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06-22-2009, 03:14 PM
| | Registered User Culinary Experience: Cook At Home | | Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Bowie, MD
Posts: 8
| |  I'm trying to mimic McDonald's Chicken Selects...
So I spent several hours last night experimenting with different breading recipes and techniques to try and get something similar to the Chicken selects strips from McDonalds. 
The breading at McDonald's is extremely thick and extremely crispy. There's no soft breading on the inside, it appears to be evenly cooked to a crisp all the way through. It's also characterized by real deep ridges in the breading. Just look at the picture above.
The recipe I finally landed on was something as follows:
3 eggs
3 tsp salt
3/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup corn starch
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup italian seasoning bread crumbs
I'd dip the chicken in the dry mixture, then in the egg mixture back and forth 3 times then end on the dry mixture. I deep fried the chicken until it was golden, then let it cool in the fridge. Then, fried them again until they were much darker.
It tasted good. Although anything deep fried with that much salt is bound to taste good.
The trouble is, it's really not the same. Texture wise I mean. The breading is not as thick, not as crispy and it seems no matter how long I fry it for, the breading beneath the surface remains somewhat soft.
So I'm wondering where I could go with this to get closer to what I'd find in McDonald's, or any fast food or prepackaged chicken fingers.
Any ideas?
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06-22-2009, 09:17 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bpetruzzo  So I spent several hours last night experimenting with different breading recipes and techniques to try and get something similar to the Chicken selects strips from McDonalds.
| What is it you like about those chicken strips? You need to have access to preservatives, equipment to "chop and form", and more. Or you could try to make something better. |
06-23-2009, 12:20 AM
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Posts: 17
| | Preserve it in refrigerator
Quote:
Originally Posted by OregonYeti What is it you like about those chicken strips? You need to have access to preservatives, equipment to "chop and form", and more. Or you could try to make something better. | I agree with Oregon you have to preserve your food at cool temperature. |
06-23-2009, 08:21 AM
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What has this world come to? Is the american palet so destroyed that we're trying to mimic fast food? I'm not saying I don't like McDonalds because I do unfortunately. But I don't WANT to like McDonalds!!!
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06-23-2009, 08:43 AM
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Posts: 4,718
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Maybe it's about the outside, not the inside. |
06-23-2009, 08:51 AM
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Posts: 238
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Buy some Chicken tenders, soak in Buttermilk and roll in Western chicken breading. Fry until tender, crisp and juicy. Why copy McWhatever when you could make McYourown.......I have been making these for years in my Cafe and they sell like hotcakes...............Bill |
06-23-2009, 09:29 AM
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Posts: 680
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Look, rather than insult the OP...
Why do you want to do this? I mean, is it basically just an experiment to see what it takes, or is there something you really love about these things, or what? If you just want exactly the same thing, they're not that expensive, so I can't believe it's only that. What's the object of the mimicry? Maybe if we knew that more clearly, we'd be more able to come up with helpful suggestions that fit. |
06-23-2009, 10:15 AM
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Posts: 78
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I think I may have some insight on this. When I was starting out at 13, I worked in A&W when they still served their fried chicken. What they would do is steam the chicken in the batter for a bit, then pressure fry it. That is how the chicken got so crispy! Unfortunatly, I am not sure that you can reproduce that at home.
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Jason Sandeman
A MEMORY of food comes from the SENSATION of a dish prepared with flawless TECHNIQUE. |
06-23-2009, 12:11 PM
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What is western chicken breading?
I have heard that KFC does the pressure cooking method on their
X tra krispy too but who owns an industrial one of those 
Last edited by LuvPie; 06-23-2009 at 12:14 PM.
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06-23-2009, 12:37 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lover of pies What is western chicken breading?
I have heard that KFC does the pressure cooking method on their
X tra krispy too but who owns an industrial one of those |
Western Chicken breading is made by "Krusteaz" they also make other things like Pancake mix.....................Bill |
06-23-2009, 12:52 PM
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Posts: 533
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First off let me start by saying that I havent eatin in a McD's in about 1 year, just dont like the way they do things.
1. They dont use pressed formed meat for the strips and select sandwiches they are whole muscle products.
2. The strips are pumped with a sodium/chicken broth solution so they taste good. Its like brining but pretty bad for you with lots of chemical tenderizers and sodium based chemicals.
3. The breading on the outside is actually not a traditional 3 step process but rather a very thick batter, flour based breader, and modified food starch type coating to give it the look, crunch and mouthfeel that it has. They are done and par cooked at the manufacturing level and individually flash frozen. One of the reasons they dont get soggy is the quick recovery of the fryers they use, its not steam or pressure( I used to do equipment R&D for a famous chicken frachise). If it goes into the oil when it is on the upswing of recovery it doesnt cool down very much when you put the frozen strips in so it can maintain a high temp with very little time needed to get back to temp.
4. There is very little seasoning in the breading system, when you cook seasonings naked in oil they almost always(about 75% of the time) loose ALL intensity and flavor so you put it into the protein where its protected and sealed in. Only a few spices can handle the conditions in a deep fryer.
What I would recommend is you inject your seasoning or brine into the chicken, make a VERY thick batter and coat your chicken while its dry. Go from the batter into the flour and then into a corn starch type coating. From there into the fryer. You must be quick about it, if you dillly dally around you will loose most of the batter and will have to start again.
Good luck.
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06-23-2009, 01:10 PM
| | Registered User Culinary Experience: Professional Chef | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Saint Eustache, Quebec
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Note that seasoning the flour is also a sure way to ruin your oil. Part of the reason you see the loss of intensity in seasoning is that your salt breaks down in the oil, lowering its smoking point.
The injection of brine sounds like a good idea, or you could do the southern version of saoking your strips in buttermilk. I believe you would get almost the same effect with less headache.
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Jason Sandeman
A MEMORY of food comes from the SENSATION of a dish prepared with flawless TECHNIQUE. |
06-23-2009, 01:25 PM
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Posts: 3,913
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Quote:
Originally Posted by welldonechef Note that seasoning the flour is also a sure way to ruin your oil. Part of the reason you see the loss of intensity in seasoning is that your salt breaks down in the oil, lowering its smoking point.
| That doesn't sound right, but I'll start a separate thread to not hijack this one.
EDIT: Answers are coming in that welldonechef is correct. I look forward to more details.
Phil
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Last edited by phatch; 06-23-2009 at 02:16 PM.
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06-23-2009, 03:33 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChefBillyB Western Chicken breading is made by "Krusteaz" they also make other things like Pancake mix.....................Bill | their Belgium waffle mix is extraordinary.
Let me say that I was given 4 restaurant owner magazines from a client one day.
I read them cover to cover.McD's is I e of the fast food chains that allies their birds to be plumped and are againt using chx that have been injected with antibiotics. Therefore my little ARE NOT allowed to eat anything chx from McD's period...
Last edited by LuvPie; 06-23-2009 at 03:38 PM.
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06-23-2009, 09:18 PM
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I'm kind of prejudiced against things McD since I've never been impressed in the past, except when I was starved. However, if they are doing something right that's great. I stand corrected on the "chopped and formed" bit.
I think that if you can duplicate what you like about these chicken strips, you can probably improve on them further  But that's coming from a guy who likes food kind of spicy. | | |
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