Fried Chicken

So, I had a cold this weekend while daughter had serious gastro-intestinal distress. I went to work Monday and survived an eight hour December shift. Came home way sicker than I was previously. Guess I overdid it.

I had the worst craving for boxed mac and cheese. Daughter had a school fundraiser and I purchased the "holiday toy cheesy mac" because her public school demanded I buy pasta or opt for a $20 buy-out. I won't rant here. But simply put, I would rather know what that money is for. I was told field trip. But then tell me my kid needs to sell pasta or pay for their own field trip ticket later. Not just tell me to hand over $20.

I made "fried chicken." Now this is a variant of my mother-in-law's chicken. I had three chicken breasts in the freezer reaching their expiration. I thawed them, slapped them in my cast iron skillet with a slight greasing of oil and baked them at 350 for 20 minutes.

I then retrieved them and sliced each breast into four fingers. They were very juicy at this point so I probably could have skipped egg to bread them. I didn't. I slopped them through the egg, dipped them in my breadcrumb mix, and return them to the skillet with maybe three tablespoons oil. I turned them every three minutes or so.

My breadcrumb mix:

- homemade crumbs from any remotely "bread" product

-commercial Italian breadcrumbs because I didn't have enough in the freezer

- one to two tablespoons paprika

- about 1.5 teaspoons mesquite dry rub