Yes, I know that is a bold statement! But really, this chicken tops everything, including any restaurant. I adapted this from a Paula Deen recipe I found ages ago and it is simply amazing. Crispy on the outside, tender and moist on the inside. Perfection. Just look at that picture. Ok, now the really amazing part is... that is two chicken breasts....two. That made a whole plate of chicken, twelve tenders that could easily feed a family of four because they are HUGE! So this recipe is not only delicious, it is also thrifty!
Onward to the recipe and I will be stepping in to give you tips at certain parts.
3 eggs
1/3 cup water
About 1 cup hot red pepper sauce (I used Franks)
2 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon pepper
Paula's House Seasoning.
1 Teaspoon of salt.
1/2 Teaspoon of pepper
1/2 Teaspoon of garlic powder
I used chicken breasts for this recipe, you do not have to, you can certainly just use a whole cut-up chicken, chicken thighs...whatever you want!
1. If you are using breasts, put them in a zip-lock bag and take a meat hammer to them to thin them to about half an inch. You want to do this, trust me. It is how you get super tender chicken. In fact, do this anytime you are going to cook chicken breasts, you will thank me. Ok, where was I? Oh yes! Cut the breasts into tender sized strips. You could also make nuggets, you would just need to cut the cooking time down to 3 minutes instead of 5.
2. In a medium size bowl, beat the eggs with the water. Add enough hot sauce so the egg mixture is bright orange. I added, probably a good 3/4 cup.
3. In another bowl, combine the flour and pepper.
4. Season the chicken with the house seasoning. I put it all in a big bowl and just dumped it in and wrasseled the chicken around a little.
5. Dip the seasoned chicken in the egg, and then coat well in the flour mixture. AND then, do it again. Yes, double dip that chicken. This is how you are going to get those crunchy crevices.
Now, the next part is the cooking part... and this is not going to be near as good if you don't deep fry it. Shhhh, I can hear you screaming! But really, the deep frying is key to the crunchy, tender goodness. You can use a pot of oil, a deep fryer..whatever you have but let me make a suggestion.
I have tried every deep fry method out there: pots of oil, double fryers, kettle fryers and nothing comes close to being as good as the latest model of the Fry Daddy. There are no settings or dials, you just plug that sucker up and it works. And, it gets the oil professionally hot. A great thing about this little fryer and its super hotness is that is is not going to soak up as much oil as the other methods. Trust me, these tenders came out with very little greasiness. They have them $20 at the Walmart, and I highly recommend you invest in one if you want to do any frying and want very good results. I wanted to make Lava Lava Shrimp (yes I will get that recipe on here too) and my old fryer looked, well yucky. I didn't want to use a pot of oil and just bought this one cause it was cheap. I am now a Fry Daddy believer. Onward!
6. Heat your oil up to a good 400 if you can get it that hot, you want this to be some hot oil. If you are using the Fry Daddy, drop 2 to 3 in at a time and cook for 5 minutes. Nuggets will take less time and whole pieces of chicken will take more. Anything other than tenders, just do one and test it.
7. Drain on paper towels then enjoy.
