Ritzy Chicken Bites

This recipe is adapted ever so slightly from a Nigella recipe!  The Ritzy part refers to the cracker biscuits which are used to coat the chicken pieces, rather than any glamorous reference to 5 star luxury hotels!  It has become a weekly teatime special for my family, and served with baked potatoes, sweetcorn, and maybe a dash of coleslaw, it is super yummy!!

The chicken pieces are dunked in a bowl of buttermilk, which has some garlic puree (or fresh crushed garlic), about 2 tablespoons of basil (dried) and some black pepper, all mixed together.  Cover the bowl with cling film, leave in fridge overnight if possible, but if not overnight, then at least a couple of hours.  The buttermilk tenderises the chicken and it just melts in the mouth.

The recipe below is sufficient for 3 hungry people, or perhaps as a buffet dish where there will be other similar offerings.

You will need:

• 3 chicken breasts (approx 400g in weight)
• 1  x 280 ml carton of Buttermilk
• 1 box of Ritz Cracker biscuits (or similar)
• approx 2 tablespoons of garlic puree (or 2 garlic cloves, crushed)
• 2 tablespoons of dried basil
• a good few turns of freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1.  Line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof paper, and heat oven to 180 C (Fan) assuming the chicken has been standing in its marinade for at least 2 hours, if not leave this step until you are ready to bake the chicken

2.  Pour the Buttermilk into a bowl, add the garlic puree and basil, and the black pepper, give it a good mix to ensure the garlic puree is properly integrated with the Buttermilk

3.  Cut the chicken into small pieces or strips, and dunk into the bowl making sure it all submerged.  Cover the bowl with cling film and put in fridge for at least 2 hours, but better if it is overnight

4.  Crush the Ritz cracker biscuits until resemble not so fine breadcrumbs, it doesn't matter if there are some slightly larger bits, it just adds to the rusticness!

5.  When the chicken is ready to be given its Ritzy coating, put the crushed Ritz crackers into a large freezer bag (or similar), and take a piece of chicken at a time, put it into the bag and make sure it is thoroughly coated in the Ritz crumbs, then put it onto the lined baking tray

6. Continue until all chicken has been coated in this way, and bake in oven for approx 25 mins on 180 C (Fan) depending on how small or large your chicken pieces are

7. Serve with baked potatoes, sweetcorn and coleslaw, as in the after baking photo!

Before baking

After baking!