Herb & Spice List
Oregano ½ teaspoon
- Thyme ½ teaspoon
- Mustard Powder 1 teaspoon
- Ground Ginger 1 teaspoon
- Garlic Powder/Granules 2 teaspoons
- Celery Salt 1 teaspoon
- Black Pepper 1 teaspoon
- Sea Salt ¾ teaspoon
- White Pepper 2 teaspoons
- Paprika 4 teaspoons
- Plain Flour 125g (1 Cup)
The above is a blend of 10 herbs & spices. Apparently the 11th ingredient is basil but such a small amount it makes next to no difference. The original recipe I saw used tablespoons instead of teaspoons so this is a 1/3 scaled down version.
The Procedure I Used
Firstly I used a teaspoon of mustard seeds instead of mustard power (if you use Coleman’s powder either use less or expect it to be a bit more punchy).
Add oregano, thyme and mustard seeds to a pestle & mortar and grind to a powder.
Then add all the other ingredients apart from the flour to a bowl (I used a desert/cereal bowl). Here I used garlic salt instead of powder/granules and instead of separate black & white peppers I used 3 teaspoons of freshly ground 5 pepper mix (black, red, white, green and allspice). Took the top of my mill and used it with my cordless drill, grinding 3 teaspoons of pepper by hand is hard work!!
Finally add the plain flour and mix thoroughly, this is your dry mix. This can be kept in a sealed container.
For use you need to combine 3 parts spice mix to 1 part self-raising flour.
I my case I weighed out 75g of the above mix (which is about half of it) and added 25g of self-raising flour. Mix thoroughly and this is now your final mix. Keep this is a bowl and it will be the 3rd part of your coating process.
Next you need to make a basic batter, for this I used 1 egg white, a tablespoon of plain flour and then keep whisking and adding milk until you get a pancake batter consistency. Keep this in a bowl as the 2nd step in the coating process.
Finally for use in the first step, simply put a few tablespoons of plain flour in a bowl.
The Cooking Process
Note instructions below are for cooking thin chicken strips. Modify accordingly if cooking anything else.
Put around 1cm of oil (I used rapeseed oil, others have suggested sunflower oil) in a medium size frying pan and put on a medium heat.
Ensure your chicken strips are quite thin (mine where approx 1cm x 1cm x 6cm).
Now for the coating process. Roll your strips in the first bowl (the plain flour) until lightly covered.
Then roll in the batter mix till you get an even coating. Finally add to the spice mix and roll around, squeezing the mix onto the strips to get a good coating. Now you can drop strip into the frying pan which should bubble away if you have the temperature right. Keep checking strips while cooking until the underside it a nice golden brown and then turn once to brown the other side. Keep repeating process and add strips to your pan left to right, top to bottom or clockwise so you know which you have added first and hence which strips will be ready first. Always cut the thickest strip through (once you have cooked it) to ensure it is cooked in the middle.
I had mine with some frozen potato wedges which I cooked in the oven whilst I was doing the pan frying above.
Original recipe idea from Dan Fell @TheKidLewis
Thanks, Dan