Oriental Twist Chicken with Crunchy Crumb and McCain French Fries

We all love a Saturday lie-in and a bit of family time together!  Unfortunately this morning, both kids decided that today was not a day for lie-ins and woke us up by jumping on us in bed!  We managed to fight off this onslaught momentarily but the final straw came when the postman knocked on the door so we all got up.

So I sent both kids to get a few things ready for our lunch!  Both of them are always keen to help out in the kitchen, driving me mad in the process.  Today, we cooked Oriental Twist Chicken with Crunchy Crumb and McCain French Fries.  There is no doubt that our favourite oven potato choice is always McCain.  My children and I love McCain’s French Fries as they are very crispy and crunchy.  Mr C prefers the texture of McCain Crinkle Cut chips.  Do check out the different types of sauces you could make for your McCain Home Chip, my previous food challenge.

This is suppose to be southern spiced chicken with crunchy crumb and McCain French Fries recipe but I gave it an oriental twist by using Chinese five spice mix instead of Cajun spices.  Thanks to McCain for this recipe!

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 25 mins

Cooking time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

• 4 fresh chicken drumsticks, skinless
• 4 fresh chicken thighs, skinless
• 150g natural yoghurt
• 3tsp Chinese five spice mix
• 50g fresh breadcrumbs
• 50g crispbread crumbs (multigrain crispbread whizzed into crumbs in the food processor*)
• 480g McCain French Fries
• Salad leaves
• Ready-made coleslaw

Method:

1. Trim any excess skin from the chicken; make some deep slashes into each piece and place in a large dish together with the yoghurt.  Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C, take a clean grill pan and line the bottom with foil.
3. Mix the two types of crumbs together with the spices in a bowl.  Remove the chicken from the yoghurt, shaking off any excess liquid.  Roll each piece in the crumbs to coat them evenly.
4. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes before increasing the heat to 220°C / Gas Mark 9 and adding a tray of McCain French Fries to the oven.  Cook both for a further 15 – 20 minutes until cooked through and golden.
5. Serve with salad and coleslaw.

* We don’t have a food processor so got our children’s wooden hammer from their Bigjig tool station! Then we put in 4 pieces of Ryvita Multigrain cripsbread inside a ziplock bag and asked the children to hammer it into small crumbs.  Once done, add in the breadcrumbs and spices. Shake it well and place the chicken inside to coat them evenly.

We are very impressed with it and enjoyed it thoroughly.  As expected, the fries were crispy with a nice crunch! The crumb was really tasty which surpassed my expectations. I didn’t think that Ryvita crispbread could actually work with the breadcrumb!  But next time I might leave the skin intact to keep the chicken more moist and tender. The meal went down really well with the whole family. I will definitely cook this again.

If you are looking for recipe ideas to go with McCain French Fries, do check out our friend Pippa Ainsworth, who has cooked a Crispy Pollock Fish Fingers in Tortilla Salad Wraps with McCain French Fries.