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Chicken fried in an aromatic batter

(Pollo fritto in pastella aromatica)

1 chicken breast of about 1,100 kilogram
½ stock cube for chicken broth
3 entire eggs
1 garlic clove
¼ part of a white onion
table salt
5 leaves of sage
white flour
olive oil
sunflower oil

Take a small saucepan, put two big spoons of water and the stock cube and make a chicken broth. Cut the chicken breast in pieces, not too big, after having washed and dried it. Separate the egg yolks from the albumen putting the former in a blender and the latter in a small bowl. Put in the blender together with the yolks also garlic, onion, sage and ½ hot broth and a pinch of salt; mix very well, add some flour, always mixing and when this batter thickens, add some more broth in order to have the necessary amount to soak the chicken in a bowl of adequate dimension. Pour the obtained batter in the bowl, which will contain the chicken to prickle. Take the bowl with the albumen and whip them very well, pour them in the batter and mix this stuff very well, turning carefully. Put the chicken in this batter prickling it for at least 2 hours, then dip in flour each piece and put in a frying pan, or in a fryer (the pan is better) with abundant oil (1/2 olive oil and ½ sunflower oil) and fry for 7-8 minutes over a brisky heat, turning the pieces of chicken. When they will get a beautiful colour, like gold, drain them and put them over a blotting paper, salting them, for 1-2 minutes, so that they can lose the grease in excess.

The batter is normally used to protect meats which have to be fried from the excessive drying and in this case it becomes also an aromatic stuff, given to the current fried meats, which are tender but with less taste, a certain reinvigoration and a certain feature. The oil should be very hot, but it must not smoke, otherwise the fried chicken becomes indigestible and with a sharp taste.

A Giuseppe Alessi recipe
Translated by Gianna Toni