Escapism Via Pub Food

It's not that I don't love the life I have here. It's just that sometimes, I like to escape to the time that Rafa and I lived in Liverpool. We were younger, we used to go out a lot, we were in complete denial how poor we were! LOL.

The place we used to visit in the city center quite often was Wetherspoon. The Brits reading this will no doubt wince -- I know, it's not exactly the classiest, fanciest food, but it was our place! I never quite felt like I fit in with the scousers. I was often given strange looks as soon as I started talking, and they were probably thinking, 'what is a bloody yank doing heya?' Well Wetherspoon seemed to be the only place where I blended in, was one of 'them'.

So tonight I decided to reprise one of my favorite meals from our place, southern-fried chicken wrap! I dived right into CL's Junk Food chapter to help me out.

59. Chicken in a Bun - *Junk Food*
60. DIY: Make your own mayonnaise - *Junk Food*

Firstly, yay!!!! I made my own mayonnaise. I know I've been a total lazyass when it came to Tom's DIY recipes, but I knew I wouldn't be able to argue my way out of this one. Yes, I was scared, and yes, I was intimidated, but I wanted to make this mayonnaise!

Therefore, that is where I started.

Tom's mayo recipe is basically an egg yolk whisked with some mustard and lemon juice (or vinegar) and then olive oil is slowly added to the right consistency. Tom says it is easiest to do this in a food processor with one those tube thingamijigies, but my crappy $9.99 food processor doesn't have one of those, so I did it by hand. It was kind of challenging to whisk and pour at the same time - kinda wished I was ambidextrous at this point. But it worked out great - if slightly yellow! I seasoned it with a little bit of salt and that was my first mayo done!


I covered the bowl with clingfilm and put the mayo into the fridge so it chilled a bit while I cooked the chicken.

Tom's chicken recipe was basically marinaded chicken that was then dipped into egg and then into polenta. He indicated grilling would be a good option, but since I wasn't sure how my grill/broil works when it comes to longer recipes such as this one, I opted to fry the chicken, which he said was fine as well, but would take longer.

I marinaded the chicken for about an hour and a half in lemon juice, black pepper, and chopped garlic. Then I fried the chicken in some butter and olive oil till golden on both sides.



The recipe involved making this variation of a sort of chicken schnitzel and serving it in a bun with mayo and lettuce. Since I was recreating my favorite dish from Liverpool, I decided to put it all in a wrap. And here is how it looked...

I served the wrap with potato chips and leftover salad from last night, and oh my, did it taste good!!! I mean not just good, really flippin' good! The chicken was lovely and crunchy - it is true that the polenta gives the chicken a nice color, but it also provides a great crust that keeps the chicken lovely and moist! The mayo was perfect with it; and I'm so happy I made it to go with this recipe! As simple as this dish sounds, please make it yourself to see how fantastic it is!