Crispy Deep Fried Chicken Tenders Recipe

Crispy deep fried chicken tenders are a delicious recipe, sure to please your friends and family! Join Eric from Simply Elegant Home Cooking as he demonstrates his take on this classic dish. This is also a special episode, with an appearance by Eric’s nephew, Miles. There are several keys to making great chicken tenders. Firstly, you need to get a very strongly seasoned flour mix with plenty of salt and pepper, and any of your favorite spices. Additionally, you want to fry in peanut oil. This will give the fried chicken fingers a great flavor that simply can’t be replicated using canola or other vegetable oils. Today Eric (and Miles) will be cooking with chicken tenderloins. However, another option is to get whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts and cut them into smaller pieces with a knife.

Ingredients:
-1 to 1 ½ pounds chicken tenderloins
-1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
-1 teaspoon salt
-3/4 teaspoon black pepper
-1/4 teaspoon onion powder
-1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
-1/4 teaspoon paprika
-1 large egg
-2 tablespoons water
-1 gallon peanut oil for deep frying

Directions:
-Remove chicken tenderloins from fridge an hour before cooking.
-20 minutes before cooking time, preheat your peanut oil to about 365 degrees f. You can use either a deep fryer or a large Dutch oven.
-In a dish, mix all of your salt, pepper, and other spices together with the flour and stir until fully incorporated.
-In a separate large bowl, add the water to the cracked egg, and whisk until fully mixed.
-One piece at a time, dip the chicken into the dry mixture first until all pieces are coated, placing them back into a plate after each is coated in flour mixture. Be sure to let excess flour fall back into the dish.
-Next, one at a time, dip the floured chicken into the egg mixture, then back into the flour. Be sure to coat thoroughly, then set each piece onto a baking sheet with a rack. It is important to let the chicken sit for 5 to 10 minutes before frying.
-Once oil is preheated and breaded chicken has been sitting for at least 5 minutes, fry the chicken. CAREFULLY drop each piece, one at a time, into the hot oil.
-Once all chicken has been added to the oil, stir around using a metal slotted spoon to ensure that no pieces are sticking together. Fry for about 6-7 minutes or until golden brown and crispy exterior is achieved.
-Once chicken is cooked, remove from oil and allow to drip dry for about 2 minutes. Then transfer chicken onto a paper towel lined plate for just a minute to absorb excess oil. Add more salt if desired.
-Serve with your favorite dipping sauces and enjoy!
-Be sure to like and subscribe to my channel!

Hi I’m Eric with simply elegant home cooking today I’m going to show you my recipe for fried chicken tenders this recipe is one where you can get an even better result in your own home kitchen than at a restaurant there’s no reason to ever buy these when you go out to eat

So stick around I’ll show you how to make them and today’s a special episode I’m actually visiting my family in Columbus Ohio this is my nephew Myles say hello to the the world Myles and today’s Christmas actually today were filming what was your favorite gift that

You got yesterday well I had one of those when I was about your age too so so one of the most important things when you make chicken tenders are really any type of fried chicken is you want to get a really seasoned flour you want to get

A lot of flavors mixed in with the flour so this is what we’re going to be using today I have some salt black pepper garlic powder onion powder paprika and cayenne that’s what I like to use but you can certainly experiment you can use any spice you like pretty much to get it

The way you like it okay so we’re going to make the seasoned flour my assistant is going to pour all of those spices into the flour and mix them up and that’s how you want your season flower to look once you mixed it you just want to make sure that everything

Is very well incorporated I gave this a taste you always want to taste it and make sure that you have as much spice as you like if anything’s lacking you can always add a little bit more and once your season flower is ready the next

Step is to get the egg wash ready I have one large egg and two tablespoons of water we just want to beat these up until they’re well incorporated all right I think those are beaten and here’s our chicken I like to use chicken tenderloins that’s what I’m gonna be

Using today I have about a pound you can also just get whole chicken breasts though and cut them up that works well too and I’m gonna be using peanut oil to fry this is my favorite oil you can fry at high temperatures and it’s going to impart a really nice flavor this is

Going to give you a much better result than any type of vegetable oil and I have my breading station set up you always want to have everything laid out before you begin we have our chicken tenders seasoned flour and the egg wash and behind that I have a sheet pan with

A tray what we want to do we want to dredge these in the flour the egg wash and then back in the flour and just set them all on the tray we’re gonna want to let them sit for about 5 to 10 minutes before we fry them that’ll help us get a

Much crispier breading on the chicken okay and what we’re gonna do first is we’re gonna add just some of the dry flour so all you want to do is just take your chicken pieces coat them in there gently now I’ll get them thoroughly coated but then

You want to shake off any excess flour and set them back on the plate so I’m going to continue with the rest of the chicken pieces and this is how your chicken tenders should look after you’ve dredged them in the flour it’s important to do this step

First that’s going to help the wet ingredients stick to the chicken so now for our next step we’re going to take our breaded chicken dip it in the egg mixture let any of that excess and drip off then it goes into the flour just make sure you coat it very thoroughly I

Like to move it around a little bit like that and then we’re gonna put it on our drying rack let it sit for about five to ten minutes so I’m gonna repeat with the rest of the chicken and now all of our chicken has been breaded this is how it

Should look I’ve had it sitting out for a little over five minutes we’re now ready to fry the oil has come up to temperature and I have my peanut oil preheated I’m gonna cook these at about 365 degrees really anywhere between 350 to 375 works great for fried chicken

Tenders okay when you drop the chicken and just be sure to do it very slowly one piece at a time and once you get all your chicken and just be sure to use a big spoon and give it a stir just prevent any sticking and we’re about four minutes in they’re not

Quite there at this point you really want to start monitoring them they should be golden brown once they’re done so we ready here probably in about two or three minutes usually six to seven minutes is plenty of time okay and we’re seven minutes in these live ready to go

So I’m gonna pull them out of the hot oil and you just want to let them drip dry for a few minutes and as they cool that’s how they should look you can see we got a really really crispy crust on these these are gonna be really really

Good so I have taken the chicken tenders out I’m gonna let them sit on the paper towel for just about a minute you don’t want to let them sit there too long or they’ll steam and now’s a good time to hit them with just a small amount more

Salt and here’s what they look like served up so let’s give these a taste and see how they turned out okay so we’re gonna see how they turned out that’s good mmm that’s what I like to hear well you know that says it all