Pot Luck dinner - day 1

Can you hear me? It's awfully noisy in here this morning! :-) I changed the music -- gives it a little restaurant ambience, no? If it's too noisy for you, just scroll down to the bottom of the blog where you can turn off the music.

Here's a list of all the pot luck dinner participants so far. You can still join the fun -- just let me know and I'll add you to the list. Come on -- let's see what's cooking this week! I also opened a pot luck dinner group on Flickr -- so you can show off those awesome dinners over there too!

Liz Provo

Pittsy

Reece's

Worknprogress

Kristen

TnGirl

A big thank you to Erin for providing inspiration and help getting the word around. If you couldn't join us this time -- I hope we'll inspire you into trying a new dinner. I'm seeing some pretty nice blogs -- and really good recipes in them.

Here's what was in the pot for us last night. I thought it might be a bit easier to post the recipes early in the day, so you can use them the same day for dinner.

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Crunchy breaded chicken cutlets

The recipe is very basic. I use about a pound of chicken cutlets for a 4 person meal. Cut them up into pieces approximately 2" long x 1" wide x 1/2" - 3/4" thick. If they are too thick, then you have to cook them longer and the outside gets too well done. I find that it is easier to cut them up when they are partially frozen.

I use a mixture of seasoned breadcrumbs (75%) and unseasoned whole grain (25%). Put about 5 pieces in egg batter (3 eggs whipped together) and dunk them until they are fully coated. Pull them out one by one and lay them in the plate containing the breadcrumbs. I use a glass pie dish for this so the crumbs don't spill over the side. Coat each of them completely.

Heat oil in a frying pan over medium high flame. I use Extra light tasting olive oil. The amount of oil you use depends on the size of the bottom of your pan. You want the depth of the oil to be about 1/4". You want to heat it until you can smell the oil, or, until you throw some of the breadcrumbs in the pan and they sizzle immediately.

Place the first five pieces of breaded chicken in the frying pan. They should be spaced at least 1/2" apart. If there is not at least the 1/2" between them, then either switch to a bigger frying pan, or take some out. If they are still a bit frozen, cook each side for about 3 minutes. Adjust time if they are not frozen. When you take them out of the pan, place on a paper towel, paper bag, or anything else that will absorb the extra oil.

We ate ours last night with Rotelle (pasta), leftover tomato sauce, ceasar salad, and, of course, italian bread. This was a two thumbs up meal here. Easy, and, yummy!

These are great to make ahead of time, and, also the day after for lunch.

I'm off to food shopping!