On the treadmill at the gym yesterday, I caught an episode of Guy Fieri’s “Off the Hook” on the Food Network. It inspired me to go home and make my own version of what he was cooking. He was using crushed pretzels and almonds to coat chicken strips. “Brilliant!” I thought. I had chicken tenders in my refrigerator at home, pretzels in the cupboard, and a four-year-old son who wants to eat chicken nuggets every night anyway. So I adapted his recipe to my liking and gave it a whirl. Guy Fieri’s full recipe can be found here: Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders with Spicy Honey Dijon Sauce.
My version is slightly different. I didn’t have buttermilk on hand nor did I have time to let the tenders marinate for long, but the results were still great and my 4-year old actually cleaned his plate (which I neither require nor encourage, but still).
This was the first time I was truly successful at keeping the coating on something frying. Was it the milk that made the difference or the fact that the coating was made of such granular pieces? I’m not sure, but it really worked.
