Crispy Homemade Chicken Fingers

A few days ago, I got a gigantic craving for chicken fingers.  I hadn't eaten chicken fingers for about a year, but for some reason, I suddenly needed them in my life.  Immediately.  However, I was feeling far too lazy to venture from the house to purchase chicken strips from I restaurant or from the freezer section.  Instead, I decided to try to make them myself.  At the time, I was feeling a little over-confident and assumed that it couldn't be too difficult.  Chicken fingers are just chicken and some flour, right?

Chris voiced his concern that the chicken fingers probably weren't going to turn out exactly as I envisioned with the ingredients that we had available, and he seemed unexcited about the concept of chicken fingers for dinner in general.   Usually, this would be enough for me to realize that I was going a bit crazy, but my craving was so severe that nothing was going to stop me.

I fell back to my trusty friend, the internet, and searched for how to make the best chicken fingers.  After much deliberation, I decided to combine a couple recipes and add a few ingredients of my own.  Then, a miracle occurred.  I made the most amazing chicken fingers in about a half hour.  The chicken was moist, the crust was crunchy, and the flavors were fresh and fantastic together.  The chicken fingers were significantly better than the ones from the freezer section.  After the first bite, Chris suddenly became incredibly excited about the concept of chicken fingers and proclaimed that he could eat these every week.  In my opinion, this is the best compliment that I can get.  I'm still not sure how I got so lucky, but I hope that you enjoy this recipe for crispy homemade chicken fingers as much as we did.

Ingredients

• 1 lb of chicken tenders
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp seasoned salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 Tbsp crushed red pepper (optional)
• 2 cups of cooking oil

Directions

1.  Soak chicken in buttermilk for about 20 minutes, but save about 2 Tbsp of buttermilk on the side for a step 3.  The buttermilk will tenderize the chicken.

 2.  Combine flour, seasoned salt,  pepper, and crushed red pepper in a bowl.  Don't worry, the crushed red pepper doesn't make the chicken fingers too spicy.  I think it adds a nice flavor, but feel free to leave it out if you don't like spice.  Also, feel free to add other spices to suit your liking.

3.  Slowly drizzle the 2 Tbsp of buttermilk that was previously set aside into the flour mixture.  Mix with a fork just until combined, but don't mix too much because we want the clumps in the flour that the buttermilk will create.  These clumps will become the crispy bits that are on restaurant chicken fingers.  Trust me, these clumps will add some fantastic texture to the chicken.

4.  Heat about 1 cm of oil in a large skillet on medium heat.

5.  Coat tenderized chicken in the flour mixture.

6.   Ensure your oil is hot enough be dropping a clump of buttermilk and flour into your oil.  If bubbles form around it, the oil is ready.

7.  Place 3 or 4 floured chicken tenders into the skillet at a time with kitchen tongs.  Cook on each side for 5 minutes or until golden brown.

8.  Place chicken fingers on a paper towel, which will absorb the excess oil as the chicken cools.

9.  Repeat until you have cooked all your chicken fingers.

Enjoy the chicken fingers with your favorite dipping sauce.  Chris and I both have a thing for mustard, so Chris dipped his in Dijon mustard, while I dipped mine in honey mustard.  My craving was definitely satisfied.  These chicken fingers are so quick, easy, and delicious that I don't think we will be able to go back to frozen chicken fingers.