I started the morning off chatting with mom over FaceTime and going over the steps to make our family’s famous fortune cakes. I’ve been planning on cooking with mom again this weekend after we had a great experience making tang yuan over FaceTime last week. I asked my mom to describe in detail the ingredients, measurements, and steps she follows whenever she steams up her fortune cakes for special occasions. The descriptions, like most of her recipes, begins with a listing of vague measurements. Mom insisted her method of making fortune cakes using a third quart of water, half a bag of rice flour, a piece of brown sugar, and a few small scoops of baking powder yields perfect fortune cakes time after time. When I tried my very best to capture the vague measurements into imperial measurements, I ended up with a basket full of disastrous fortune cakes. The moment my mom saw the fortune cakes, she laughed out loud because she and I both knew what I had steamed up were not even remotely close to the ones she makes at home. We set a tentative date into the future for her to walk me through the process of making fortune cakes again in person. With the failed fortune cakes out of the way, I shifted my focus to making a tried and true crispy pretzel crusted chicken tenders for brunch instead.
Pretzel crusted chicken tenders are one of the simple dishes I like to whip up whenever I want something tasty fast. In our household, both Kevin and I crave some form of crispy chicken tenders at least every other week. It is one of those tried and true recipes where I know for certain the chicken tenders will be devoured immediately when served. My go-to chicken tenders are usually my seasoned chicken tenders with sriracha ketchup, but occasionally, I like to mix things up and coat the chicken strips in pretzels, chips, or cereal. Today’s choice was pretzels since I had a large bag sitting around on my snack table. I grabbed a large handful of pretzel twists, crushed them up with my hands and tossed the crushed pretzels with some flour into a bowl. The crushed pretzels mixture became the exterior coating for the chicken strips. The pretzel crusted chicken tenders turned out super crispy, crunchy, and made for the perfect addition to a tasty brunch. To balance out the crispy chicken strips, I tossed together a simple chopped kale and roasted butternut squash salad along with a maple apple cider vinaigrette for the dressing. The final sweet element to bring the brunch together was my pineapple coconut shakes made with frozen pineapple chunks, coconut milk from a can, and several scoops of vanilla ice cream. I had initially planned on making Dole Whip, when I saw the recipe floating around the web earlier this week, but I didn’t have pineapple juice on hand. Instead, I whipped up a pineapple coconut shake, very loosely inspired by my love for piña coladas. The shakes were just what we needed to wash everything down. Brunch was finally complete. With brunch served, Kevin and I resumed our indoor activities. Kevin caught up on some games and sleep. I returned to my favorite spot on my couch to do some light writing and catch up on some television shows. If the warm weather continues throughout the day, I may even go for a long walk outdoors.
For the pretzel crusted chicken tenders with sriracha ketchup and honey mustard:
For the pretzel crusted chicken tenders:
· 6 chicken tenders (or 2 chicken breasts cut into about six strips)
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· 1 teaspoon soy sauce
· ½ cup vegetable oil
· 1 cup all-purpose flour
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· ¼ teaspoon chili powder
· 2 large eggs
· 25-30 tiny pretzel twists, crushed
· 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
For the sriracha ketchup:
· 1 tablespoon sriracha
· 2 tablespoons ketchup
For the honey mustard:
· 1 tablespoon honey
· 2 tablespoons mustard
Directions:
1) Marinate the chicken in ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. Set aside for 15 minutes.
2) Heat a skillet on medium heat. Add the vegetable oil. Let the vegetable oil heat up before frying the chicken. The oil is ready when you see waves form in the oil.
3) In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, black pepper, and chili powder. Use a fork to combine the ingredients. Set aside.
4) In another bowl, add the two eggs. Use a fork (or whisk) to lightly whisk the eggs. Set aside.
5) In a third bowl, combine the crushed pretzels and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour. Set aside.
6) Use chopsticks (or tongs) to pick up one piece of chicken. Dip the chicken in the flour mixture. Turn the chicken to coat in the flour mixture. Dip the chicken in the whisked eggs and turn to coat the chicken in the whisked eggs. Dip the chicken in the crushed pretzels mixture. Turn to coat the chicken. Remove the coated chicken to a plate. Continue this process with the rest of the chicken strips until all chicken pieces are coated.
7) Fry the chicken in the skillet two pieces at a time for about 2-3 minutes per side until the chicken tenders are golden brown. Transfer the chicken strips to a plate. Continue this process with the rest of the chicken strips until all of the chicken strips are fried.
8) To make the sriracha ketchup, combine the sriracha and ketchup in a small sauce bowl. Stir to combine.
9) To make the honey mustard, combine the honey and mustard in a small sauce bowl. Stir to combine.
Takeaways: I usually like to use a two-step cooking process when making crispy chicken strips. I like to start by frying the chicken strips, then transferring the strips to a baking sheet, and popping the chicken strips into the oven to crisp it up even more. Adding the crushed pretzels helped the chicken strips develop a crusty and crispy exterior. The exterior remained crispy and crunchy even without the added cooking step. For another spin on crispy chicken strips, check out my seasoned chicken tenders with sriracha ketchup.