Pechugas Apanadas (Colombian Breaded Chicken Breasts)
Chicken breaded with breadcrumbs, oregano and paprika and baked or fried, with a sweet and sour sauce of peach jam, panela, vinegar and cream alongside. Forty-five minutes, two servings.
Servings: 2
Calories: 1495kcal
Ingredients
- 2 boneless chicken breasts
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- ½ cup wheat flour
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- Salt and pepper to taste
For the sauce
- 1 cup peach jam
- 200 g cream
- 100 g panela sugarcane sweetener
- 100 g water the same weight as the panela
- ½ cup vinegar
- 1 tablespoon chili flakes
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). You can also fry these in oil instead.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Leave the chicken breasts whole or cut them into strips, neither too thick nor too thin.
- Put the flour on one plate. On another, the beaten eggs seasoned with salt and pepper. On a third, mix the breadcrumbs with salt, pepper, the oregano and the paprika.
- Dip each piece of chicken first in the flour, then in the egg, and finally coat it in the breadcrumb mixture.
- Lay the chicken on the tray and bake for 20 minutes, or fry it in oil if you prefer.
- Meanwhile, make the sauce. Put equal parts panela and water in a pot and heat until they form a syrup.
- Take it off the heat, add the jam, the vinegar and the chili flakes. Mix well, pour it into a container and let it cool completely.
- Separately, whip the cream lightly and fold it into the cooled mixture to finish the sauce.
- Serve the chicken with the sauce alongside.
Notes
The sauce has to be completely cold before the cream goes in. That is what the eighth step means when it says to wait for it to cool, and the ninth depends on it: whipped cream folded into a warm syrup collapses immediately and you get a thin pink liquid instead of a sauce. Peach jam, panela syrup and vinegar is an unusual combination and it works for the same reason a sweet and sour sauce does: the vinegar cuts a great deal of sugar and the chilli sits underneath both. Half a cup of vinegar sounds like a lot against a cup of jam and it is not. Baked or fried, both are offered and the difference is real. Twenty minutes in the oven gives a drier, lighter crust; frying gives the crunch people expect from pechugas apanadas. The breadcrumb mixture is seasoned either way, which is where the oregano and paprika go.
Nutrition
Calories: 1495kcal | Carbohydrates: 230g | Protein: 56g | Fat: 36g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 312mg | Sodium: 1896mg | Potassium: 935mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 130g | Vitamin A: 2008IU | Vitamin C: 19mg | Calcium: 328mg | Iron: 8mg