How to Bread Chicken for Baking

Learning how to bread chicken for baking is a "must know" for most cooks. It's a little bit messy, but fairly easy to do. Use the following steps to learn how to bread chicken for baking.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• 4 to 6 chicken breast filets or chicken pieces
• 1 cup of bread crumbs
• 1 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon of milk

1. Clean the chicken breast halves by cutting off any obvious fat or skin. Use boneless skinless chicken breasts for a healthier option. Be sure to rinse each chicken breast thoroughly and set aside for the moment.
2. Beat 2 eggs in a mixing bowl of medium size. Add just a dash or about a tablespoon of milk to make your egg mixture smoother.
3. Mix the desired amount of salt and pepper to the bread crumbs, mix well and set aside. Be sure that the bread crumbs are small in size or crushed. Larger pieces of the bread crumbs will not stick as well to the chicken for breading. In addition, pour about 1 cup of flour into a mixing bowl and set aside.
4. Put a chicken breast in the flour. Cover the chicken breast completely with flour. Use a fork or tong to lift the floured chicken breast or chicken piece out of the flour.
5. Dip the floured chicken breast into the egg batter using a fork. Be sure to coat thoroughly with the egg batter.
6. Place the floured and egg battered chicken breast into the crushed bread crumbs. Pat the chicken breast down into the bread crumbs so that the bread crumbs combine with the flour and egg batter already on the chicken to form the breading. Use your fingers, fork or spatula to help coat the chicken breast with the bread crumbs.
7. Repeat the breading process with all the pieces of chicken breast.
8. Turn on the oven; your chicken is breaded and ready to bake.

Tips & Warnings

• Change or add spices to your bread crumbs to change the flavor, such as Italian seasonings and parmesan cheese to give an Italian flair to your breaded chicken. Cajun spices and Mexican spices really change up the flavor of your breading as well.
• The bread crumbs can be mixed with cereal corn flakes, crushed seasoned croutons or even flavored crackers to add extra crunch and interesting flavors to your chicken.
• Soak the chicken breasts in buttermilk with your preferred seasonings for an hour in the refrigerator prior to breading the chicken breast filets or chicken pieces for baking.