Crispy Chicken Bacon Ranch Burritos

Bless my dear husband's heart, he loves fried food. Therefore I was given this for Christmas;

Because everyone needs to add fried food to their diet, right? Right.

I have avoided using it for a whopping four weeks but could deny the beckoning no longer. (And I had decided it was high time I discovered the subtle art of fried chicken.)

I know the theories; flour, egg wash, flour, fry.

Easy enough.

According to numerous fry-experts, that is the key to good fried chicken;

flour, egg wash, flour, fry. So here's your recipe;

Seasoned Flour

1-2 cups all purpose flour (dependant on how much chicken you are doing)

1/2 tsp garlic salt (or to taste)

1/2 tsp dried cilantro

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp seasoning salt or McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning

Stir until well mixed

Egg Wash

1/2 cup milk per one egg

(I did about four lbs of chicken and used about 1 cup of milk and two eggs)

Stir this well with a whisk

Coating your chicken:

Be sure your chicken is in good-sized pieces; meaning not too thick and not too large but not so small (nugget-sized) that they will disappear in the breading. Give the pieces a good coating of the flour mixture then dredge in the egg wash. Tap the excess wash off and plop it back in the flour.

To fry:

Be sure your fryer is ready and the oil is to its desired temperature; my fryer said 375 degrees was the best for chicken. Fryers are vastly different and you should familiarize yourself with instructions, capacities, and warnings before using. (Boy, ain't I conscientious?)

It took about seven or eight minutes before I heard the tell-tale sound of done chicken. (This is pretty cool...the fryer seems to calm down and say 'madam, your chicken?') ((Not literally, you crazy people. But the sound of the oil changes and you can definitely hear it.))

Ahhh...yum. So this is what I did with my chicken; I gave it one of those fancy side-ways cuts like you see at restaurants, made a neat little pile of chicken off-center in a big tortilla, sprinkled a little shredded cheese, shredded lettuce and these delicious tri-color tortilla strips that you can find at Walmart for $1.22 a bag and topped it with my homemade bacon ranch dressing.

(Which is ridiculously difficult to make, I tell you. Using the directions on a packet of Hidden Valley dry ranch, make the ranch then dump in a bag of Great Value Real Bacon Pieces. Stir well. I added about 1/3 cup extra milk to keep it thin and to help tone down the intense bacon flavor.)

 Yes...it is really good. And no, that is not a disgusting pile of something nasty sitting next to the burrito. Those are Pintos n' Cheese...well, my rip off version of Taco Bell's recipe.

So easy.

Pintos n' Cheese

1 can Great Value fat free refried beans

1/4 to 1/2 bottle mild taco bell sauce (found at Walmart. You can't tell where I do all my shopping, can you?)

1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Mix the beans and sauce, using as much or as little sauce as you want. (Me? I like lots.) You can either heat these over the stove or in the microwave. Then top the beans with cheese or stir it in. Yum!

-A.S.