How to Bread

Dredging, breading and battering is an essential step before pan-frying or deep-frying most foods. It can also be used when braising, stewing or sautéing.

When breading and battering you will be working with both wet and dry ingredients, it's a good idea if you use one hand for only wet and one hand for dry, this prevents massive amounts of breading to build up on your fingers.

When making your egg mixture you should beat in 2 tsp. of water for every egg you use.

There are a ton of different types of crumbs that you can use for the outer layer of your breading, some ideas include:

bread crumbs
panko
crushed cereal such as Corn Flakes
salt and vinegar-flavored potato chips
whatever you want...

Breading

First I will introduce the standard breading procedure, usable with meats, poultry, many types of seafood and vegetables. This meathod provides the food with a rather thick, crisp crust.

Season the product with salt and pepper, if desired.
Dredge product in seasoned, but not salted, flour or cornstarch. This simply means to place the product in the flour or cornstarch, flip it then continue onto the next step.
Shake off any excess flour, try not to forget this step as it's quite important, too much flour will allow the outer coating to fall off in the fryer.
Coat product in egg mixture (don't forget the water).
Coat with the bread crumbs you decided to use. When coating it's usually a good idea to keep from flipping the food in the crumb dish, instead, lay the product on the crumbs, cover the top of the product with more crumbs then press down, packing the crumbs on there.
Place your breaded food on a rack or in a pan, no more than one item deep, and let them rest for 20-30 minutes. Letting your food rest before cooking it will allow the egg to rest, helping the breading to stay adhered to the final product.
Fry it!

The Dunk 'n' Dredge

As slightly simpler breading method, it's well suited to seafood such as scallops or some light vegetables, essentially anything that's small and relatively moist.

Season your food and dip into low-fat buttermilk (not fat-free).
Dredge in sifted cornstarch.
Fry it!

Battering

Batters are similar to breadings except instead of using the egg mixture and crumbs you use a liquid product such as beer, milk or water combined with flour or cornstarch. It is also common to add some whipped egg whites or baking powder to 'lighten' the coating.

Two very common batters are beer-batters (don't worry, it's ok for kids as all the alcohol gets cooked away) and tempura (make your own tempura, it's better, especially since there are so many ways to do it).

Prepare your batter.
Pat your food dry (you don't want wet food, it's dangerous in the hot oil) and dredge in flour or cornstarch if desired.
Dip your food in the batter, remove and allow it to drip for a few seconds then place it immediately in the oil.

(See pan-frying or deep-frying for other try-it-yourself options)