Chicken francese, despite the name, is a 100% American dish. Supposedly, it was invented in 1970s in a small restaurant of Rochester, NY and has since been made all over the US and beyond. As I mentioned above, if you are a fan of chicken piccata, chicken francese will offer you similar lemony tang with buttery mouth feel. Only it does more, it comes with a beautifully browned crust, soaked in a delightful lemony-garlicy-buttery sauce. Unlike the majority of traditional chicken francese recipes, this recipe uses cornstarch for dredging. If you’ve been using flour, stop and try cornstarch. Flour absorbs oil, cornstarch blocks oil absorption. My experiments proved that cornstarch beats flour for dredging if you are looking for a gorgeous, crispy crust.
To take it a step further, I double dredge. First in cornstarch, then in egg wash, then in cornstarch again. My mom and grandma used this method to make the most delicious breaded pan-fried pork chops. It works for chicken just as well.
I highly recommend trying this dish with smothered cabbage. This combination proved to be the bomb.
