crispy chicken tenders

Original blog post:https://greedygirlcooks.blogspot.com/2022/06/crispy-chicken-tenders.html

Ingredients

Oil for frying

For The brine

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

¼ cup Salt

¼ cup sugar

Water to cover the chicken

Season mix

2 tablespoon allspice ground

1 teaspoon cumin

1 tablespoon ground sage

1 tablespoon garlic powder

2 tablespoon onion powder

2 tablespoon mushroom umami powder

1 tablespoon pink sea salt

2 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons paprika

For the wet batter

1 1/3 cup water

1 cup flour

For the dry batter

1 cup flour

2 tablespoon corn starch

Greedy Tips:

  • You can skip the brine and just season the tenders with the seasoning mix the night before. You will still end up with flavorful chicken. My chicken was frozen, so the brine helped to thaw my chicken as well as season it at the same time.

  • The cornstarch is optional; however, it just adds a lightness to the breading as flour can sometimes take a bit longer to brown

  • Deep frying would also be a better option, shallow frying tends to flatten out the crunchy exterior as the weight of the chicken rests on it.

Directions

  1. Make the brine of salt sugar and water and place the frozen or thawed chicken breast in the water. Leave thawed breast in the brine for 45 minutes to an hour and leave frozen chicken breast in the water until defrosted.

  2. Rinse and pat dry the chicken and cut each chicken breast into 4-6 strips depending on the thickness of the chicken tender you want

  3. In a bowl combine all the seasoning mix ingredients

  4. Get three containers, one with chicken and two with flour

  5. Divide the seasoning mix into three parts and season the chicken breast with 1/3 of it. Mix thoroughly

  6. Add 1/3 of the seasoning mix and 2 tablespoons cornstarch to one bowl of flour and stir to combine

  7. Add the remaining 1/3 of the seasoning mix to the last bowl of flour along with water and whisk until you get a slightly runny pancake batter-looking mixture.

  8. Add the seasoned chicken to the wet batter and stir making sure to coat all the chicken in the batter

  9. Heat the oil until its 350F

  10. Place the battered chicken tenders into the seasoned flour and gently massage the flour into the chicken giving it a shake, and repeating, you can also spritz with water to create the “flakes” on the outside

  11. Place in the hot oil either deep fry until golden brown or shallow fry flipping to cook both sides.

  12. Chicken breasts cook fairly quickly so in about 8 minutes they should be done.

  13. Set aside on a cooling rack and serve with your fav dipping sauce