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Fried Chicken and the Secrets of Almond Meal Pancakes

I have almonds in everything. If I'm trying to avoid eggs, I'll throw some in fried vegetables for protein in the morning, I mix almond butter with carob powder and raspberries for a dessert or just eat it plain, and I recently discovered the many uses of almond meal.

I'd had the suspicion for a long while that I could make fried chicken with almond meal breading and, after looking up a few recipes to get a vague outline, I gave it a go with my lets-just-try-it-and-see cooking style. It was awesome, though perhaps a little flavorless.

I tried to make it again last night and it was AMAZING> amazing. So good. Next time I'll even measure myself so I can try and do it again.

Another food I've been missing is pancakes. I love pancakes. And it turns out you can make them with almond meal. I tried to make them for the second time this morning with questionable success.

Well, I wasn't going to to do it at all, but I ran into a problem with a cracker recipe. Knowing I didn't have enough time to dehydrate them last night, I decided to mix it and set it up so I could pop them in first thing in the morning. As soon as I had the flax seeds soaking, I realized I didn't have sesame seeds. So I went to get them and when I came back, I realized I had to food process my sunflower seeds, and my roommate who sleeps by the kitchen had already gone to bed.

Anyway this meant that the flax seeds soaked overnight, turning them into a gelatinous blob, more or less. Then, I realized I only had two cups of sunflower seeds when I needed 4, so I had to half my recipe. That meant I had half a gelatinous blob left over. What to do with half a gelatinous blob of flax seeds?

PANCAKES> MAKE SOME PANCAKES>
Of course, I did not consult a recipe. Morning is too early for reasonable decisions. This was my second attempt at almond meal pancakes and here are some secrets I've learned about the process.
1) Keep a greased pan
if you don't, your pancakes will burn. simple enough.
2) But not too greased
almond meal pancakes are thin, and when you pour them into too much oil, the oil will infiltrate making them more like lattice cookies, but floppy ones that won't flip. And they'll burn.
3) Do not try to make them thicker.
adding a bunch of almond meal so that it's extra thick just means that it will take forever for them to cook enough to be firm enough to flip, and they'll burn.
4) Keep your heat low
they burn easy.

Basically, almond pancakes, while delicious, leave a lot to be desired in the baking process. I'll figure this out at some point.

As per usual, I don't have measurements, but here's a vague guide to play with for these things

FRIED CHICKEN
Set up your station
  • Take skinless, boneless chicken breast. Cut into 1/2" strips - ish. Set aside.
  • Whisk up 1 or 2 eggs in a bowl (depending on how much chicken you're making). Set aside.
  • Pour out a lot of almond meal on a dish. Add seasoning. Set aside.
  • Heat up 1/4" of oil in your pan.
Do it
  • Take a chicken strip.
  • Dip it in eggs. Shake off excess.
  • Dip in almond meal mixture. Get it really heavily breaded if possible.
  • Put it in the pan.
  • Repeat.
  • Flip at some point.
Eat, and be really really pleased with yourself.
For seasoning, this time I used salt, pepper, thyme, chilli powder, cumin. It was awesome.

The pancakes included these things:
  • 1/2 c flax seeds (whole) and 1/2 c water - soaked overnight
  • almond meal
  • coconut milk
  • more water
  • xylitol
  • vanilla
  • pinch baking powder
When I make these work I'll include more direction

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