HOW TO - STANDARD THREE STEP BREADING METHOD
Set Up
Standard Three Step Breading Method
So you know how to make your breading stick ...
DO IT!
Pat the food to be breaded dry.
Set up your station as follows:
BOWL 1: Food to be breaded
BOWL 2: Multipurpose Breader
Tip: For maximum flavor, I skip the flour step at the beginning and just use a light coating of the seasoned breader as the first coat for the remaining coats to stick to. This works with most breaders unless you’re using panko; if that’s the case, season your flour and use that as the first costing.
BOWL 3: Wet Ingredients (I typically use a mixture of buttermilk [for flavor and binding], egg [for binding], hot pepper [for flavor], and water [to stretch the wet so you can get more food coated with less of each ingredient].
BOWL 4: Same Breader from bowl 2
Decide which hand/utensil will be your wet hand/utensil and which will be your dry hand/utensil.
With your dry hand/utensil, dredge the food in a light coating of breader initially so the remaining ingredients can stick to the food. Shake off the excess.
With your dry hand/utensil, add the lightly dredged food into the wet ingredients. Coat the food using your wet hand/utensil. Shake off the excess.
With your wet hand/utensil, place the food from the wet bowl into the final bowl of breader. Coat the food using your dry hand/utensil.
Shake off the excess coating and place the coated food into a fryer. Fry food at the correct temperature until done.
Tip: you usually want to heat your fry oil a bit hotter than the temperature you want to fry in so that when you place the food into the oil, it won’t cool the oil down past the desired fry temperature, especially if you’re frying something from frozen. So for example, if I want to fry at 350F, I heat the oil to 360F-365F.
Fried Okra
Reheat leftovers: in the oven.