Cooking perfect crispy breaded chicken starts while you are preparing it. You need your raw chicken to be dry from the start, so pat your chicken cutlets with a paper towel.

The next step is to dredge them. Dry dredging is tossing something lightly in a coating like all-purpose flour, which creates a textured surface for the wet layer to cling to.

Just make sure you shake off all the excess flour. Too much flour will cause the layers to separate during frying, creating a soggy mess.

Your flour-dredged chicken needs to pass through something wet, like a beaten egg, so the breading will stick. Once coated, press the breading against the chicken firmly.