Here is a list of most common breadcrumbs alternatives to use in your recipes whether you need to use them for breading or filler. While some options are ideal as a crunchy coating, others can be used only as a binding ingredient. Among all these options, I promise you will find a perfect breadcrumb substitute that will meet all your requirements.
Breadcrumbs are an integral ingredient for a variety of recipes. If you want to get a crunchy and crispy topping, you cannot skip dipping, for example, cauliflower florets or chicken fillet strips in breadcrumbs. On the other hand, you are cooking a juicy meatloaf, tasty patties, etc. at home, where breadcrumbs are used to bind other ingredients together. Whatever you say, but if you have no breadcrumbs left, you are in trouble.
Therefore, here is the list of 8 ingredients to use instead of breadcrumbs. I am certain that at least one of the options you can find at your kitchen:
- Homemade dry breadcrumbs from rye or white bread. First, let’s make croutons in the oven. I have a great recipe for you here. Then you need to grind cooled croutons in a food processor or crush them in hand.
- Wheat farina (Cream of Wheat). Yes, I am not joking. Milled wheat is one of my favorite options to substitute breadcrumbs while frying fish, cutlets, meatballs and pork chops, as it makes their top surface taste more tender and delicate.
- Any type of wholemeal flour (corn, rye, etc.) will be a decent fit as this type still has all the bran and gems as opposed to flour from refined grain.
- Cornflakes cereal. Try getting plain types of cereal that have no frosting, added honey and other types of extra sweetener. You can grind them in a food processer or by hand. For tenderer crust, make the particles small and for some crunch make cornflake crumbs slightly bigger (this option will be ideal if you are breading chicken).
- Rolled oats or Oat bran. This option is rich in fiber but does not add any extra flavor to the dish. So, do not skip seasoning grinded oats with your favorite types of dry herbs.
- Sesame seeds. I would advise you to use sesame seeds instead of standard breadcrumbs in the recipes with marine fish, any type of seafood and poultry fillets primarily dipped into soy sauce.
- Chopped nuts. You can choose any variety of nuts that you like or have stacked up at your pantry. The only thing that I have to mention, they go well only with some kind of fillet (fish, poultry). Where nutty flavor will only enhance the taste of the dish, but I would not recommend using ground nuts for pork chops or any type of cutlets and meatballs.
- Crackers and Pretzels. Thanks to their crunchy structure, crushed crackers are a perfect option for recipes with ground meat (cutlets, meatloaf, etc.). You can even use them as a binding component in mixtures but make sure to grind crackers/pretzels into fine bits.
If you have other alternatives to use instead of breadcrumbs, please, share your ideas with everybody; leave a comment in the section below.
You know what I think, that from now on I am planning to use homemade breadcrumbs, as it is a perfect way to avoid all the allergens, sodium and corn syrup that you can find in store breadcrumbs. It is not so difficult to replace packaged breadcrumbs with any option from the list above.
