayonnaise.