Cooking Fail: Arnold Palmer Paneed Chicken

Embrace the Failure

Somedays, I come up with recipe ideas and think, “This is going to be delicious!” I get to testing day and the pieces are coming together nicely, then, suddenly, everything goes to crap. This was my cooking story last week. I knew my Arnold Palmer Panned Chicken was going to be popping, ya dig? It was anything but. 

First, I started with an Arnold Palmer brine: 

• 1 cup sweet tea 

• 2 tablespoons Country Time lemonade 

• Minced garlic

• Red Pepper Flakes

• Salt

Second, I added boneless chicken breasts. It was 6-7 pieces. I put it in the fridge for a few hours. Here is where I went wrong. It should have been longer as I didn’t really get any flavor from the brine nor was it salty/juicy enough. 

Third, the coating of the chicken for the light frying is for real where I made a mess. When I say a mess, I mean, I could not get it together. I used an egg wash for three pieces and just flour for the other three. Neither came out the best. Mostly, because my pot wasn’t hot enough, in turn, my oil wasn’t hot enough. I burnt the bottom of the pan and the whole house smelled of burnt mess. 

Was anything a success? Yes, the brine. Other than that, this was a big fail. 

Is there something I can change for the next time? Yup, not make panned chicken. 😆 I kid. I would make the chicken thinner and let it brine longer. I would use more oil and wait for it to start smoking. 

As home cooks, we don’t always have time to test our recipes and that’s okay. I believe we have to own our mistakes and failures in order to move forward. That includes cooking as well as life. When I share recipes with y’all, I risk failure every time but I also believe that recipes are guidelines. I give y’all ideas and expect for y’all to change it to your liking. It may be better or worse but it becomes yours to make and share. 

Until next time,

Xoxo~Christilisa