Lately I’ve been experimenting with oven frying in order to make healthier versions of things like onion rings, fried fish, jalapeno poppers, and fried zucchini.

I’ve tried many different coatings on the food to get a nice „fried“ effect and the results have been okay but after some research I discovered Panko crumbs. Since I’ve never done any regular frying or even oven frying, I hadn’t heard of them before.

According to Wikipedia:

Panko is made from bread without crusts, thus it has a crisper, airier texture than most types of breading found in Western cuisine. Outside Japan, it is becoming more popular for use in Asian and non-Asian dishes, and is often available in Asian markets and specialty stores. Increasingly, it’s also available in many large supermarkets.

Wikipedia also states that the word „panko“ is used in Japan for all bread crumbs, not just the kind that is made without crusts.

Wisegeek has this to say about panko:

Several things set panko aside from regular bread crumbs. The first thing is the coarse grind, which creates bread crumbs which are more like flakes than crumbs. The flakes have a large surface area, which absorbs seasoning well. They tend to stay crispy longer than regular bread crumbs, and they also absorb less grease.

I found some Panko made by Progresso in my local supermarket. It comes in plain or Italian flavor. Tonight I’ll be stopping in my local Japanese market to see if I can find some. I’m curious to see what the difference is between the Progresso and Japanese versions.

Stay tuned for the results of my experiments with Panko in the coming days …

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