Thursday, January 28, 2010

Chicken McNuggets and French Fries (Freedom Fries?)

My husband, in all his wisdom, declared that I should make homemade nuggets and fries from McDonalds.

"I declare, wife of mine, that you should make chicken mcnuggets as well as crispy salty fries based on McDonald's recipe," stated he, in a grand voice with a puffed out chest.

"Oh yes, husband, very wise thought," I humbly agreed in a hushed tone.

"When shall I expect such delicacies to arrive on my dinner platter?" huffed he.

"Very soon, my lord-- wait. Wait a minute. Dear, we're having company tomorrow night. I'll make my mock McDonalds recipe then. Cool?" I retorted, brought back to modern day marriage.

"Cool." said he, in a stately manner.

Double Fried French Fries (McDonald's Knockoff)


















6 medium/large potatoes (cut into 1/4 by 1/4 inch long fries)
I did this by hand. If you have a fry cutter, kudos. It's not as tedious as people make it sound. Just cut even slivers.
6-7 Cups shortening (heat this to about 300F in a large saucepan) It won't take too long for the shortening to melt into liquid and get to 300F. Watch it so the oil doesn't burn!
Salt
A big bowl of water with 1/2cup sugar dissolved in it (heat water and add sugar)


Cut up the potatoes. Put fries in a big bowl full of water and about a half of a cup of sugar that has been dissolved in said water. Place whole bowl in freezer/fridge for between 30 minutes and 2 days to cool.
Take fries out of fridge when oil is hot and ready to go. Drain fries on paper towels to get the water off.



Drop a few handfuls of fries into the oil (300F), carefully! Watch out for oil splatters (AKA-- keep your face and arms away from pan!) Cook these fries until the hissing sound of the oil turns into a quiet bubbly sound (two minutes maybe? I didn't time mine. I just listened for the bubbly sound). Use a slotted spoon to transfer fries onto a paper bag (paper towels will work, but not my preferred choice). Let these cool. THEY ARE NOT READY TO SERVE!


Before supper is ready to serve, heat the oil to 350F.
RIGHT before supper, dip these suckers into that hot oil, this time, watch really carefully, as they will fry up REALLY quickly. After they are as brown or as light as you want them, take them out and sprinkle salt over the top of them. You could use a baggie or a big big bowl. Whatever it takes to evenly coat these fries! Serve immediately after seasoning! YUM!

Whatever happened to "freedom fries?" Are we not free anymore or does it take a national disaster to make us patriotic?

Chicken McNuggets are so delicious. I adore the sweet and sour sauce that goes with them.

Chicken Nuggets (McDonald's Knockoff)

4-6 Chicken Breasts, flattened with a mallet or can of soup, cut into nugget size chunks (inch to two inches?)
6-7 cups shortening, liquefied into oil for frying. I used the same oil as I used to make the french fries.


egg dipping mix
1 egg
1 cup of water
whisk together in a bowl until frothy.

flour dipping mix
2 cups flour
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp Accent/msg
1/2tsp pepper
1/4tsp garlic powder
Mix into a large bowl.


Gather a couple of slotted spoons. One for dipping and retrieving nuggets from egg mixture, another for stirring nuggets in flour mixture and transferring to bowl.

1. Dip chicken in flour mix.
2. Dip chicken in egg mix.
3. Dip chicken in flour mix.
4. Transfer to bowl with lid.
(I dipped about 5 chicken chunks at a time instead of doing it individually)


Shake flour coated nuggets in a large bowl with a lid. The original recipe speaks of shaking the nuggets in a big ziploc bag....but I prefer a bowl. Do what you wish, friend!


Place the bowl in the freezer until chilled (thirty minutes or so). Take out the bowl from the freezer and repeat the dipping process. Instead of dirtying up another bowl, I just used the lid of the bowl that was in the freezer to hold the nuggets that had been dipped twice.


Preheat oven to 350F.
When dinner time rolls around, have your oil heated to 350F-375F. Fry nuggets in oil until light brown and crispy (recipe states 10 minutes). After they are done frying, drain oil on paper bag or paper towel for a few minutes. Then place nuggets on cookie sheet and bake in oven for 5-7 minutes more.

Serve!


Sweet and Sour Sauce

YUM!

1/4 cup peach preserves
1/4 cup apricot preserves
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
5 teaspoons white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons corn starch
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons water

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan. Stir constantly. Sauce will thicken up after a few minutes. Take saucepan off heat. Ready to cool, or serve! The original recipe calls to use a food processor to smooth-ify the ingredients, but I didn't and it turned out great, still. Also, this recipe makes about 3/4cup. I doubled it and still need to make more!

It's gonna be a great dinner! Hope you enjoy!




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