Nigella Lawson’s Crunchy Chicken Cutlets

You find me happily absorbed bashing a couple of chicken breasts into elegant escalopes or cutlets. This is disturbingly gratifying. But these are ready. I have to calm now. Before they get their crunchy coating I'm going to bathe them in Dijon mustard. Even though they get such a brief dunking the mustard really seems to tenderize them and give such piquancy. On top of the mustard some cinnamon, one clove of garlic, just mince it in. And finally one egg to bring everything together and help it stick to the chicken breasts. I shall whisk these together. The gold and the blue. It's like the beach. And now in for a brief dip go these beautiful look out here escalopes. This is so enjoyable. There's enough here to give quite a good thick coating. I'm going to leave these lying happily here while I go wash my hands. This really is as easy as one two three. We've had one the bashing, two the bathing and three the crunchy coating. And this crunchy coating comes courtesy of cornflakes. I love the crumb you get from these. And now I massage and coax the cornflakes into crumbs. This whole recipe is a bit like being a three-year-old, only better. I'm going to deepen the golden tan of the cornflake crumbs. By adding some smoked pimenton or paprika. This adds a bit of heat. Always good. So one by one these bathing beauties go into the cornflake crumbs to get crunchily coated. I find it easiest just to put each cutlet or escalope into the crumbs and then sprinkle or dust the top with more and just carry on until they're thickly coated. While these chicken escalopes settle in their slightly fiery cornflake coating, I'll get on with my fennel watercress and radish salad. First a bulb of fragrant fennel sliced as thinly as possible. If you aren't as clumsy as I am you could use a mandolin but I just don't trust myself with one. The same goes for the radishes, about four to six cut into thin discs. And a couple of handfuls of peppery watercress to line the plate before showering the fennel on top. A squeeze of lemon, a pinch of sea salt, a trickle of extra virgin olive oil and that's it. Right I don't need much oil and because these are so thin I don't need much time. I'm ready to flip and the outside is so crunchy and they're done. A small readjustment of my leaves and it's crunch time.