No fry zone: Chefs’ methods seal in flavor and crispiness without all the grease

The effort to develop more kitchens, both residential and commercial, into no-fry zones dates back at least a few decades, as research has accumulated to support the theory that fried foods aren’t exactly conducive to the health of most of us.

Shake ’n Bake (“and Ah helped …”) popularized the concept in the ’60s, and erstwhile Oprah chef Rosie Daley was big news in the ’90s for her more nutritional takes on Southern favorites such as Un-Fried French Fries. Chefs, kitchen-equipment manufacturers and catalogs (baked doughnuts, anyone?) continue to fight the good fight, sometimes with somewhat surprising methods.

For Glenn Rolnick, corporate chef of Carmine’s, which has a restaurant at the Forum Shops at Caesars, the key to not frying foods we usually think of as fried is a colander, which he upends and places over a dish that’s baking in the oven to ensure that it’ll come out crispy. He developed the method for chicken breast stuffed with broccoli rabe, smoked mozzarella and prosciutto (for which the recipe follows).

“Basically, it keeps the heat in and allows the steam to get out,” Rolnick said of the colander. “When you totally uncover the item, the crust dries out and you’re eating cardboard on top. It was kind of just a thing I did at my house, and it worked well.”

Rolnick said he also has used the technique with crabcakes, and with mozzarella sticks, “which are my 6-year-old’s favorite. To do it this way, it really comes out great. I’m not throwing all that oil into his meal.” He said he’s also considering using it with fish, especially Chilean sea bass, halibut or salmon.

“I think it’s a healthier way of cooking,” he said.

Rolnick said he uses chicken a lot and likes to experiment with different coatings.

“I make all different kinds of crumbs,” he said. “I mix different cereal crumbs, sometimes use Ritz crackers and potato chips and corn flakes, and we get just a nice texture.”

Chris Keating, executive chef at Border Grill at Mandalay Bay, said he sometimes bakes tortilla chips and tostadas, and scoffs at anyone who would decry them as inauthentic.

“I was just in Tijuana recently, and a lot of the restaurants down there do baked tortilla chips and baked tostadas,” Keating said. “We do baked tortilla chips, which I think is kind of an interesting take on it. It produces a different flavor profile, different crunch and is obviously a little bit healthier in that they’re not deep-fried.”

For tostadas, he makes corn tortillas, running them through a press as he normally would. Then he puts the uncooked tortillas on a sheet pan and brushes them with some warm water, then bakes them at 375 to 400 degrees for about 10 minutes; “it all depends on what kind of crunch you want to achieve.”

Keating said the water reacts with the tortilla to create steam.

“So it steams the inside of the tortilla and produces little bubbles on the top of the tortilla that give it the appearance that it was actually fried when it wasn’t,” he said. “Brush it with a little oil, dust it with salt. It’s crunchy, it’s savory, it tastes to me like it’s been fried, but at the same time it’s a little healthier.

“A lot of people just stick it in the oven and bake it, and it doesn’t come out the same, because you don’t have that steam trapped inside of it.”

He said he uses the same process to make tortilla chips.

And plantains. He cuts green plantains lengthwise or in coins, then lays them on a sheet pan and spritzes with water.

“They have more natural sugars, so it’ll caramelize,” Keating said. “The water creates a different reaction. It does create the steam, but it creates a barrier so that it doesn’t caramelize the natural sugars so quickly, so it won’t burn in the oven.”

How hot and how long depend on how thickly the plantains are cut, he said. As a rule of thumb, he suggests 225 to 250 degrees, for 45 to 60 minutes.

“You’re essentially dehydrating it,” he said. “You can dehydrate it and pull the moisture out of it; that would create a nice crunchy chip as well.”

Saul Ortiz, executive chef at Tacos &Tequila at Luxor, uses another technique to get baked chips.

“Any store or household has a flat griddle pan,” Ortiz said. “Instead of frying your chips, you can put your tortillas in there. Twenty-five to 30 minutes, on low heat, will caramelize them without burning. You get texture, and you get the nuttiness of the corn.”

Ortiz said to put the tortillas in the pan flat and flip them now and then.

“What you start seeing eventually is the water from the tortillas evaporating,” he said. “They get crunchy and start to get this dark color, this dark brown.

“When I have guests over, I like to start ahead. Just crunch them up. I don’t have diamonds.”

He also has a technique for making chiles rellenos without frying. He opens the peppers flat, removes the seeds and roasts them.

“I’ll make it with chicken picadillo or seafood picadillo — whatever I have left over,” Ortiz said. “Stuff it. I don’t egg-batter it; that would incorporate all the grease. You have a full meal, and you haven’t touched a single ounce of oil.”

Eric Klein, executive chef of Spago at the Forum Shops at Caesars, said he likes to roast small Chinese or Japanese eggplants instead of frying them.

“The flavor is totally different,” Klein said.

He quarters them, seasons them, dredges in flour, briefly pan-sears and roasts them in the oven.

“Basically, it’s the same texture, but you don’t cook them in oil,” he said.

