I recently made my family my homemade southern style fried chicken tenders for dinner and I had a few requests for the recipe after I posted it on Instagram and Facebook…

So I’m happily sharing my recipe with you!

A tried and true tip as you begin shopping and planning for this recipe…. I always use boneless, skinless, chicken breasts that I cut into tender sized pieces. I find that if I buy chicken tenders from the meat section of the grocery store, it will have the tendon running through it which causes more cleanup and prep of the chicken. And it’s always more expensive than breast. Using already cleaned up chicken breast is a welcomed time saver.

Ingredients:

• neutral oil for frying (I prefer canola oil)
• 4 boneless, skinless, chicken breast, cut into tender sized strips
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp pepper
• 1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper

Directions:

• In a generous sized bowl, mix all of the spices into the flour.
• In another bowl, beat the eggs and the milk.
• In a cast iron skillet, bring the oil temperature to about 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• While the oil is heating up, begin battering your chicken. This is a three-step process and a tried-and-true method that you will want to do anytime you batter and fry anyting. Dredge your chicken in the flour mixture, then move on to the egg mixture, then move back to the flour mixture. Once you’ve dipped it in the flour mixture for the second time, set it aside on a plate as it is now ready to fry.
• Using tongs, carefully lower battered chicken pieces into the oil. Do not crowd the frying pan/ oil. I fry about 5 tenders per batch in my 10′ fry pan.
• If your oil is too hot (smoking), you can lower the temperature. Ideally you want the oil temperature to stay around 350°. If you’re batter darkens too quickly, you’ll end up with raw chicken in the middle and burnt crust, so monitor the temperature closely. This should take about 8 minutes but you can cut into one to gauge your cooking time.

I often serve my fried chicken tenders with my mac and cheese and some green veggies! This week I served it up with cabbage, ham & potatoes, since I had all of the ingredients and time to cook it for a few hours!

Bon Appetit

Rachel