Cornflakes and coconut

I guarantee that none of you, looking at the heading of this entry, immediately thought to yourself "well, clearly, Robyn's been cooking chicken". But that's exactly what I have been cooking: crunchy coated chicken (p140).

It's basically chicken pieces in a crunchy coating made from cornflakes, coconut, orange rind, chicken stock powder, nutmeg and ginger. The coating is easy to make: just crush up the cornflakes and mix the rest of these ingredients through.

When the crunchy coating is ready, prepare another bowl with some seasoned flour, and a third containing egg beaten with water. Then, remove the skin from the chicken, and coat each piece first in the flour, then the egg mixture, then the cornflake coating. It's a slightly messy process, but it doesn't take long.

The coated chicken pieces then go on a rack in a roasting dish, and into the oven for 40 minutes (checking, of course, that the oven has not been left on grill). I turned them over half way through the cooking time - this instruction wasn't in the book, but I was worried it would burn on top if I didn't. After 40 minutes, the chicken was perfectly cooked, and the coating golden and crispy.

The coating has a fantastic crunchy texture, but is a bit unusual in flavour. The coconut dominates, and after that, the cornflakes are the major flavour. Combined with chicken, this is makes for a slightly odd taste experience, almost as if you've added some hot chicken to your bowl at breakfast time.

Unusual though it may be, crunchy coated chicken is still quite a tasty dish. I'd perhaps up the stock powder a bit to counteract the sweetness of the coconut, but otherwise it's not bad at all. I don't recommend keeping any leftovers though - the coating loses all its crunch when left in the fridge overnight, and with the crunch goes most of this dish's appeal.