I’m Ona and I’m a level one Chef. I’m Emily and I’m a level two Chef. My name is Chef Joshua, I’m a lead chef at The Institute of Culinary education, and I’ve been a professional chef for over a decade. I’m making cereal crusted chicken tenders with a creamy dipping sauce. I’m making spicy chicken tenders with chicken thighs and homemade ranch dressing. I’m making a barbecue spice fried chicken tender strip, and I’m serving with a hot honey dipping sauce.
Choosing the Right Chicken
When you think chicken tenders, you probably think specifically the breast a lot of the time, but I’m going to use chicken thighs. Why use chicken thighs? They’re moist, they’re delicious. So I have pre-cut chicken tenders, because that’s how they come in the supermarket. I don’t understand why you would do anything else. So I’m going to put them in the water and then I’m going to use some of God’s Elixir vinegar cleans everything, just wash a chicken. Plan is to remove the tender from the back side of the chicken, which has a T-bone that runs through the middle of it.
Preparing the Chicken
Then I’m going to cut my chicken breast down to equal size strips, so that it represents the size of a tender, trying to keep the skin on as much as possible. The skin will help it hold the batter and also taste delicious. I’m patting them dry, so they can really take in all the seasoning that I’m going to give it now.
Brining the Chicken
I’m going to brine them. I’m going to throw together a quick little spice mix. This spice mix is basically a dry barbecue rub, smoked paprika for a little bit of smokiness, some dark brown sugar, black pepper, cumin for a little bit of warming spice without without a spice note, kosher salt because everything needs salt, oregano, and cayenne for just a little bit of heat. But we’re going to kick up the spice later too. This spice mix is going to be smoky, spicy, it’s going to have a little bit of sweetness. I want it to soak up the flavor overnight, so I’m going to put it in a brine.
Using a Brine
The chicken thigh is already pretty moist, but I’m going to brine them in some pickle brine, because it’ll add a little more moisture and some flavor to my chicken tenders. I like the idea of providing a little bit of acidity into your brine, so that way it helps cut through whatever type of sauce that you’re working with. Nothing fancy in this liquid, I’m literally just using pickle juice straight out of the jar. The buttermilk has cultured enzymes in it, which is going to actually break down and tenderize the chicken a little bit more overnight. The Coca-Cola is going to add in some more sweetness and it’s going to help break down the chicken a little bit more overnight as well. Yeah, Coca-Cola, you know you can clean a carburetor with it. Coca-Cola is not traditionally used in a chicken tender brine, but I like to elevate it and do something a little different with it.
Allowing the Chicken to Marinate
Now I’m going to wrap this up and put it in the fridge overnight to let the brine do its thing. I want the chicken to soak up all that flavor and get nice and tender. I’m going to let this sit for a couple of hours, so I don’t get fully pickled chicken, but the flavor gets in there. Uh, and then I will bread it and fry it.
Preparing the Breading
Next up, I’m going to get my seasoning and my drage. You would think of chicken tenders as a kids’ food. Chicken tenders are for everyone. I’m going to bring in the biscuit and the Captain Crunch to give it a sweetness, the kit nostalgia. I haven’t tried cereal and biscuit on a chicken before, but I am willing to. If anyone has any spare, it’s going to be like chicken tenders on steroids, just watch.
Mixing the Dry Ingredients
So for my dry ingredients, I’m going to add flour with cornstarch. Cornstarch just makes it like a little crisper and also like a little lighter, that’s in my head, I don’t know if that’s really true. And then we’ve got smoked paprika, garlic powder, lots of cayenne, I want these kind of hot, and then black pepper, just ground, just a pinch of salt to that also. This is already pretty salty between the still pickle brine and the hot sauce in the liquid, so we don’t want to go crazy with the salt.
Crushing the Cereal
So let’s get into crunching my Captain. This feels good. I swear, better than CrossFit. Captain Crunch, done.
Preparing the Wet Ingredients
Next up, biscuit. For my wet ingredients, I have buttermilk and hot sauce. So I’m using biscuit because it’s going to give it a different sweetness than the Captain Crunch. This is the secret. This is the one you need to have. This is The One That Got Away. Shake it, baby. Now, little black pepper, the smidiest of salt. Eggs, and just twist, twist, twist. And I’m seasoning my eggs, because we’re adding flavor to every step of this journey.
Breading the Chicken
I’m going to dip my chicken tender into the biscuit first, and then I’m just going to go down, boom, boom, boom, bo, and we’re going to make music.
Frying the Chicken
So my chicken’s been marinating for about 24 hours. I took it out of the fridge about an hour ago, so that way it comes up closer to room temperature, which is going to ensure that it cooks more evenly and it cooks quickly. I’m going to take some of my leftover barbecue spice mix and add it into some AP flour. By doing this, I make sure that my chicken is seasoned on the inside, it’s seasoned on the outside, and then it complements the sauce as well.
