Ree Drummond's Crispy Breaded Chicken Uses An Unlikely Ingredient

Ree Drummond has earned legions of fans all around the world for her skillful, entertaining, and delicious approach to down-home cuisine. Her culinary empire's origins lie in her massively popular blog, The Pioneer Woman, which eventually gave rise to her TV show of the same name. As her fame has grown, so has her repertoire: Drummond has made everything from maple-frosted cinnamon rolls to Hoppin' John. She might be defined by her life on an Oklahoma ranch, but as fans know well, Drummond's kitchen knows no boundaries.

Though she's proven her breadth time and time again, some viewers might still reasonably assume Drummond draws from a list of tried-and-true ingredients. To some degree, that's true: As any devotee knows, for example, Drummond goes through a staggering amount of butter. But the Pioneer Woman's pantry actually boasts a number of surprising items. She recently put an especially unexpected ingredient to use in an otherwise classic recipe for chicken.

Making Ree Drummond's crispy "everything" chicken cutlets is an initially straightforward process. First, she dredges the cutlets in flour, salt, and pepper. Then, she dips them in a mixture of beaten egg and milk. As anyone who's ever made breaded chicken cutlets before knows, this is the standard procedure. But then, Drummond diverges from the expected path. 

She breads her cutlets in a mixture of crispy panko crumbs and everything bagel seasoning. "I'll bet you've never thought to season chicken breading with everything bagel seasoning," she remarks. Most cooks will agree, they haven't. Though everything bagels have plenty of fans, the baked good's classic seasoning mixture isn't closely associated with any other dish. From this point on, preparing the chicken is fairly simple. 

Drummond fries the cutlets in a mixture of olive oil and butter, then arranges them on a vivid bed of greens, accented by halved cherry tomatoes and slices of lemon. The trickiest part, she notes, is cooking the chicken all the way through without burning the breading. But if you can manage to keep that in mind, this dish is a delicious dinner that manages to be both classic and surprising, thanks to the addition of everything bagel seasoning.

Ree Drummond definitely manages to find an unexpected home for everything bagel seasoning in her chicken cutlets. But this dish is also impressively on-trend. Everything bagel seasoning has been showing up in all kinds of surprising places over the last few years: The classic mixture of sesame seeds, dried garlic, poppy seeds, dried onion, and sea salt can be found on everything from roast chicken to pigs in a blanket. Trader Joe's has found particularly impressive success with its Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend; fans on Reddit claim to put it on, well, everything. It's so popular, it's spawned its own line of products, encompassing smoked salmon and potato chips, and inspired spin-offs like the Thanksgiving-themed Everything but the Leftovers Seasoning Blend.

What's the source of this seasoning's enduring popularity? It's no mystery, really. Individually, its ingredients are widely beloved — onion, garlic, and sea salt are practically ubiquitous all over the world, while sesame and poppy seeds aren't far behind. But somehow, these all-star flavors manage to combine into something altogether unique and utterly delicious. Everything bagel seasoning is tangy, salty, savory, and just a little bit sharp, all at once. This makes it an ideal topping for everything from silky cream cheese to fried chicken, as Ree Drummond has amply demonstrated.