Dip it in Honey first.
I think it is because of any or all of these 3:
You are washing your chicken before the egg, the wet chicken will not allow a solid egg base.
You are Shaking your chicken in a crumb bag, better to put some on a plate evenly. put the piece of chicken on it, put more crumbs on top and press it down into the crumbs, this way you are forcing the crumbs into the piece.
You are turning the chicken too frequenly, allowing more opportunity to knock off more crumbs, perhaps you are cooking at a too high a temp, ideally you should turn you piece 1 to 3 times. It’s OK to heat it up a bit at the start, but lower the temp after you do whatever searing you need.
Also just an aside, IMHO flour really sux as a breading, use real crumbs.
Flour actually works pretty well, it’s just different from crumbs. I used to make oven-fried chicken with flour coating and it was great.
Whenever I do the flour-egg-crumbs thing, I let the chicken sit for an hour or so (in the fridge) after the breading goes on. I think that lets the egg congeal a bit so that it holds the crumbs more firmly. Actually I don’t know if that’s the real reason, it’s just that the recipes I’ve used said that you should do that.
Actually in terms of coating I think it’s better at sticking, I just find the taste lacking.
Also a 4th reason that may be the cause, you have to use enough oil.
I can’t believe that nobody has mentioned the most important ingredient of making the best fried chicken ever: fry it in bacon fat. You’ve never had fried chicken until you’ve had chicken fried in bacon fat.
My grandmother, who was a cook for a logging camp in the 30s and 40s, gave me that recipe. Low fat wasn’t a particular concern for guys who cut and hauled logs 12+ hours a day.
The other tidbit she gave me was don’t put syrup on pancakes. Cover them with bacon fat (notice a theme?) and sugar. I haven’t tried that one yet.
Can I ask for a translation at this point?
Are cracker crumbs the crumbs of the things that you eat cheese on? Or is it a whole other thing? If it is the former, do you buy crackers so you can smush them or do they come already smushed? Are they better/different then breadcrumbs?
I took 'most all your advice ('cept the duct tape, sorry Tapioca Dextrin). First I patted the chicken dry, then I smacked it flat with my meat hammer, then a flour coating, then into the beaten egg (which I used an extra egg and added a liitle milk, so the whole thing would be deeper), then into the cracker crumbs plus herbs and spices (I was shaking it in the bag, but the hammered chicken was folding over on itself, so I shook the crumbs flat insode the bag and smooshed the chicken into that and flipped it for another smoosh- next time, a plate), then into the oil which was a little hotter, but not as deep.
Best. Chicken. Ever! (Out of my kitchen as fried by me. Not the best fried chicken in the Whole Wide World.)
The crackers I used kiwi, were just saltines. The crackers you eat cheese off of if you don’t have anything better. (Hmmm… I wonder how matzo crumbs would do…)
This is the cracker mixture I used:
18 saltine crackers
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon dry potato flakes
2 teaspoons seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
(I used the “Some” Method. I added some of each ingredient til it looked about right. All measurements are strictly ballpark. Except the crackers which I counted.)
3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves