Comfort Food: Battered Chicken Tenders and French Fries

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Sometimes you just gotta have it at the end of a hard week: warm, delicious, made with love, comfort food.  These stick-to-your-ribs chicken tenders are battered, seasoned with Italian bread crumbs, Cajun seasoning, and cayenne pepper, then fried to palate-pleasing perfection.



Ingredients:

• 1 bag of frozen chicken tenderloins
• 1 cup of flour
• 2 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (if you prefer spicier add 1/2 teaspoon)
• 1/4 teaspoon Cajun seasoning (I used Old Bay seasoning, however Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning would work well too)
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons water
• Oil for frying

Steps:

Defrost the chicken.  I used the whole bag.  To defrost the chicken, I placed the bag in a large pyrex bowl in the sink.  Then I ran cold water over the bag until the chicken was thawed.  This took about 20 minutes or so.  

While the chicken is defrosting, prepare the batter.

In a shallow dish, like a pie dish, pour the flour.

In another dish, mix the bread crumbs, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and Cajun seasoning.  Make sure that these ingredients are mixed well.

In a small bowl, beat the eggs and water.

When the chicken is finished defrosting, take one piece at a time, and coat it thoroughly with the flour.

After the chicken has been completely coated with the flour, dunk the piece into the egg.  

Let the excess egg drip off of the chicken, then coat with the bread crumb and seasoning mixture.  Make sure to coat the pieces well.  Flip the piece over several times, and pat to make sure that the mixture gets into every nook and cranny.

In a deep fryer (I have a small one that is great for storing if you don't have a lot of extra counter space) heat your oil to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once the oil has heated, fry the tenders, 2 at a time for 6 minutes.

Place the tenders in a paper towel lined baking dish, and let cool for 5 minutes.

A perfect thing to do while you are waiting for your chicken tenders to cool is to fry up your french fries!

Ingredients:

• 2-3 russet potatoes
• salt or seasoning of your choice
• oil for frying

Peel the potatoes.

Cut the potatoes into fries.

Submerge the raw fries into a pot of water.  Make sure the water fully covers the potatoes.

Boil the potatoes until fork tender.

In your deep fryer, heat the oil to 375 degrees.

Make sure that the boiled fries are dry, then fry the fries for 5 minutes.

Remove from oil and place on a paper towel lined plate.

Sprinkle fries with salt or other seasonings.

Serve fries with golden brown chicken tenders and some honey mustard for dipping.  Yum!!!

Enjoy!

     ~ Chef Megs