Fried chicken with paprika and cayenne

If you use egg as the adhesive when frying chicken, the coating may become claggy. A good many recipes recommend buttermilk; but, having no further use for buttermilk, I would have to throw a good deal of it away. So I tried an egg and milk mixture, which worked well. Gluten-free flour works well, too – it’s less stodgy than wheat flour.

I like chicken to be well cooked, so I poach the drumsticks first. You can keep the stock for another recipe.

Season the flour liberally. The amount of flour that will end up as coating is quite small.

Serves 2.

6 chicken drumsticks
1 egg, beaten
100ml milk
Gluten-free flour
1tbsp paprika
1/2tsp cayenne pepper
Salt, pepper
Sunflower oil

Cover the drumsticks with water in a saucepan, bring to a simmer, and cook, covered, for 45-60 minutes. Take out the drumsticks and keep the stock for another recipe.

In a wide bowl, beat the egg with the milk.

Cover a plate with flour, and season it with the peppers and salt.

Dip the drumsticks in the egg mixture, and roll them in the flour.

Put sunflower oil into a heavy, 28cm frying pan to a depth of about half a cm. Place the pan over a medium heat, until a small piece of bread sizzles in the oil. Fry the drumsticks until crispy on each side – about 10 to 15 minutes.

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Falafels - der Haroutunian 2

I wrote an entry about this recipe, and then realised that I had covered it before, six years ago (here).

The main difference, when I made falafels this lunchtime, was that I used der Haroutunian’s quantities with 1 drained tin of chickpeas. I whizzed in the food processor all the ingredients except 1tbsp of gluten-free flour – which I used as a binding agent instead of breadcrumbs, because of the gluten-intolerant member of our household. I transferred the mixture to a bowl, and then stirred in the flour.

I rolled small pieces of the mixture gently between my palms to create falafels the size of golf balls. (The drawback of turmeric among ingredients you have to manipulate is that it stains – be careful.)

This time, I used a heavy, 28cm frying pan, large enough to fry all the falafels in one batch.

The recipe comes from Arto der Haroutunian's Vegetarian Dishes of the Middle East (Grub Street).

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