With chicken wings, he’ll blanch them briefly to take off the rawness, then roast them at 350 degrees until crispy.

Szechuan-style green beans, he said, often are fried to give them crunch, but he will saute them instead to reduce the amount of fat.

“That’s pretty much where I would go — saute instead of deep-frying,” agreed Rick Moonen, executive chef of Rx Boiler Room and RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay.

Or he’ll use a grill.

“Grilling calamari is amazing,” Moonen said. “You could grill an entire piece of calamari, but the trick to doing it properly is cutting the tip off. It’s a tube; you need to cut the tip off so steam can escape from both sides, so it won’t steam, it’ll actually grill. The moisture in the middle is going to start to boil. Rub it with olive oil, season it the way you want, maybe with garlic and lemon zest, be sure to give it a place for the steam to escape, and you’re good.”

Another thing he likes to do with calamari instead of frying it is turning it into Squiddi-O, a riff on Spaghetti-Os.

“Instead of using pasta, use baby squid rings,” Moonen said. “Saute them in a superhot pan with a little bit of salt and pepper on them, a little olive oil in the pan. Saute with a little pinch of chili flakes. I serve that on a bed of pomodoro tomato sauce.”

But Moonen said he doesn’t think much of some frying-avoidance techniques he’s seen in recipes.

“I find a lot of alternatives to frying aren’t necessarily healthier,” he said. “You’ll find people are sometimes using these sprays; they’re coating them with this stuff out of a can.

“They’re coated three times, so you’re adding more flour, more breadcrumbs, spraying the thing with spray. It would’ve been a lot easier and not less healthy if you just fried it.”

CRISPY STUFFED CHICKEN BREAST WITH BROCCOLI RABE, SMOKED MOZZARELLA AND PROSCIUTTO

12 ounces chicken breast, butterflied and pounded ¼ inch thick

¼ pound smoked mozzarella, cut in ½-inch cubes

¼ pound fresh broccoli rabe, blanched in boiling salted water, chilled and cut in 1-inch pieces

3 tablespoons thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes

2 tablespoons basil, cut in thin strips

¾ cup finely chopped garlic

2 tablespoons grated Romano cheese

5 tablespoons olive oil (divided use)

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Pinch ground black pepper

3 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto

½ cup all-purpose flour

3 large eggs, well beaten

2 cups Carmine’s Fresh Breadcrumb Mixture (recipe follows)

1½ cups prepared marinara (Carmine’s preferred)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Lay out pounded chicken breasts on cutting board. In a small bowl, combine mozzarella, broccoli rabe, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, garlic, Romano and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with a touch of salt and pepper.

Place prosciutto on chicken to cover. Place filling mixture in a row and then roll into a log. Re-form chicken shape, making sure sides are tucked in.

Place flour, beaten eggs and breadcrumbs in separate small pans or bowls. Gently dip chicken into flour and wipe off excess. Place in egg and let extra drip off. Place in pan with breadcrumbs and coat really well, pressing firmly to adhere.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a shallow pan. Place chicken on top of oil and drizzle with remaining oil. Place a small oven-proof colander over chicken and pan. Bake for 25 minutes

Remove colander and bake an additional 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

Serve over marinara sauce.

Serves 3 to 4.

Carmine’s Fresh Breadcrumb Mixture:

4 slices white bread, crusts removed

4 teaspoons olive oil

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

2 tablespoons grated Romano cheese

3 teaspoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

Leave the bread out on a rack, uncovered, overnight. When dry, place in a food processor and pulse until blended to fine crumbs.

Heat a 12-inch saute pan over medium high. Add the olive oil and garlic and saute until the garlic is lightly browned. Add the breadcrumbs; reduce the heat and saute to an even toasted-brown color without burning, (Toss the bread crumbs in the pan often; this will take a good 10 minutes.) Place crumbs on a plate and allow to cool.

When the crumbs are at room temperature, combine with cheese and parsley.

Makes 1½ cups.

— Recipes from Glenn Rolnick of Carmine’s

UNFRIED GREEN TOMATOES WITH FRESH TOMATO GRAVY

For tomatoes:

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup yellow cornmeal

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Dash of sugar

16 (½-inch-thick) slices green tomatoes (about 3 green tomatoes)

1/3 cup fat-free milk

Cooking spray

Gravy:

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup chopped mushrooms

½ cup finely chopped onion

2 cups finely chopped peeled red tomato

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

To prepare the tomatoes, combine the flour and next four ingredients (flour through sugar) in a shallow dish. Dip tomato slices in milk; dredge in flour mixture. Lightly coat both sides of tomato slices with cooking spray.

Place a baking sheet in the oven; heat at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. Remove from oven; immediately coat with cooking spray. Place tomato slices on preheated baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes, turning after 15 minutes.

To prepare the gravy, melt butter in a medium nonstick saucepan over medium heat. Add mushrooms and onion and cook 4 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Add chopped red tomato; bring to a boil, and cook for 10 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates. Stir in ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Spoon the gravy over the tomato slices.

Serves 4.

— Recipe from Cooking Light

Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474.