I do breaded chicken strips for the kids, but it is always messy and the house smells like grease and chicken seasoning for a day or more even WITH a good hood. I fry these in shallow oil on the stovetop, with a little margarine added to the oil for extra flavor. I use olive oil or peanut oil--and one reason peanut oil is so good was mentioned above--it doesn't smoke at as low a temperature as other oils.

Personally, I spend a lot of time cooking, but when frying one has to weigh the preparation and cleanup time with the eating time, and decide if they really want to go to all of that trouble before hand and follow up with a lengthy cleanup of utensils from handling batter and fish and grease. So I don't bother with any deep frying. My suggestion: make a point of going to Seattle, and when you're there go down to Alki Point and visit Spud for their fish and chips. The Alki Point Spud (in West Seattle) is marginally better (if for no reason than it's at the beach and the seagulls like chips) than the Greenlake location.

SRS