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Chicken Fried Eggplant from foodiewithfamily #Vegetarian

Chicken Fried Eggplant

Rebecca Lindamood

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/2 pounds eggplant peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
  • 6-8 cups canola or peanut oil for frying
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup buttermilk or milk for best flavor
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tablespoon Montreal Steak Seasoning or generic version
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon fresh coarse ground black pepper
  • 3/4 teaspoon MSG strictly optional. If you have an aversion or sensitivity to this, please omit it!
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder preferably granulated garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder preferably granulated onion
  • additional salt for sprinkling

Instructions
 

  • In a large bowl, mix together the flour, steak seasoning, salt, pepper, MSG, paprika, garlic and onion powder with a fork or whisk. Divide the seasoned flour between two pie plates or cake pans. Line a pan or cooling rack with paper towels or newspapers. Set flour and towel lined pan aside.
  • Pour oil into a large, deep, heavy-bottomed pan (or fryolator, fry-daddy or other frying apparatus) over medium to medium-high heat. Remember this rule of thumb when deep-frying on your stove-top: "Never fill your pan more than halfway full of oil." Remember that liquids rise higher as they boil and that you'll also raise the level of the oil each time you drop something else into it ('Law of Displacement' if you're physics-minded...) And since this is The Evil Genius's cooking show today, I'll quote him, "You can't argue with physics. It is or it isn't." If you have a thermometer, you're shooting for 350°F. If you don't have a thermometer, don't sweat it. Just heat it until the tip of one of the breaded eggplant pieces dipped into the oil results in many, many enthusiastic bubbles flying up around the edges of the eggplant.
  • Add egg and buttermilk to a medium-sized mixing bowl and whisk to combine thoroughly. Set aside with the flour.
  • Now, let's prepare to fry. Lay out your ingredients -assuming you have a counter near your stove and your oil is ready to go- like this starting closest to the stove: one bowl with flour, bowl with buttermilk/egg mixture, other bowl of flour, cutting board with chicken on it. Decide on which hand you're going to use. Use your hand and work with one piece of eggplant at a time. Drag it through the flour so it is evenly coated and shake the extra off. Dredge (drag through) the floured piece of eggplant in the egg/buttermilk mixture, shake off the excess. Dredge the gooey piece of eggplant through the last bowl of flour, making sure it is well coated and gently shake off the excess. Lay the coated eggplant on the clean plate. Repeat and cover as much eggplant as you can fit into the hot oil in the pan without crowding it.
  • Then carefully, using your gooey-gross right hand gently slide that fully-coated eggplant into the oil. Whatever your impulse may be, DO NOT THROW THE EGGPLANT IN THE OIL. That is how burns happen. Trust me. You're much better off and much safer gently allowing the eggplant to slide from your hands near the surface of the oil. And this is where using your one hand to do all that dredging and dipping and dunking pays off. You have so much goo on your hands that no oil is going to penetrate to your skin in the short amount of time it takes you to carefully place a piece of eggplant in the oil.
  • Stir the eggplant gently with tongs and allow to cook for between 8-15 minutes, depending on how thick your chicken strips were. If it is browning too quickly, lower the heat a bit.
  • Transfer hot eggplant to the towel lined pan and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before eating. You really don't want to bite into it right away unless you'd like to rid yourself of the skin inside your mouth. These little beauties are screaming hot!
  • Repeat with the remaining eggplant.
  • Sprinkle the eggplant with salt before serving.

Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.

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