Crispy Chicken Tenders
By Joe
Source: Serious Eats — Yvonne Ruperti, Buttermilk-Thyme Chicken Tenders with Cranberry Mustard and Sweet Potato Fries.
A buttermilk-thyme chicken tenders with cranberry mustard and sweet potato fries recipe for 4 servings, written from a single tested source, with times and temperatures kept as the source set them.
Always check the labels of the products you use.
Method
- 1
Bake. Dissolve salt and sugar in (1/2 cup) 1 quart of cold water. Put chicken tenders in zipper-lock bag and add brine. Move to fridge and leave to sit for 1 hour. Mix flour, thyme, salt (2 teaspoons), baking powder (1 teaspoon), black pepper, cayenne, garlic powder, plus white pepper in a big bowl. Beat together 1 cup buttermilk and eggs in a little bowl. Set both bowls aside. Make the dipping sauce: In little bowl, mix cranberry sauce, mustard, honey, thyme, and vinegar to mix while that is happening. Prepare the fries: In big bowl, mix rice flour, salt (2 teaspoons), and 1 baking powder (1/2 teaspoons). Drizzle buttermilk into rice flour mixture (3 tablespoons) and rub with fingertips till the mixture is coarse like wet sand; keep to one side. Mix the potato sticks and leftover 13 tabkespoons buttermilk in big bowl; keep to one side. Drizzle of the buttermilk (3 tablespoons)/egg mixture in flour mixture and rub with fingertips till the flour mixture is coarse like wet sand. Take out chicken breasts from brine and blot dry with paper towels. Move in order to buttermilk/egg mixture. In one Dutch oven or deep fryer over a mid-sized flame, heat oil to 175°C. Working one tender after another, let excess buttermilk to drip off and next move to flour mixture to coat well, pressing coating in tender. Shake off excess flour plus move to plate. Repeat with leftover tenders. Frying a batch after another of 5 tenders after another, carefully lower tenders into hot oil. Heat, turning tenders now and then, till a deep gold plus crunchy on all sides, plus this chicken is cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes total. Move to a paper towel-lined plate. Return oil in order to temperature plus repeat using leftover tenders. Increase oil temperature to 190°C. Working in three batches, lift 1/3 of this potato sticks off the buttermilk plus let excess liquid drip off. Drop in rice flour mixture plus toss to coat. With care drop in hot oil plus fry till soft all the way through and golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Move to a paper towel-lined plate. Repeat with leftover potatoes. Scatter with chopped thyme and salt till it tastes right. Eat at once.
Air-fryer option
sourced: America's Test Kitchen, "Air-Fryer Chicken Nuggets": America’s Test Kitchen
instead of frying as in the method below, the dish can be made in the air fryer.
- Oil: a light coat of oil spray on the basket, sprayed again before each batch (instead of the frying oil)
- Air fryer: 204 °C, 10–12 min, tossing halfway
- Steps:
- 1
Soak and coat the chicken as in steps 1–3.
- 2
Lightly spray the basket with oil and lay in as many strips as fit in one layer.
- 3
Air-fry at 204 °C until golden and the thickest strip reads 74 °C (as in step 5), 10–12 minutes, tossing halfway. Spray the basket again before each batch. Season and serve with the dip as in steps 6–7.
- 1
Storage
Keep covered in the fridge and use within a few days.
EU nutrition claims
- Source of protein: 4.5 g protein per 100 kcal, about 18% of energy (needs ≥ 12%)
- Low saturated fat: 1.4 g saturated fat per 100 g, 3.4% of energy (limits ≤ 1.5 g and ≤ 10%)
Per 100 g of the finished dish, worked out from the nutrition per serving and the lowest likely cooked weight (about 270 g a serving), so the true values are, if anything, lower. Thresholds from the Annex to EU Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006. How we decide
Free sugars
17.6 g per serving
35.2 % of the 50 g daily maximum · 70.4 % of the ideal 25 g
Free sugars under 50 g a day, ideally about 25 g, based on WHO free-sugar guidance (not endorsed by WHO). The share shown is the share of one serving. WHO
Equipment
- mixing bowl
- scales
- baking tin or tray
- saucepan
Nutrition per serving Calculated from USDA FoodData Central
| Per serving | Amount |
|---|---|
| Energy | 974 kcal |
| Protein | 44.3 g |
| Carbohydrate | 147.1 g |
| of which sugars | 35.5 g |
| of which free sugars | 17.6 g |
| Fat | 23.3 g |
| of which saturates | 3.7 g |
| Fibre | 11.8 g |
| Salt | 1.85 g |
Protein per 100 kcal
4.5 g High protein needs ≥ 5 g per 100 kcal (20% of energy) and ≥ 10 g per serving
Calculated from USDA FoodData Central ingredient values
