Crispy Chicken Tenders

I hope this post finds everyone doing well in light of recent events.  Hurricane Sandy is doing my hometown dirty right now, not a great feeling.

On a lighter note, I've been wanting to make Chicken and Waffles for a while now but haven't had the time or motivation.  I decided to try out a new chicken finger recipe tonight, if it turns out well I have chicken for my Chicken and Waffles.  I picked elements out of a couple different recipes and came up with one that may be my new favorite method for frying chicken all together.

The steps are pretty simple, I'll explain my substitutions"

1. Season chicken tenders or slices of chicken breast with Adobo, onion powder, paprika and black pepper, I didn't but I should have also added salt here, I ended up sprinkling some on when the chicken was fresh out of the oil.

2. Let the chicken sit in enough milk to cover.  Most recipes suggested buttermilk, but I hate buying buttermilk unless I can use it up.  Its expensive and I always end up throwing it out because it expires before I can use it up.

3. Next, get a bowl big enough to coat the chicken in, fill it half way with flour and a few drops of the same milk you use on the chicken.  With a fork fluff the flour until the milk forms little crumbles in the bowl.

4.  Once the chicken has been in the milk for about 10-15 minutes remove from the milk and begin to coat with flour mixture.  You'll notice that the crumbles will stick to the chicken which will help make a thick crispy outside for your chicken fingers.

You can kinda see in this picture that the little crumbs you make with the milk stick to the outside of the chicken and help give the crunchy outside of the chicken finger.  Also you'll want to season the flour and the chicken heavily, you lose a lot of flavoring in the process.  One thing that helps is to marinate the chicken in seasoning for as long as you can before adding the milk.

5.  Once you're ready to start frying be sure the oil is hot by testing with a little of the flour mixture, if it starts browning you oil is ready.  I'm sure vegetable, canola, or peanut oil are all great options, I mixed safflower and canola and it worked great.

6.  I fried each tender for about three minutes on each side, just be sure the oil isn't too hot or the chicken will get too dark too quickly.  Drain oil on a paper towel or paper bag, whichever you prefer.

I was pretty happy with this recipe, next time I'm going to try panko breadcrumbs, I think they hold better flavor than flour which tends to require salt after it comes out of the oil.  Even when you season the flour I think a lot of the seasoning ends up in the oil not on the chicken.

I had a little barbecue and hot sauce mixed on the left, and some sweet chili sauce on the right, 

aahhh perfection!