Do you sometimes find – when preparing finger foods like chicken nuggets or fish fingers – that the bread crumbs won’t stick to whatever it is you’re trying to coat?
Over the years, we’ve come across a few tips and techniques to resolve this problem. So today, we’ve put together a little list of pointers to help you create perfect breaded finger foods every time (and please note that you can use these tips for other types of coatings too, including crushed unsalted crackers, oatmeal etc).
Our tips for breading finger foods
- Make sure you dry the food to be ‘crumbed’ before you start by dabbing it with a paper towel.
- Try dipping the food in flour, THEN the egg (or yogurt, or whatever you’re using as ‘glue’ for the bread crumbs), then into the bread crumbs themselves. The ‘base coat’ of flour can make the difference between the bread crumbs staying on… or sliding off!
- To get a thicker, more substantial coating, crumb foods twice! To do this, coat them in flour – then egg – then bread crumbs as usual, but then put them BACK into the egg, then into the bread crumbs again.
- Chill your breaded foods in the refrigerator for at least 30 mins before cooking them. The crumb coating will hold up much better!
- Baking your breaded foods is the healthiest option, but if you’re frying them, ensure that the oil is very hot. If not, your crumbs won’t seal on contact with the oil and are more likely to fall off.
- If you’re cooking several breaded items, don’t try squashing too many into the pan at one time. This creates a build up of steam in the pan, which will make the bread crumbs damp and cause them to slide off.
And that’s it – six simple steps to create the perfect crispy coating for foods for your older baby.