Frying the Chicken
Take my chicken, I’m going to put it in my seasoned biscuit, and then I’m going to put it in my egg, and then it already looks like fried chicken. It looks like it’s almost done. It’s just rinse and repeat.
Ramifications Of Considering Chicken Tenders as Food Analog
Final Touches
All right, so I’m going to take my chicken out of the Brine and put it into my wet ingredients, then my dry ingredients, dredging it, and then I will drop it on this pan. Put it into my dry dredge and make sure that everything is thoroughly coated. Then I’m actually going to repeat the process by putting it back in the Brine and then in the dredge one more time. This makes sure that my chicken has a nice, dense, thick coating without having to add in a bunch of extra ingredients.
Frying the Chicken
I get to be like a kid and that feels good in your spirit. We lose that when we get older, like, don’t want to mess up things, but why not mess up things? My chicken tenders are ready for the fryer. These guys look good, all dredged up. Time to get them in the fryer as quickly as possible. So I’m going to fry my chicken tenders. So I can see that they’re sizzling, the oil is nice and hot. By deep-frying the chicken, I’m going to make sure that my chicken cooks quickly, browns evenly, and gets crispy all the way around. It’s by far the best way that you can cook chicken tenders.
Final Touches
I’m basically just looking for them to get golden brown, and then I want them to be 165 in the middle. But I’m choosing to fry them, because it’s definitely the most delicious way to eat a chicken tender. Okay, so my hands look a mess, my chicken looks better. So I’m going to throw these in the oven, and while I’m doing that, I’m going to call my home girl back, and I’m going to throw some shade.
Baking the Chicken
When you oven-bake chicken, there’s a good chance you’re not going to get as crispy of a crunchy coating on the outside of it. I like to make sure that that chicken has a beautiful crunch factor.
Final Touches
All that sound, that bubble action, is exactly what I’m looking for on this chicken. I like to use the tweezers, if I was to use tongs, you’re going to end up crunching and breaking that crust that you’ve worked so hard to develop. Golden brown, crispy, oh, look at them, so pretty. They look beautiful, they’re going to taste even better.
Making the Dipping Sauces
Homemade Ranch
I’m definitely like a tangy person, flavor-wise. Mixing all my sort of base ingredients together, and now I get to flavor it up. I’m going to start with my thives. Right now, it’s sort of sour cream and onion, but wait, there’s more. Still classic, but also goes great with my pickle-brined chicken tenders. People can go off on the onion powder, always cayenne pepper.
Hot Honey
The apple cider vinegar is going to help cut the sweetness of the sauce. So these ingredients, not look like they go together, but they hit. Look at it, a scoot of garlic powder, dried parsley, and then I’m going to hit this with salt, pepper. I’m going to bring this up to a quick boil, it’s not going to cook for an extended period of time, I just want all the flavors to melt in evenly.
Final Touches
Now that my mixture is boiled, I’m just going to let it settle and let all those flavors melt together. It’s got this nice, beautiful orange color to it. You get those nice, beautiful flecks of the pepper flake in there. So it’s creamy on your tongue, and then relish does a little, little makes it tart, and then the ketchup gives it the sweetness. It’s all the things that’s delicious, and ramped up a notch.
Tasting the Chicken Tenders
I’m going to dunk my chicken tenders in this, and then I’m going to maybe dunk my face in it after that. So now I’m ready to plate these babies up, and that is what we’re looking for, for plating. I’m going to make it look like angel wings.
Presentation
Now these started out as thighs, but now they really look like chicken tenders, right? Right? Right? It’s got a little tinge of the red that that comes out from that barbecue spice. Look at that, they look amazing, they’re going to taste even better.
Conclusion
And these are my chicken tenders, with a homemade ranch dipping sauce. These are my chicken tenders with a hot honey dipping sauce. It’s crispy, I can smell all the spices that are in there, there smoked paprika, the cumin is really coming through.
I am so pumped to eat these. Please let me try them now. Look at that, cheers. I’m going to need a moment, hold on. Like, I cannot describe it, you have to try it in order to know what I’m talking about, but it’s amazing. It’s crispy, it’s juicy, it’s just delicious, and you get like just that little hint of pickle flavor in a way that I think is really nice.
Comparison of Recipes
TR chicken tenders are so tasty and versatile. Let’s see how each of our three chefs made theirs. Ona used readymade tender loins, a strip of muscle that is attached to the underside of the breast. It’s boneless, skinless white meat, and naturally very tender, hence the name. Emily shaped thigh meat. This meat is fattier, with a slight mineral taste, because it’s higher in myoglobin, a pigment in meat that makes it darker. She brined her chicken thigh tenders in pickle juice,
a great way to use a product that otherwise might be thrown out. Emily did a quick brine, so it was more for flavor than to increase tenderness. Joshua removed the tenders and soaked them in seasoned buttermilk and Coca-Cola for 24 hours. The Coca-Cola imparts more acid than the buttermilk, and also has a lot of sugar, tenderizing his chicken tenders.
