Pan Fried Chicken Breasts
Dredge without Drudgery

Jeff the Chef

Everyday Cooking

"Pan Fried Chicken Breasts," from Make It Like a Man!
Skip to “My Favorite Dredge.”

Anyone who cooks at home almost certainly makes chicken breasts. It’s practically compulsory. Unfortunately, eating them can also sometimes seem compulsory. I want to share with you a fast, easy, and beautifully delicious way to make pan fried chicken breasts. You can do this on a weekday with no forethought, and you’ll be delighted with the result.

You may recognize “dredge” as the way you typically begin the process of breading. However, I’m going to suggest skipping the egg wash (or whatever other liquid you might add to get the breading to adhere). Although there’s nothing wrong with full-on breading, it’s a Wednesday night … you’re exhausted … lets keep things simple: go right from the dredge to the frying pan, using nothing but the chicken’s moisture stick the crumbs. You’ll get many of the same benefits as out-and-out breading: lovely brown color, crunchy texture, added flavor … but you’ll get them all lightly. This keeps the chicken higher up in the flavor profile, and provides a nice, light, delicious alternative to full-on breading. It’s also less work and less mess. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Prep a dredge. In advance, maybe. It could be simple: a few heaping soup spoons of white or wheat flour. It could also be as sophisticated as imagination allows.

How to make a more sophisticated dredge mix:

You probably have something chicken-friendly on hand. Ransack your spice rack.

You can use many dried herbs, spices, or blends. It’s a matter of taste and experimentation. Maybe a little research. Add these to your flour. Eyeball it. You want to see them very generously speckled throughout the flour. Some common examples: basil, oregano, rosemary, tarragon, thyme. Less common: marjoram.

Crumbs

Since I’m suggesting dredging without breading, I like to use a crumb-flour blend, rather than straight-up crumbs. This helps ensure that the dredge will adhere. Store-bought breadcrumbs are OK, but if you have any bread on-hand, especially if its good bread that’s past its prime, you can process it into crumbs. There are other ways to do this … but I toast it, cut it into cubes, and put them in a slow oven (200˚F) until they’re hard as croutons. Once cooled, I pop them into a processor along with the spices and chop it to a dust. No bread? Consider anything crunchy: crackers, pretzels, nuts, cereal … even the noodles from a box of mac & cheese[1].

Set your dredge mixture out on the counter, in an open Tupperware container or whatever.

  1. Scoop a heaping soup spoon full of it onto a plate.

"Pan Fried Chicken Breasts," from Make It Like a Man!

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 375˚F.
  2. Get out everything else you’ll need: chicken; kitchen shears or a small, sharp knife; salt and pepper, olive oil; tongs, or a pancake flipper; and a temperature probe, set to whatever temperature[2] your religion prescribes.
  3. Place a 12-inch, cast-iron skillet over a pretty damn hot flame and set a timer for two minutes. Go on with the next set of directions, but if the timer goes off before you’re ready to fry, turn it down to low.
  4. While your skillet’s heating, get out your chicken. If there any large chunks of fat, snip them off with kitchen shears.
  5. Salt and pepper the chicken generously, the thicker the pieces, the more generously. Then, dredge them in the flour or crumbs. If you’re using flour, you need only a light, even coat – which is easy to achieve. If you’re using crumbs, feel free to press and grind to get them to adhere. The trick to not wasting all your dredge is spooning more onto the plate as you need it. Just be careful to avoid cross contamination. Don’t let your spoon touch anything but the container of flour/crumbs, and anything left on the plate when you’re done must be tossed.

"Pan Fried Chicken Breasts," from Make It Like a Man!

  1. If your flame’s on low, turn it back to daringly hot. Add a couple Tbs oil and let it heat until it shimmers, or let the Leidenfrost effect tell you when it’s time for the oil. Add the chicken and leave it undisturbed for at least four minutes, perhaps as many as seven. You want to get it nice and deeply browned, without (obviously) burning it. Your nose will tell you. After a while, it will start to smell heavenly. If you pay attention, you’ll start to sense a change in the scent, and it’ll be time to flip. Flip it, stick the probe into one of the thicker spots, pop a pat of butter into the pan (optionally, for added flavor), and pop it into the oven until it comes to temperature.
  2. Once it comes out of the oven, you can let it rest in the pan for a few minutes while you ready whatever else you need for dinner, but chicken doesn’t need a whole lot of resting time before you slice into it.

Notes:


[1] I’ve never tried to turn “actual” pasta as a coating. The “pasta” in a box of mac & cheese is highly processed in order to cook almost instantly, and makes a great coating if you grind it to dust.

[2] 165˚F is the usual chicken temperature prescription for both white and dark meat, but many people suggest 160˚F. Do your own research to determine this for yourself.

"Pan Fried Chicken Breasts," from Make It Like a Man!

Pan Fried Chicken Breasts

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! This content was not written in exchange for anything, nor was it solicited.

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My Favorite Dredge

Into a gallon-sized Zip-Loc, measure out 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup of flour,1.5 tsp tarragon, 1 tsp salt, and a healthy grind of black pepper. Seal and shake. Add a family-size pack of chicken breasts; shake vigorously. Fry on 6 (out of 9) for four minutes; then flip, probe, and convection bake at 325°F. (Set the oven to 350°F if it auto-adjusts.) Take the chicken out when the probe tells you that it’s nearly ready, and let residual heat slide it up to temperature.

Yes, it’s Shake and Bake! Maureen Robinson likes it, and she’s from the future! Alice likes it, and she had six TV half-siblings to feed! If you can’t do it on your own, get someone to help you!

Peanut Butter Banana Pudding
Margaritas Congeladas de Danilo
(Dan's Frozen Margaritas)

48 thoughts on “Pan Fried Chicken Breasts
Dredge without Drudgery”

  1. Always had a problem with pan frying a breaded whole chicken breasts. Either it gets burnt or gets under cooked. So I cut the chicken breast into thicker strips to make it easier to cook. I do the dredging with eggs and milk ,but I like your idea without the wet ingredients. These look good and crispy on top.

    Reply

    • I like the idea of cutting the chicken into strips. You can also try pounding the breasts into an even thickness.

      Reply

    • I’ve only tried it with Mac and cheese pasta. It’s far more processed than normal pasta.

      Reply

    • Yeah, chicken is kind of my go-to lately. I eat a lot of fruits and veggies, and then find myself craving meat, and chicken seems to come to mind before the others.

      Reply

    • It’s really good. Very crispy. The cheese powder also makes a good coating. Funny, I’ve used them both separately, but never blitzed together. I’ll bet that’s good, too.

      Reply

  9. Like everything about this post, Jeff, save one little thing. I’m a thigh man, having given up on chicken breasts some time ago. When I do fry thighs, I dredge then in flour before repeating in eggs and then breadcrumbs but I like your idea of mixing the 2. Next time around, I’m going to follow your lead. Thanks for the tip!
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    • Totally! I love that. Are you able to get them boneless? It seems like I find them that way more and more commonly. And I love them.

      Reply

  10. Recently, I start learning cooking, so I found it’s difficult to cook anything even though pan fried chicken breasts. And your recipe of pan fried chicken breasts can help me. Thank you so much!!!

    Reply
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  23. Pan Fried Chicken Breasts is great! To be honest, I’m not good at cooking but I like them, they give me joy and excitement every time I finish the dishes, which is a great thing. With your recipe, I just need to follow the instructions and the rest is simple. Thanks for sharing
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