The Living Is Easy

Listen: Verve Remixed, 2, "Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair"
Sip: Bombay Dry Gin, Healthy splash of Q Tonic, 1 wedge lime squeezed

When the weather's warm, there's only one dish I ever feel like hanging out over a hot oven for, and that's fried chicken. Now, there's serious fried chicken where you break down whole chickens and soak the pieces overnight in buttermilk and tabasco, and then dredge in seasoned flour and fry in lard. That's an effort, though worth its weight in gold. Don't forget to add a slice of Benton's country ham to the pan while frying.

In the summer, though, I just get lazy. My children won't eat the dark pieces, and Spouse complains that she is forced to wolf down practically the whole chicken because those children don't appreciate me, damn it, but do her jeans look any tighter from the back? So, there are times when even the most impassioned and committed of cooks, which I am god knows, even though I am occasionally misguided, resort to the boneless, skinless chicken breast and bread crumbs. So, here's a good trick from which you can derive two meals: homemade chicken fingers for the children and fried chicken salad for the grown-ups.

For the chicken fingers:

4 boneless, skinless half breasts -- best quality, but be warned that the finest producers aren't selling just the breasts
about 2 cups bread crumbs (preferably homemade from your larder but store-bought panko will do)
2-3 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper,
peanut or canola oil

Trim excess fat and silver skin off the breasts, excise the tendon on the tender, and cut away tender
Cut into rough strips, salt and pepper
Dip chicken (including tenders) into eggs, then roll in bread crumbs, pressing the crumbs into the chicken
Fry in about 1/4 inch hot oil over medium-high heat until cooked through

Serve hot to children with honey mustard sauce and lots of vegetables
(Please do not go out and buy honey mustard for this occasion if you already have both mustard and honey in your larder. Just mix them together until they taste good. If you only have some funky green scallion garlic mustard type thing, however, you're in for a trip to the store. Dijon or regular stone ground mustard is called for here.)

For the adults, buy or pick the freshest most tender lettuce available. Get the best tangy blue cheese you can (Maytag Blue, Point Reyes Blue, and Amish Blue are all good choices), You don't really want an aged blue here. Look for whatever produce seems best. French radishes are delicious, and crisp green beans also would be good. Chives are essential. If you think about it ahead of time, soak some red onion slices in salted cold water the night before. Soaking removes the harsh flavor and sweetens the reds up.

Make a simple vinaigrette (red wine vinegar, dijon, best quality olive oil (I love anything Katz -- same for the vinegar), Maldon sea salt, freshly ground white pepper). Toss the lettuce well with vinaigrette and vegetables. Warm the chicken strips. Crumble in the blue cheese and toss again. Plate the salad and arrange the warm chicken fingers on top. You can gently toss the strips into the plated salad by hand, but be careful you don't lose the breading.

After your gin and tonic, you may want to switch to a glass of cold white wine -- an un-oaked chardonnay, such as a Macon Villages, is very good with the salad.