This tip first appeared in my blog post: June 30th Dialog Dinner menu and recipes.
There are two quintessential steps, no, there are three steps, to do in order to have the most tender meat you can imagine.
- Step #1. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces by cutting against the grain. This will keep the meat fibers short – lessening the workload on your teeth. See image, that illustrates the knife cuts going against the fibers of the meat.
- Step #2. Once you salt, pepper and flour the chicken pieces allow the chicken to ‘sit’ for an hour. I think this gives the chicken an opportunity to dry out, which then will absorb more flavors when it’s cooked.
- Step #3. Be sure to fry the chicken pieces for only 2-3 minutes on each side. In order to do this you need to set aside time to be at the stove, do small batches and have no distractions … heck, listen to ‘Thanksgiving” over and over again. (see my blog post for the whole story)
- Step #4. YES – I thought of one more important step…. to let the fried chicken cool before cooking it in the white wine reduction sauce. Again, I think this gives the chicken an opportunity to dry out a bit, which allows it to absorb more flavors.