Wasabi Peas for breading?

A friend mentioned that he once had fried chicken breaded with smashed/crumbled up wasabi peas. THis sounds really good - anyone heard of this or had it? It sounds like it would also be good on fish. My SO once made a great breading for boneless/skinless breasts using saltines and something else, but we never could remember what the something else was. Also, he once tried using Sun Chips, a kind of corn ship, smashed up as breading. That was really good.

Never heard of peas being used as breading... Could be intresting! Thanks for sharing, and welcome to Roadfood... Ya might want to look up LLEECHEF in the forums, she's a chef and from Alaska also...

I don't see why they wouldn't work-----expensive breading------wasabi peas are not cheap----but it would add a nice tang. Maybe mix half and half with panko bread crumbs?

You might try Tim's Cascade Wasabi-Flavored Potato Chips, or just add wasabi powder to your flour mixture (I would also add Panko Japanese bread crumbs for texture).

There's a recipe in the San Francisco Chronicle today:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2005/06/01/FDG5SD0LI11.DTL#fast

Great! Thanks for the link. We'll try it and report back...

What's more, those Japanese fried peas are available in a non-wasabi version that makes a very fine trail snack.