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fried chicken tenders on a blue plate

Homemade Chicken Fingers

Sheila
Easy and Delicious chicken tender recipe: this recipe is foolproof. So simple and so delicious.
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
2-24 hours marinating time 1 day
Total Time 1 day 40 minutes
Course dinner, lunch, Main Course
Cuisine American
Servings 6 servings
Calories 769 kcal

Equipment

Ingredients
  

  • 3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 4 cups buttermilk
  • 2 tbsp Lawry's Season Salt
  • 2 cups all-purpose Flour
  • 1 tsp fresh ground pepper
  • 4 cups vegetable oil for frying you need 1-2 inches of oil in your frying pan

Instructions
 

  • Trim off excess fat, and grizzle from the chicken breasts and cut each into 4 strips.
  • Place chicken strips in a glass or plastic bowl toss with 1 tablespoon of season salt, pour buttermilk over chicken cover and let marinate for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours in your refrigerator.
  • Add flour, season salt and pepper to a shallow dish and combine. Set aside.
  • If you have a cast iron skillet, this works best; if not, any large frying pan or Dutch oven will do. (Actually, an electric frying pan works the best.) Pour 1-2 inches of vegetable oil into the pan and turn the heat on medium. If you have a thermometer, you want the oil temperature to be between 350 and 375 before frying. Or you can use the flour test, as demonstrated in the blog post.
  • Dredge the chicken in seasoned flour, making sure every part of the strip is covered with flour. When the oil is at the correct temperature, carefully lay the strips in the oil, being careful not to overcrowd the pan. Let the chicken strips fry for 3-4 minutes, then take tongs and turn the chicken, allowing it to fry another 3-4 minutes. The chicken should be golden brown.
    The chicken strips should have a 165° internal temperature if you have a cooking thermometer.
  • Remove the chicken to a sheet pan lined with a paper towel. If you are making a large batch, you might want to transfer it to another baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place it in the oven on warming mode.

Notes

    1. If the chicken is cold, it will lower the oil's temperature, so you may need to adjust the dial on your stovetop to bring the oil temperature back up after adding it to the pan or allow the chicken to come to room temperature before frying.
    2. Once you have cooked the chicken strips on both sides, remove them from the pan with tongs and transfer them to a baking sheet lined with paper towels or to a wire rack placed over a baking sheet.
    Bone in Chicken: I use the same method to fry bone-in chicken. The only difference is you will want to cook the chicken longer on each side, approximately 8-10 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken piece. I would also suggest covering the chicken, but check often to ensure the temperature stays consistent; you don't want to burn the chicken. Also, I like to turn the oven on to 250 degrees and place the cooked pieces of chicken on a wire rack sitting on a baking sheet in the oven. This allows them to stay warm while you are cooking the remaining pieces of chicken, and it keeps them crispy.Also, when doing bone in chicken, please leave the skin on; it is fried chicken, after all! Who's counting calories when eating fried chicky dinner??!!

Nutrition

Serving: 4chicken stripsCalories: 769kcalCarbohydrates: 28gProtein: 54gFat: 9gSaturated Fat: 40gPolyunsaturated Fat: 11gMonounsaturated Fat: 26gTrans Fat: 0.03gCholesterol: 154mgSodium: 1361mgPotassium: 981mgFiber: 1gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 200IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 108mgIron: 2mg
Keyword buttermilk, chicken, fried
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